The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl

A teenage girl’s long, eventful night on the town becomes a fantastical adventure in this 2017 anime feature film by Masaaki Yuasa. A high school sophomore known only as "The Girl with Black Hair" joins a pair of harmless con artists for a night on the town to see what being an adult is like. In her case, it means drinking copious amounts of alcohol and meeting a bizarre collection of characters, including a dirty old man and a stinky dude who refuses to change his briefs until he finds his lost girlfriend. Meanwhile Senpai, an upperclassman with an unrequited crush on our heroine, vows to finally make his move by finding her favorite childhood book at a book fair. Along the way to their inevitable meeting they cross paths with the "library police," the young god of old books, a gang that steals the underwear of teenage boys, and a guerilla theater troupe who perform an operatic musical in short street performances. Yuasa, a cult figure in Japan for his distinctive and unconventional approach to animated storytelling, brings wit, whimsy, and great creativity to his adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s 2006 novel. The titular character’s adventures become chapters of an epic fantasy, and the benevolence of the vision makes even the sketchiest characters harmless. She even gets through it all without a hangover, which may be the most fantastical twist of all in this delightful romantic fantasy. Presented in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, suitable for ages 13-up, extras include an interview with the director. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)