Oh man this movie!!! This style fucks!!! We watched Masaaki Yuasa’s feature length film NISWOG at our after school animation film club and the sheer joy in the animation blew me away.

The colours are vibrant, the character design playful, and the movements are just so reality bending and taking full advantage of its form.

I come from a literature background (BA in English lit and Music, don’t ask me why) so I believe in the adage of “a good story can save bad style, but a great style can’t save a bad story.” NISWOG is maybe the first example I’ve seen where style trumps story and it’s still a delight to watch. The narrative is honestly not that great – it feels more like 5 short episodes stitched together and the storylines aren’t that gripping.

But it works! The narratives may be flighty and whimsically shallow, but it works well with the equally whimsical and unpredictable tone set by the animation and visual style. You see it and expect a fun time, not a profound narrative. It seems that in NISWOG, story is just there as a vehicle for the best animation I’ve ever seen. And that’s okay.