Fathom Events recently hosted special screening for two nights in August of Director Masaaki Yuasa’s film adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s novel “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” for North American anime fans to enjoy.

The streets of Kyoto became a ruckus when a young college student decided to forge her own adventure instead of going to a wedding’s after party. Her craving to taste as many drinks as she could led her to meeting several regulars of the local bars and finding out what strange problems irked them. The Girl with the Black Hair (“Otome”) paid little mind to one of her older peers who tried to keep up with her. She had no idea that her senior or “Senpai” had a crush on her for quite a while and been planning to meet her. However when Otome went her separate ways, Senpai needed to go off course to follow her but ran into a lot of trouble. Obstacles kept him several steps away from her and he needed to muster strength to tackle them and share his feelings to her.

“The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” is an eye-popping story like Yuasa’s other recent film “Lu Over the Wall” but features a more mature story presented with a mix of traditional and contemporary art forms. Fans of Yuasa’s work will notice the similarities of art style of “Night is Short” to his 2010 project “The Tatami Galaxy.” Both are adaptations of Morimi’s writings that are within the same universe and have the same production team. Though each work’s leading couple share a lot of traits, fans will notice the things that make Otome and Senpai their own persons. The Girl with the Black Hair accepts the whimsical opportunities while Senpai tries to stick to his priorities and find the logical answers. The movie shows how these ends of a string of fate weave into the lives of others and creates a unique tapestry of this fictional version of Kyoto. As mentioned before, “Night is Short” is mature compared to “Lu Over the Wall”. It contains sexual content including some nudity along with a lot of alcohol. Viewer discretion is highly advised, but those that can handle these type of adult matters will find a surreal rom-com that explores the philosophy of love.

Though the special screenings from Fathoms are over, head over to GKIDS’s website to see if other theaters will show the movie. For those in the Southern California area, the Los Angeles Anime Film Festival will be showing it on Sunday September 23rd. Check out their site for information including purchasing tickets. Yen Press will be releasing a translation of Morimi’s novel along with his other book “Penguin Highway” according to announcements the publisher made during Anime Expo 2018. Crunchyroll has “The Tatami Galaxy” available for streaming while Netflix has Yuasa’s latest work “Devilman Crybaby.”