I’m fascinated by animation. Ever since I saw Fantasia as a child, I understood that talented animators could create a new and fantastic world using their art. I developed a love for animated shorts when I watched The Animatrix, a collection of amazing animated short films based in the Matrix universe.

So when I heard that 15 of Japan’s top animators created 1-minute shorts for NHK, I had to see what they came up with.

Ani*Kuri15 (アニ＊クリ15) is a series of fifteen 1-minute shorts that aired on the Japanese TV station, NHK between May 2007 and 2008. Intended as companion pieces to the Ani*Kuri program and as filler between regularly scheduled programs, the shorts were broadcast in three seasons of 5 episodes. Each short was directed by a different director and the episodes were collected and uploaded to the official Ani*Kuri15 website in 2008.

Source: Ani*Kuri 15, Wikipedia

I downloaded Doremi-Fansubs‘ translation of the shorts and forgot about them for several months, until I re-discovered the video on my desktop computer and watched it earlier today.

My personal favorite of the set is “A Gathering of Cats” (or “Neko no Shuukai”). The short was created by Makoto Shinkai, the man behind She and Her Cat, one of my favorite animated shorts.

If you’re interested in animation, even if you’re not a fan of anime, then I wholeheartedly recommend watching these shorts.

EDIT: Here‘s a link to watch “A Gathering of Cats” on YouTube.