It's rated under five for a good reason. It's all style, no substance, and the style isn't even very good. Furthermore, the sounds and music are annoying, and the runtime is only about a minute, so you can't expect any depth. As a fan of both Katsuhiro Otomo and Studio 4C, there really isn't much here to see. For completionists only. The beginning zoom on the character shown on the title art is quite psychedelic. He's shown from a few different angles, and is composited over some live action footage, as if simulating the man moving through a crowd. Another man with a tea kettleon his head walks into the room, confronting the first character. They both make strange sounds at each other. The end! What?
Eh, just a random experimental animation short done on a shoestring budget. Don't be mistaken by anyone who tries to apply meaning to this and also suggests it's actually GOOD solely because it is obtuse and leaves us to grasp at some potential meaning. I'm sure Otomo had some concept in mind, and you can decide it's about whatever, but even if we arrive to a concrete conclusion as to the meaning, this is very shallow art. It has very little to say; it is not thought provoking; it does not entertain; it's not even particularly interesting from a design standpoint.
This is barely above abstract expressionist art in terms of its primitivity. The short just depicts an abstract concept in an emotional manner--seemingly little more than glorifying the headspace of two odd individuals, and since I suppose that's an American bomber on the man's head, then this might also have something to say about the continued occupation and shame of being a puppet state of the U.S. empire; the kettle is the building pressure of the Japanese people--except it seems to be more of a release valve, as the once prideful Japanese have become meek and will continue to do the bidding of their overlord. Yeah, see, I can do the same thing, but I won't pretend that makes this more valuable as art than a banana taped to a wall. Who cares? This production is trash.
