Anime: Kaku Ren Bo

Dim lighting, mysterious nemesis, uncertain protagonists - it all adds up to one creepy story. "Kaku Ren Bo" is a "Twilight Zone"-esque short film that came out in 2005 and promptly won a couple of awards. Its production company Yamatoworks took home an award from the 2005 Tokyo Anime Fair and the Best Short Film award from the 2005 Fantasia Film Festival. The film was also nominated at the 2005 Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival.

But all of those awards are not what make "Kaku Ren Bo" a great film. It's the chilling atmosphere, the mysterious plot, and the determined, albeit frightened, characters. The English title for the story is "Hide and Seek," but it's no innocent child's game that this film is about. The main character, Hikora, and a handful of other children have come to play a deadly game of hide-and-seek in a ghost town that is said to be haunted by demons. It doesn't take long for these demons, as tall as buildings, to make their presence known, and the children find themselves running for their lives

. Hikora did not come to play the game just to see the demons, though. His main purpose for being there is actually to find his sister, who mysteriously disappeared a year ago while playing the same game. He encounters a young girl who strongly resembles his sister, but identifying her is made difficult by the white animal masks that all of the children wear for the game. Between running from demons and chasing the mysterious girl who will not speak to him, Hikora also digs up some clues about the ancient and terrifying game that he has joined, uncovering some disturbing answers to his questions.

The animation utilizes a CGI technique that includes cel-shading, which gives the film the appearance of traditional hand-drawn animation. The result is as smooth as normal CGI and as eye-appealing as normal 2-D animation. It looks like a hybrid version of the two techniques, and this unique approach helps to hold the viewer's attention.

The story starts out dark and creepy and gets more frightening as it goes on, ending in an unexpected and chilling manner. As it is less than an hour long, the pace is quick. It never lets its audience off the hook, and something heart-pounding or curiosity-piquing is always happening. The main character is very sympathetic in his search for his missing sister, and the rest of the character inspire some empathy as well, though some hardly speak during the entire film.

Without giving away the ending, it's safe to say that there is no real winner in this dark game. But the disturbing ending doesn't take anything away from the film's appealing qualities, namely its mesmerizing animation, well-written plot, and involving pace. These things make it difficult to look away, even if you don't like creepy stories that are better suited to Halloween.