This Week in Anime

The Beauty of The Girl from the Other Side

Nicky
Do you mind if there's a little horror with that? Just a smidge of spookiness.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Let the Bone Whale live with its giant umbilical chord. It's minding its own beeswax.

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.

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.

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.