Quarantine Control #189: A Short Peace Variant

DC Staff | November 16, 2023 | Animation, Features, Movies, Reviews, Television | No Comments

There are several ways in which Thanksgiving has surpassed Christmas for some people, depending on the circumstances. This could depend on whether they actually go to see the family and have dinner with them on this occasion. It could also depend on whether most people in the family are tolerable to be around. The food everyone feasts on for the main course is another matter, with some of that being up from the already-high prices from last year while others are down. Provided they do have a good family to be around, or simply have a nice vacation during the time, or both, it can be one of the most relaxing times of the year. It’s a nice respite from the hell that’s the world right now, at least for some of us.

Angela Moseley

Short Peace (2013)
Source: DVD, HiDive
Episodes: 1 movie

Short Peace is a compilation that’s been on my radar for nearly a decade now. I first learned of its existence from an Anime World Order review. I spent much of my time baffled as to why it was called “Short Peace” instead of “Short Piece.” It was essentially a collection of anthologies headed by four different directors. Also, I wondered why there was a polar bear. Time passed and this compilation remained in the back of my mind until I came across it at the Discotek Media booth while at Otakon 2023. I had the pleasure of having Justin Sevakis, the founder of Anime News Network, and owner of OCD Media handle my purchase.

Short Peace sat on my DVD shelf for months, even while being home from work for over a month. Finally, I decided to just start on the film since it was, well, short. I went in not knowing anything about the project, and I did not expect these shorts to be so avant-garde in their approach. Honestly, the venture was a refreshing break from the more commercialized anime I usually watch. Since this is a compilation, I’ll just stick with a short summary of each film.

“Possessions” – A traveling man takes shelter in an old temple. There he discovers worn and discarded tools have their own spirits.

“Combustible” – A well-off woman who’s experienced nothing but hardship for her entire life is set to be married. However, she loves the man who has been her childhood friend. Suddenly, the prospect of being with him is impossible when he gets himself disowned from his wealthy family to become a firefighter.

“Gambo” – A Christian samurai gets into a fight with a mysterious white bear, and ends up injured and at a village that was attacked by an oni. The villagers plead with him to slay the monster in order to save the last girl in their village. The girl is convinced no one can save them. While she’s out in the forest despairing, she comes across a white bear named Gambo. He listens to her story and sets out to save her and the village from the oni.

“A Farewell to Arms” – A paramilitary crew part of a group called “The Peacekeepers” are salvaging parts from a ruined, and abandoned city. As they explore, they come across a rouge autonomous quadrupedal tank. It quickly becomes a battle to survive and to disarm a warhead under the ruined city.

If you’ve seen a compilation film like The Animatrix back in the day, you’ll be right at home with Short Peace. Like The Animatrix, each director presents a short film with their own animation style and overall theme. Directors Shuhei Morita, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hajime Katoki, and Hiroaki Ando along with the other artists at Bandai Visual were able to tell the story they wanted regardless of wider appeal. The project is art for the sake of art.

As for the compilation, the only thing tying each film together is the fact that they all take place in Japan and are animated. No film shares the same visual style. The first film has a cool 2D CGI effect, the second film is animated like a traditional Japanese painting on a scroll come to life, the third is visceral– not unlike a shonen battle series, and the forth film has a style right at home with anime from the 1990s. The mood from each ranges from thought-provoking, to tragic, all the way from violent shifting into absurdly humorous.

There’s something for everyone in the compilations, although I will say first two films move at a slower pace. However, they more than make up for the slow pacing with their atmospheres. “Possessions” is thoughtful and respectful. “Combustible” is somber. The second two films stuck out to me the most. “Gambo” was way more violent than I was expecting. When I discussed the shorts with a co-worker she noted violently avant-garde was probably the best way to describe the short. There’s not much more that can be said about a no holds barred smackdown between a polar bear and an oni. The final film, “A Farwell to Arms” is yet another piece that warns about dangers of technology and AI being highly militarized. I found it chilling to see a rogue automated monster attacking soldiers all while it packed technology that was built by human hands at some point. It was clear the war ended badly for everyone involved, yet this relentless machine performed its task well after its creators disappeared.

I do recommend Short Peace as something animation fans should check out at least once. It’s easily available on DVD or blu-ray as of this writing. For the streaming crowd it’s available on HiDive.

Geoffrey Barnes

I still haven’t seen The Marvels yet, and its box office performance suggests that it might be on home video and streaming sooner rather than later. I did watch the show aired in the lead up to its theatrical release.

Loki — Season 2 (2023)
Source: Disney Plus
Episodes: 6

The first season of Loki stood above the other Marvel series aired on Disney Plus in terms of its overall quality, for several key reasons. It was one of the first full-on Multiverse tales in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, involving a Loki variant introduced in Avengers: Endgame ending up in the Time Variance Authority (TVA) after playing around with the Tesseract in alternate events from The Avengers (2012). The tale largely stood alone, until the finale set up the new villain for the next saga with Kang the Conqueror.

There was reason to think its standalone nature wouldn’t remain the case for the second season, and question whether the quality would be there in the same way with the change in director and some writers. But no. There are, to no surprise, more individuals suited to creating a solid season involving the character. It also shows why this series’ concept is so strong — head and shoulders above other Marvel shows made for Disney Plus.

Too much has happened in the MCU since the original Loki series, part of the problem the universe finds itself in now in terms of audience perception. But Loki starts off right where the first one ended, with the TVA being in turmoil after female Loki variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed one of the larger variants of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Loki himself (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) huddle with new-ish character Ouroboros aka OB (Ke Huy Quan) to find a solution before the location in between time fully melts down. This, it turns out, will require finding a Kang variant and making up with Sylvie. This is a mere tease of the fun time all the characters are in for, while they and the small world in between the Multiverse receive plenty of development.

The cinematography and sets were the first aspects that stood out in Loki for me upon starting it, as weird as that sounds. The series’ main locations simply looks more lived in and full of personality compared to other heavily green screened MCU works at this time. The retro futuristic look TVA fits the series’ vibe, and the alternative locations are largely filmed on location. This doesn’t sound like it should be a big deal for anything, a sign that I’ve seen way too damned many Marvel stuff throughout the last few years. But it’s something they should keep in mind going forward. They hopefully didn’t need people like me to tell them this.

The aesthetics would be for naught if the surrounding story and writing weren’t up to par. Fortunately, they are. The Loki series benefits from the story having little to do with the MCU at large, despite the story elements that occur in the series affecting the overall universe. This leaves more opportunity for character development and worldbuilding, which takes precedence this season thanks to the instability of everyone involved. There’s also plenty of time to delve into the characters, their new motivations, and their histories. The Kang the Conqueror story that’s currently driving the MCU (at least as of this writing) plays into the story, but doesn’t take too heavy of a precedent.

A season this strong also wouldn’t be possible without solid acting. Hiddleston has been playing Loki for over ten years now, and his acting abilities as the character have evolved with him. Other like Sophia Di Martino and Owen Wilson also turn in excellent performances as Sylvie and Mobius, respectively. But it was extremely difficult to not be most impressed with Ke Huy Quan’s performance as Ouroboros, “O.B.” for short. Quan has put everything into his performances since he’s returned to acting, and his enthusiasm for this particular role shined through at every opportunity. It helps that he received plenty of time to do so too.

Loki season 2 suffers from a problem similar, though not identical, to the other Disney Plus Marvel shows by being a bit too short. There could have been another episode or two dedicated to the exploits of Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes (the voice of Tara Strong), both of whom are seen for only a short bit of time despite being far more prominent in the first season. It’s not too big of an issue, though. They do get good screentime in the sole episode they’re in, and the series is otherwise great at using the time allotted to the production team throughout the six episodes — far more than other MCU shows.

Both the most fortunate and unfortunate aspects of Loki’s second season is how it doesn’t leave anything open for another season. But this helps it conclude in a solid fashion, with by far the best ending I’ve seen in a Marvel Disney Plus show thus far. Separating this world far away from the MCU at large was a massive boon for the team. Needless to say, there’s a reason why Marvel wants to explore more solitary efforts. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found some way to extend this series’ run, but I’m crossing my fingers that it ends here, just for how special it was by Marvel standards. There are plenty of other characters and miniature worlds to explore, after all.

Joseph Daniels

By now, it’s probably obvious that whenever it’s Desert Bus For Hope week, that’s all I end up talking about. However, this year I’m going to do even less and I’ll just say that it’s Desert Bus For Hope week. They’re nearly up to three quarters of a million dollars raised for charity and I would not be surprised if they surpass last year’s total. It’s a tradition at this point. I think they’ve only ever had one year where they didn’t.

I’m even going to skip the short film this week, too. I’ll see you next week with hopefully a much longer column!

This will be the final Quarantine Control entry before Thanksgiving, so hopefully you make it a good one. Even if you don’t get with the family, you deserve relaxation time if you’re reading this. Only good people read these blogs. Until next week.

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