Ok, so
The Tatami Galaxy adapted by Yuasa Masaaki based on a Tomihiko Morimi novel is one of my top 10 TV anime. So when Yuasa adapted another book by Morimi, this time
The Night is Short, Walk On Girl taking place in the same world, done in the same style, with even the same guest characters, I was pretty hyped and watched it.
The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is a fun energetic Alice in Wonderland film about a college girl's drinking night escapades into the adult world of the night. The main character is an awesome positive female protagonist and a lot of the film is about how through the energy of youth idealism, the cynical older folk are inspired, able to become less jaded and recall a more positive mentality. There's also goofy singing stage plays and they are wonderful.
Unfortunately, the story is also about a stalker obsessive otaku guy who wants to manipulate the main gal into falling for him. For like half the movie nothing but bad things happen to him and he's played as the joke character as he should be and a foil of the main character's positive traits and successes. But then the movie
spoiler (click to show/hide)
takes a dramatic shift and validates his stalking, and he gets the girl, which makes the last 15% of the film kind of ugh, uncomfortable and not a very satisfying conclusion.
On top of that there is a really awkward/unfortunate handling of a gay character. Where:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
During a stage play, one guy says he'd go gay for another guy to which that guy, who cross dresses, comes out as gay and they go for the kiss and then it cuts to the original guy's thoughts going "hurry up and get this over with" indicating that he's faking it for the stage, and then the actual gay character is literally dumped off the stage and a girl falls in the lap of the original guy. Again, it's pretty awkward.
And even further, in the current social climate, there's some unfortunate stuff that isn't really the film's fault because culturally Japan's pretty behind on not being a creep, but
spoiler (click to show/hide)
There's a scene early on where an old guy not only creeps on the main gal, but even grabs her breasts coping a feel, to which she punches him in the face (good) but then they all laugh it off and she treats him well the rest of the story like it was no big deal, which isn't great since the whole laughing that stuff off in social media just sorta reinforces a culture/environment where that kind of stuff is ok and you just laugh it off.
But, outside of those subplots/scenes, the rest is really good! So overall I liked it, but it's not
great, and its definitely got its flaws. But it's still worth a watch for a wonderful and wacky surrealistic story of age, wisdom, love and alcohol.
