Highlights
- "Enter the Garden" showcases A-list creators in anime producing top-notch animation in short films for a modern digital audience.
- Director Goro Taniguchi's involvement and the unique visual feel of "The Waiting Man" contribute to the anthology's success.
- The short prioritizes visuals and contemporary storytelling, appealing to the YouTube generation with its lo-fi aesthetic and fast pace.
Dentsu is one of the largest media companies in Japan, and has in recent years played a big part in the funding and distribution of anime. Its most recent production, Enter the Garden, is a unique anthology of short films intended for a modern digital audience. In a collaboration between Dentsu and lifestyle digital media brand Azuki, the anthology project is intended to showcase Azuki’s aesthetic in the anime and manga space.
Because each of the three shorts in the series is only a few minutes a piece, this project has allowed the A-list creators in the space to really put the most effort into creating top-level animation quality. The first of the anthology’s shorts, “The Waiting Man,” is now available to watch free on YouTube. Perhaps looked at by Dentsu as something of an experiment in creating direct content for an internet audience, Azuki itself is doubtlessly happy to be getting such a high-profile project out to get eyes on its brand.
Tall Talents for a Shorts Anthology
Enter the Garden has one of the most popular creators in anime today. Goro Taniguchi, who both provided the initial story concept for the “Waiting Man” episode in addition to having served as the general producer overseeing the concept, is a big name in the modern anime industry. Most notably, he served as the director and main storyboard artist behind 2022’s blockbuster success One Piece: Film Red with Toei Animation.
While Taniguchi isn’t directing the short, the directorial baton has been passed to Junichi Yamamoto, who previously served both in creating the visual feel for Makoto Shinkai’s global phenomenon Your Name, as well as TV anime directing roles for series as diverse as Pop Team Epic, to the Love Live franchise’s “Yohane the Parhelion” spinoff, Sunshine in the Mirror.
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At around eight minutes, “The Waiting Man” is a brisk, entertaining short that takes a simple plot and runs with it (or, rather, skates with it) as the means to show off some impressive visuals. Set in a sort of near-future, quasi-cyberpunk cityscape, a rebellious young skater, Haru, comes across a chance encounter with a mysterious man who seems to be waiting endlessly for something. In a rigid society where everything is heavily surveilled and planned right down to the monotony of what’s offered at a bus stop vending machine, a chance encounter between Haru and the Waiting Man takes a supernatural turn towards a world of reprieve and self-expression.
The Art of The Waiting Man
The short is smart enough to prioritize the visuals in what is a simple and fantastical story, creating something that’s sincere and contemporary. The saturated color pallet of the city recalls the sort of dazed, lo-fi aesthetic that has become something of a staple of its intended YouTube audience for the past few years, and the choice to eschew the cyberpunk genre's more common neon nighttime motifs for a warm, saturated evening feel that makes it stand out. This is a short that feels tailor-made to the 2020s YouTube generation, lo-fi hip hop chief amongst its influences and recognizing how anime fits into that digital, modern zeitgeist. For anyone who feels plugged into that world, this brief short goes a long way to capture that current moment, and with its fast pace and free distribution, there’s hardly a reason to skip out on a trip to Taniguchi’s garden.
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