Anime Club: Shelter (Short)

Hello everybody, welcome to our newest addiction. Need some Shelter?

SHELTER

CREATED BY: A-1 Pictures

NO. OF EPISODES: 1 Episode (Short)

GENRE: Sci-fi, Music

YEAR: 2016

COUNTRY: United States, Japan, France

Rin, a 17-year-old girl, lives inside a futuristic simulator in infinite, beautiful loneliness. Each day, she awakens in virtual reality to create a world for herself, yet in real life, Rin’s comatose body floats through the universe, forever trapped inside a virtual simulation she will never wake up from…

I am going to say this first. This music video/short film is absolutely beautiful. Anyway, Shelter serves as an intriguing stylistic choice for producers Porter Robinson’s & Madeon’s track of the same name. In partnership with Crunchyroll and A-1 Pictures (I mean, who else would you partner with in anime…besides Ghibli) Shelter appropriately tugs on my heart strings in the right way, stressing the relationship/guardianship of a father/brother and daughter/sister. It pains me each time I watch it and I can easily image what I would do if I was placed in their shoes. That is what a music video is supposed to do anyway.

For those of you who say Shelter isn’t anime, I can agree. Even though it is made in partnership with two of the biggest names in the anime community, it is just a music video after all. Also while I don’t want to spoil the open for interpretation ending, it isn’t surprising that not everyone is a fan. I think it was the right way to go, as I would have done the same thing, but it had people arguing over the ending.

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