Today I went to Anime Expo 2013 here in LA. I got to meet my favourite director, Masaaki Yuasa, and see the North American premiere of his new short Kick-Heart. Yuasa was kind enough to do drawings for everyone who asked, and I asked him to draw Hiroshi from Crayon Shin-Chan (which he worked on early in his career).
Kick-Heart did not disappoint. I won't spoil anything, since it hasn't been sent out to the backers yet, but it was amazing. The opening credits alone were spectacularly funny and vivid, and from there it just got better and better. There was some very interesting sound design later in the short, and the animation was brilliant throughout. The audience was laughing out loud almost constantly. It flew by incredibly fast, feeling much shorter than its 12 minutes.
The producers stated at the Kick-Heart panel that they didn't currently have plans to release it other than to the Kickstarter backers and on the festival circuit, so if you didn't contribute then, I hope you know somebody who did. You need to see it!
