Shibuya Meltdown - 渋谷メルトダウン

We have all had them – those interminably dull, incredibly long and impossibly tedious days at the office.  And so has the hero of this animated short – Shibuya Meltdown.  However, he has an imagination – at first a creature he draws on his notepad comes to life.  However, his boss soon presents him with enough work to keep his imagination at bay.  Yet eventually the working day comes to an end and as he plods home, crushed after what seems like the millionth day in a row at the office, he is drawn to a magical food stand, and soon he sets his mind – and everything in it – free, to roam the city in ways he only ever dreamed.  If he is having a meltdown, it’s my kind of meltdown!

Shibuya Meltdown  is a wonderful animated short – heartfelt and joyful at its core. It is so lovely to see a graduation project that isn’t full of blood and guts (of course, as you know, they have their place on Kuriositas!) but instead opts for something so vibrantly optimistic (even though it may be an extended metaphor for a complete nervous breakdown). I hope its creators never experience the boredom that their young protagonist did.  It was created by the master’s students in Animation Cinema at ECV Lille as their final-year graduation project. The film was directed by Marine Dufosse, Manon Casmarec, Marius Faraci and Victor Paris.