Pigtails and Other Shorts Review

4 stars for this collection of short animations from Production I.G.

Pigtails and Other Shorts is brought to the UK courtesy of Anime Ltd. and is available to buy now on standard Dual Format DVD and Blu-ray as well as an exclusive collector’s edition box set with a whole host of special features, available to buy here. It is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

“We’ve been so happy to serve the new Hiiragi Landlady. And now our job is done.”

Pigtails is the first of the animated shorts. It tells us the story of a young girl living alone in a small house on a beach, within sight of a power station, surrounded by a high wall and adjacent to a rubbish heap.

She has few visitors, except for the inspector’s, who check her physical condition and leave supplies and the postman, who never leaves her any mail. The humanas in this film do not speak, instead the story is told by the inanimate objects which surround her, ultimately explaining the shocking twist.

The second film is in a completely different style, the extremely full on Kick Heart. With it’s psychedelic colours and flamboyant animation it tells the story of two professional wrestlers, Mask Man M and Lady S, both with their own secrets and desires, who are trying to sort out their lives via the medium of wrestling.

The third short is Li’l Spider Girl, a tale of an ancient curse accidentally brought to life in the present.

An old book in a second hand bookshop tells of the giant arachnid people who attacked the capital. They were beaten back by a wizard who trapped the daughter of the arachnid queen in the pages of a book. But when she is accidentally released, all hell breaks loose in the city.

The fourth story and my personal favourite is Drawer Hobs. This is the tale of Noeru, a disenchanted office worker who one day takes delivery of a chest of drawers from her mother. Living in those drawers are a group of Hobs, unruly children who are charged with helping out the Mistress of the Hiiragi family of each generation. She soon realises the benefits, as they gradually help her to get her life in order.

The fifth and final short is Oval x Over, a totally different style yet again, frenetic and action packed. It tells the story of a group of racing drivers and their desire to win a motor race, their motivations and reasons for racing.

United under the banner of Production I.G. this is a fascinating anthology of work by a different writers and directors with a baffling variety of styles and themes. Each story stands on its own merit and the collection as a whole is quite exhilarating. For those wanting more details about the individuals involved, the collector’s edition features two books, one of which details the making of each one.