GROTESQQQUE Anime Film Review – Review

At the U.S. premiere of GROTESQQQUE at New York’s Japan Society, director Atsushi Nishigori warned the audience it might be hard to connect the different segments of this anthology feature. The one overriding theme, he explained, is “things I like” — whether that’s cute girls, monsters, mecha, any sort of otaku interest, or The Author’s Barely-Disguised Fetish he can fit into one of the shorts. He likened it to a three-course meal, guaranteeing we’d feel “full” when it finished. After two thrillingly overstimulating, action-packed segments and a calmer, more thoughtful closer, I left stuffed.

The first segment, “A(E)liens,” is the most colorful and entertaining of the three, and is narrowly my personal favorite. I loved the main character, Eli: she’s cute, funny, a little creepy with some of her body-horror transformations, but so good-natured you have to cheer her on as she makes friends and proves herself on Earth. The distinctive, appealing art style, plus the different alien characters and their abilities, gives the animators room to indulge in delightfully ridiculous action and creative transformations. The commentary on discrimination and being an outsider might not be the deepest exploration of these themes, but it’s enough substance to give all the candy-colored hyperpop silliness a cohesive, satisfying narrative.

“Yoroshiku Girl,” also written as “4649 Girl” in some graphics, is the one segment without Nishigori as the “episode director” (Takahiro Miura fills that role), and my least favorite. There is a story here, and it turns out to be fairly interesting, but it’s buried beneath a relentless, non-stop orgy of video game violence. To be clear, that violence is really cool! The animation’s incredible, the character designs are stylish, and it’s coherent enough to follow despite the relentless pace, but the reasons to care don’t develop enough until it’s too late. If this were the final act of a full-length movie with more proper character introductions (think Redline), it might be something really special.

The closing segment, “Nocturne: Nuit Grotesque,” marks a major shift in pace, easing concerns that GROTESQQQUE might get too overwhelming. The animation’s just as beautiful as in the other segments, but it loses the hyperactivity; the soundtrack switches gears from J-pop to classical. This is a serious post-apocalyptic vampire yuri drama with intriguing reflections on mortality — imagine Girls’ Last Tour meets the Marceline the Vampire Queen backstory episodes of Adventure Time, if Marceline had a polycule. In this short’s world, vampires can see the residue of death that humans can’t. Vampire souls are immortal even if their body gets killed — and rather than taken as a source of comfort, this idea of an everlasting soul beyond the body is treated as a source of pain. Thought-provoking and emotional, it’s the one part of GROTESQQQUE I can safely recommend to viewers not fully accustomed to Imaishi-esque, extreme, hyperactive anime nonsense.

GROTESQQQUE contains two great segments in very different styles, and its weakest segment is still a stunning piece of animation with enough potential that I can see how it could have been great. Since inconsistency is expected in anthology films, this is one of the better ones. It’s a weird and wild experience, and one can fairly question how the different parts cohere together (the disjointedness feels pronounced seeing the “Nocturne” cast drawn in the cutesy “A(E)liens” style during the peppy closing credits), but if you like any of the stuff Nishigori likes, it’s an experience you’ll want to see for yourself.