ANI-MOVIES, *Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theater

Of what is supposed to be the first in an ongoing line of anthology movies, Modest Heroes is part of the Ponoc Short Films Theater series, even though there hasn't been another one done since 2018. Studio Ponoc was founded in 2015 by former Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura. They started out doing the single feature-length animated film titled May And The Witch's Flower based on a book with a Harry Potter vibe that came out years before J.K. Rowling even churned out her saga. Modest Heroes was their next theatrical release in 2018 before their second full-length anime movie The Imaginary in 2023. The anthology collection was distributed in Japan by Disney, but the American physical release was handled by Shout! Factory and streamed on Netflix. This movie has a trio of separate stories written by Akihiko Yamashita, Yoshiyuki Momose and Hiromasa Yonebayashi, each one deals with the theme of struggling in the face of adversity.

The opening chapter is Kanini And Kanino about a family of crabs who here appear as tiny humans with pincer spears. They are constantly trying to survive in their world of giant river fish. A pair of siblings have to stick with their father while their mother is away giving birth to a new clutter. All the dialogue is done in a made-up language where the characters speak only their names, similar to Pokemon. It's difficult to tell if some of the water scenes from surface were actually animated or live action, that's how good the quality of this is.

The next segment is Life Ain't Gonna Lose which is a slice-of-life story about a young boy named Shun who is lethally allergic to eggs, so much so that he gets sent to the hospital several times throughout the course of the short. Shun's mother can be overprotective of her son, but even she is subject to a momentary lapse of attention when Shun might accidently eat something like ice cream or cookies while she's training to be a professional dancer. Shun realizes that even though he is young and has a long road ahead of him getting used to a life under these limitations, he resolves to not let it bring him down and continue the fight.

The final story is Invisible about a literal invisible man. He appears like an invisible person wearing everyday work clothes including glasses. Whether or not he is physically invisible or just metaphorically is a little up in the air as no one seems to notice him, not even at his office job. Our transparent loner puts it all on the line to save the life of a baby in a carriage that he somehow knows might get hit by a speeding truck, even with him temporarily gaining the power of flight. It's possible that he's a ghost, or just someone that goes completely unnoticed by society, but he means well and also finds the inner strength to see what tomorrow will bring.

Modest Heroes is a great tomb of tales up there with other anthology movies like Robot Carnival or Memories. The dub in the second and third chapters is fair, even though the made-up language in the opener might confuse someone into thinking there is something wrong with the subtitles. The entire collection is less than an hour, so it makes for a fine selection as a sort of between meal snack during your next anime binge marathon.