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This Week in Anime
The Beauty of The Girl from the Other Side

by Monique Thomas & Nicholas Dupree,

Wit Studio's new movie adapts Nagabe's ethereal manga about a young girl named Shiva and her life with her "Teacher," a man cursed with a demon-like appearance and no memory of his past.

This series is streaming on Crunchyroll

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.


@Lossthief @BeeDubsProwl @NickyEnchilada @vestenet


Nick
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, Nicky, but I occasionally get bouts of unrelenting insomnia. It's pretty miserable, but I've found that one way to help is to sit down for a nice, cozy little bedtime story. Just something quiet, serene, and where there's always a happy ending. You have anything like that we could talk about to tick that box?
Nicky
Do you mind if there's a little horror with that? Just a smidge of spookiness.
Absolutely not. I need things to stay so G-rated it makes the Teletubbies look edgy.
Well I can't promise everything will be happy but I've got big folktale vibes from The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, the latest movie brought to us by Wit Studio available now on Crunchyroll.
This is an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Nagabe. And it's kind of amazing this thing actually exists, since the manga has pretty much always been considered impractical to adapt, and the entire film had to be crowdfunded to even happen.
This movie is a wonderfully animated adaption of one of my favorite manga. Originally pitched after making a separate 10 minute short, the movie skillfully adds color and motion to Nagabe's detailed art. It emulates a mix of traditional art mediums commonly used in storybooks and tales of yesteryear. Before you know anything about the movie's plot, I will say it's 100% worth it for the visuals alone.
Nagabe's illustrations really are essential to making this whole thing sing. The manga's art evokes the energy of those notoriously fucked up original version of classic fairy tales, as if this wasn't a mass-produced comic but an ancient, unearthed tome from the time of the Black Death. Translating that energy to animation is both incredibly difficult and paramount to this film working at all.
There's so much of this that feels like somewhere between a mix of classic woodprints or if someone watched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and wanted to go hole hog on the unsettling vibes beyond some heffalumps and woozles. Much of The Girl From the Other Side takes place in the daylight, it's got both the cozy and isolating elements of nature that echo the words of your mom who told you not to stray too far from the road.

Even its title, Siúil, a Rún makes you feel like it's older, as this is actually a reference to a traditional Irish song roughly translated as "Walk, my love." A melancholy lament from the perspective of a woman whose lover had gone off to war.
Thankfully this story is decidedly more about the melancholy and loss of that song than the romantic angle. Considering, y'know, everything about Shiva's relationship with her "Teacher."
Oh yeah, this is no Bunny Drop manga or even close to the level of The Ancient Magus' Bride. The relationship between the two characters, the lost little girl Shiva, and the "Outsider" who becomes her caretaker is very chaste. We don't get much of them in the movie's short runtime but it deftly displays the struggle of being each other's only companion and family in a world where an infectious curse marks and marginalizes them to the outsides of the city walls.
Though on that topic, don't go in expecting a full lore dump or anything here. While it's clear there is an outside world, the picture we're given of it is only ever as in-focus as needed to explain our leads' circumstances. The exact cause or nature of the "curse" is nebulous at best, and we only ever get brief, grim glimpses of what the rest of humanity is up to.

Not to say that's bad, just that this is wholly a personal story in a larger, more complicated world that isn't going to be exposited to you or solved by the end of it all.
The manga has some more detail about these things and stuff like the political actions of the inside world that affect the main characters on the outside, but the movie decides to only to imply it so we can focus on the emotional core. Otherwise, it's actually pretty faithful. It's more of a sampler of the manga's moods, if anything. Which I think is great! It may not give a whole lot of specifics, but it leaves enough room for the audience to get the metaphoric elements and therefore closer to a complete story.
Honestly, I like it. Something about setting up these expansive fantasy worlds with huge scales that are only ever explored in micro-stories just pushes the buttons in my brain. I like getting a glimpse of this world in small portraits and snippets while we focus on the interpersonal story at the center.

Would it be cool to know what the fuck this thing is? Sure! But it's almost cooler to be left wondering.

The details are mostly sparse in the manga too, so it's not like it's cutting out too much, ftr.

The important part is that there's an "Inside" and "Outside," those who have been infected with the curse are called "Outsiders." These Outsiders can infect regular humans with the curse through touch and, once taken over, they lose their humanity, becoming bestial creatures. Sometimes people go crazy and other times people overtaken expire into trees, as if returning to the earth they once came. The people of the city feel so threatened by the curse that they're willing to kill anyone with the possibility of being infected.

However, Teacher, despite being cursed, is extremely intelligent and kind like any human.

There's a loooooooot you can read into there, metaphorically speaking. And while the story is careful to never make any singular 1-to-1 comparison, the core of it all comes down to Teacher wanting to keep Shiva pure and un-cursed, taking great pains to never touch her directly even when tending to injuries or the like.
While it does affect Teacher physically, like his ability to feel pain, its biggest tolls are all emotional. He seems to have lost his memories of his past life, assuming he had one. He also takes great responsibility towards Shiva but never feels like he's suitable to be her caretaker and the major conflict is about him trying to get Shiva to return safely to society so she won't be lumped in with him.
It's a very heavy mood that underpins basically the entire film, but it's counterbalanced in the early scenes by how god damn adorable this button-eyed little creature is.

Look at her. Look at her help around the derelict cottage they call a home. Look at her make a flower crown for her demon dad. Look at her eat pancakes and stare at sugar like it's the face of a loving God.
Or balk at tea that is too bitter for her young palate. She's a very typical small child and it's soothing to see her in these few moments of normalcy. It's very clear that she feels safe with her Teacher.
There are definitely moments where Shiva could veer into overly precious territory, but again it's the way she's animated that makes it all work. She feels like a kid right out of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, and moves with all the clumsy energy of a real kid.
There's a lot there with her body language and how she conveys her feelings non-verbally. Teacher is doubtful of his competence but clearly, other than the outside threats to her safety, her biggest problem is that she's lonely and doesn't want to be abandoned.


It makes Teacher's hesitancy towards intimacy come off as more of a hinderance. Especially with the knowledge that Shiva could've already been exposed to the curse and hasn't been affected by it.
It creates this extremely moody tension to it all. Like all this kid wants in the world is a hug to reassure her she's not alone, but the only person in her life is afraid to be near her because it might risk her every forming a connection again.
Teacher tries to justify that he's simply being pragmatic, but he really has low self-confidence. He puts them more at risk trying to make contact with kinder people who don't exist.

It's an idealized excuse in a hostile world. Every human they encounter is just out to get them or already gone.
I mean, it does make sense. For him, life as an Outsider has been one of loneliness and disassociation, losing connection to not just other people, but do his own identity. If he can keep Shiva from experiencing that, it's worth it. It just never occurs to him that there's a solution beyond getting her back among "normal" people as soon as possible.
Any yet, the normal people might be the scariest thing in the movie to me. They just constantly act on fear without ever trying to understand anything. We meet other Outsiders and they're pretty spooky, cursing whoever they can. They refer to Shiva as only a soul in a container and insist that Teacher return her to the one they call "Mother." It's very strange and cold how they don't see the curse as malicious but rather a restoration of natural order. However true or biased they may be is left ambiguous.
Plus Teacher has good reason to fear that being like him is the least awful outcome of getting cursed. Like probably the spookiest moment in the whole film is when they come upon a village where there's all these random clothes hanging on the trees.

And it's like wow, that's ominous. Wonder why the people here would do that. What could it mean? And then right on time we see how it actually happened and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH.
It's great how even an open field can be a place of danger just when the surrounding forest takes a whole new meaning. It's big Midsommar aesthetic.
Scientists HATE this one simple trick to make every god damn leaf of this forest newly terrifying.

Like whoops, we may very well have spent the entire movie watching these characters live and travel through a mass grave.
There's also something neutral about it. Nature is as beautiful as it is unbiased and unforgiving. Death is just a part of that. It feels more like facing with the fact that everyone has to die rather than a murder, to me. Even if it is equally natural to be scared of that fact. When Teacher does eventually encounter "Mother," the feeling is the same. Sinking to the eerie bottom of a lake and looking into a deep hole where an old one lies and yet somehow it isn't out of place?
I mean, it's a little out of place. They did have to trek past the Bone Whale to get there.
Let the Bone Whale live with its giant umbilical chord. It's minding its own beeswax.
Living in a lake! Where whales should not be! Get the fuck out of here Shamu!
Moving on, after a crisis of faith Teacher confronts mother. It is there, deep in the darkness, that he finally has the epiphany he needs. It's one of the movie's many exquisite sequences meant to show the audience the characters' inner processes, and it is as stunning as it is heart-rending. You truly get how much he painfully loves Shiva in the way that loving others is painful.
It's easily the most abstract sequence of the whole film, and it's drop-dead beautiful to behold. It's moody and ethereal and operates practically on dream logic, but it all comes together in a stunningly beautiful moment.


It's unclear how literal any of this is meant to be - if there really is some "cure" that requires Teacher's life to protect Shiva from the curse, but what ultimately matters is that they reject that option entirely. Teacher at last stops trying to sacrifice himself to protect her, and instead embraces her love as reciprocal.
In some ways, Teacher's struggle isn't so unique to those who struggle to be parents. I may never be one, but I know people who would do anything for their kids. I recognize the fear that you could be doing something wrong. The worry of what whatever the future has in store for you and your family you work so hard to protect and keep safe. At the same time, I deeply know what it's like to want to push people you love away in order to protect them from your own pains. And most of all, I know what it's like to feel lonely. It may be difficult for some people to think this way, but zooming out and trying not to miss the forest for the trees will help people see the true heart of this story.
It is strange, and haunting, and tender, and reaffirming all in one, and I cannot recommend it enough to people. This film is great. The manga's great. Nagabe's other works are great. Go fuckin' check it all out.
Deeply seconded. I couldn't ask for more out of an adaptation. This movie is both great on its own and as a companion piece whether you have or haven't yet checked out the original story. Such sweet, scary, and gorgeous pieces of art exists thanks to the people who worked hard to make them and the others who supported them. My only lament is that I couldn't see this in an actual theater. But, as long as people check this out, I'll be happy and leave it at that.

For now, Walk, walk, walk on, my loves. And may you go safely, my darlings.
And try not to fixate on existential dread until 8am like me.

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