Naked Youth

acajou★ 7

The first thing worth noting about nakedyouth are the visuals which are impressive. Not being an anime expert, my initial hunch was that real backgrounds were filmed and traced over but in fact, everything is the result of masterful computer animation. The natural scenes - birds flying across the sky, rays of sunlight filtering through trees - are stunningly beautiful and rich in detail. While the movements of the human body are animated realistically as well, the characters themselves look overly two-dimensional compared to the scenery, which creates an interesting contrastive effect. In short, the visuals are reason enough to watch this. That said, nakedyouth is anart film, and will therefore not appeal to everybody. Slow pacing, unresolved tension, repetition and lack of dialogue resulting from the fact it relies on the images to tell the story will leave some frustrated; others will turn away at the the same-sex attraction theme. If neither of those things scare you, you will be rewarded by a beautifully animated short tale of teenage (homo-)sexual frustration, in which feelings aren't conveyed by words, but subtle glances, awkward situations, and finally, actions.

jjashael★ 8

Nakedyouth is one of those short films that should be rated a few days/weeks after watching. I made the mistake of rating this a 6 when I finished it without putting some more thought into it. This film will be received differently by many but I can assume that people struggling with their sexuality may see this film in a different perspective. It is known that the short film centers around two nameless characters who have some sort of difficulty with their feelings for eachother. One aspect that I see that some may find annoying would be the showering scene with was repeated multiple timesin the ten minute film. At first glance I was annoyed by this too but after viewing it later I find this crucial. Sexuality is such a confusing topic to many and scenarios that revolve around a sexual reawakening hold importance. These two characters shared a life changing event in that shower scene as revealed at the end of the short film. Choosing to repeat this scene numerous times just shows how important this scene between the two was. One cannot tell what exactly each character is going through but in a world where loving the same sex is taboo, what occured in the showers was an event where many people in the world die for. Of course, this film is not perfect but I feel like many people disregard the deeper meaning and tend to overlook the crucial points made such as the shower scene. This film does not need to be watched by people who are questioning their sexuality or deviate from the social norm but I believe that it will hold a deeper meaning to those.