"2DAniCritic" Review:

Coffee Samurai & Hoshizora Kiseki

Review Score: 2.93 / 5.00        

Sentai Filmworks sometimes releases anime shorts that you likely never have heard of, an act I have to give credit for. One double-pack on DVD contained two short films: "Coffee Samurai" and "Hoshizora Kiseki."

Of the two, "Coffee Samurai" stands out both in visuals and story. It's a humorous tale about a samurai who wished to have a body of iron in his next life, and he gets his wish: he is reborn in modern-day Japan as a coffee-vending maching. He lives most of his live stationary on street corners, but occasionally walks around, feeds cats, reads, deals with a relationship with a strange girl, continues his samurai war with old foes also reborn into non-human forms... you know, usual stuff in the life of a vending machine. It's every bit as funny as it sounds, espcially in contrast to the samurai's serious persona, making it well-suited to the sense of humor seen in modern generations. The story is almost non-existant however, expect only gags. The character design is unique and some ambitious camera movement is utilized, but animation is kept to a minimum.

"Hoshizora Kiseki" is called "Starry-Sky Miracle" on the back of the DVD box in America, which makes more sense than the Japanese title on the front (inconsistent packaging aside...). It's about a young high-school girl with a fascination of falling stars, ever since she got a piece of metal that fell from space. The story evolves when she meets a strange boy in an astronaut suit being chased by government men, dealing with the adventure as well as the boy's situation being unable to experience life outside his suit. Its a sweet romantic tale, but almost instantly forgettable. The animation is even more minimal than "Coffee Samurai, " but the music was a bit better.

What's the conclusion? Both films seem like final projects for students at animation college. I like that these films are available and think they are worth seeing at least once, but in reality, few people will genuinely care or remember either shorts before or after seeing them. There's no English dub for either film, further reducing potential audience reach.