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Girl From the Other Side Short Competes at Ottawa Animation Festival's Digital Event

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) announced on Thursday that Wit Studio's 10-minute anime adaptation of Nagabe's The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún manga is competing in the Short Animation for Young Audiences 6-12 division of the Films/Videos Made for Young Audiences category at this year's online event.

The six other Japanese works competing in the festival are:

• Atsushi Wada's "My Exercise" (Independent Short Films Competition, Narrative Short Animation)
• Momo Takenoshita's "Doghead" (Student Animation Competition, Student Animation)
• Sawako Kabuki's "Kuricorder Quartet 'Southpaw'" (Commissioned Films Competition, Commissioned Animation)
• Hiroyuki Mizoguchi's "Fuwa Fuwa Hour: PuiPui & MuuMuu 'Fushigi na Tane'" ("Fluffy Hour: PuiPui & MuuMuu 'Mysterious Seed'"; Films/Videos Made for Young Audiences, Short Preschool Animation for Audiences 0-5)
• Masam Hashimoto's "Beads no Mori no Rabby (Okatazuke)" ("Rabby of Beads Forest (Clean up)"; Films/Videos Made for Young Audiences, Short Preschool Animation for Audiences 0-5) - World Premiere
• Yōko Yuki's "ShalaBonBon" (Films/Videos Made for Young Audiences, Short Preschool Animation for Audiences 0-5) - Canadian Premiere

The OIAF received 1,950 entries from 84 different countries for the 2020 competition. The competition features 92 short films, six feature films, 16 films for the Canadian Student Competition, and 41 Panorama films meant "to represent the efforts of the Canadian, international, and student communities."

The Girl from the Other Side Short short film premiered at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal, Canada last August. The anime has a DVD that bundled with the limited edition of the manga's eighth compiled book volume in September.

Yūtarō Kubo and Satomi Tani directed the anime at Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, The Ancient Magus' Bride). The short utilizes a type of animation that with a "new expression technique."

Seven Seas is releasing the manga in English, and it describes the story:

In a world split between the Inside and the Outside, those living in both realms are told never to cross over to the other side, lest they be cursed. A young girl named Shiva lives on the other side, in a vacant village with a demonic guardian known only as “Teacher.” Although the two are forbidden to touch, they seem to share a bond that transcends their disparate appearances. But when Shiva leaves Teacher's care to seek out her grandmother, the secret behind her mysterious living arrangement comes to light.

Nagabe began the series in 2015 in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Garden magazine, and Mag Garden released the ninth compiled book volume on March 10.

The American Library Association's (ALA's) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) ranked the series on its list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018 and 2019. The manga was also nominated for the Best Comic award at the 45th Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2018.

Sources: Press release, Ottawa International Animation Festival's website