hontou ni sou omou?

Scuba and hack were kind enough to the spoiler adverse not to spoil this one-shot. But consistent with my spoiler policy, it’s reader beware.

Ura works to restore an old file with audio. We’re given the fairly standard treatment on environmental degradation that has wiped out the natural ecosystem and humans have become even more dependent on technology to survive. Another theme is the purpose of records and Riko once proposed that they were to preserve something as it was. The atmosphere is claustrophic and cheerless, emphasized by the dark, the faceless crowd, the disembodied voice of Ura’s co-worker whom we never get to see. Ura’s obsession with the past is rooted in his desire to experience the old, natural world - even it is second-hand but his co-worker and his old flame and colleague Riko have lost hope and don’t want to know about the lost alternative to their current existence. However as the video file is restored, Ura puts the pieces together and scrambles upwards, towards the now unliveable higher sections.

Ura emerges to see the other side of the sky and confirms the truth - that they are not living on Earth but on the exoskeleton, the pale cocoon that encompasses the Moon’s atmosphere. But there is hope - the rust-coloured Earth is now blue again. This is another recurrent theme in environmental anime - do not underestimate the capacity of Nature to recover e.g. Nausicaa. Ura has gained the truth but has paid for it with his life. Will Riko now carry the torch?

A very intense 30 minutes and IMHO the best short feature since Voices of a Distant Star. The twists were quite unexpected - I had guessed that the video file would be some kind of art-type work but was completely wrongfooted about the conclusion and only realized that they were on the Moon on my second viewing. (;^_^) Great arthouse anime and many thanks to qui tacet for recommending it to me.