[algo448]

Cencoroll: Montruous aliens have started to appear on Japan... and to be fair... nobody seems to care, the military treats it as any other operation and the civilians couldn't be more unfazed, heck the monsters themselves don't seem to do anything either.
However a highschool girl called Yuki doesn's share this apathy and is quite curious about the unknown creatures, a curiosity that will be quenched by her encounter with Tetsu and his companion Cenco, a shapeshifting alien that really likes to eat.

Cencoroll is a short anime film (around 25min) written, designed, directed, and animated by Atsuya Uki, and wow, does this guy have a very clear style.

Talking about such a short work is hard without going full into spoiler territory, but Cencoroll has it's unique charm, most of the humor is derived from the stoic, calm and somewhat apathic behavior everybody has, nobody gets fazed by anything and when you combine that with the bizarre story, it gets you some good chuckles.

The art style is pretty cool, the main cast has very similar designs, short black hair, no crazy eye colors and regular school uniforms, this contrasts heavily with the weird creatures, Cenco and his kind are grotesque abominations, but in a very "cute ugly" kind of way, the background have enough detail and do their work.

The characters as I said are pretty calm and level headed, and due to the short run time are exclusively defined by their interactions, Tetsu's aloof attitude is countered with his somewhat troubled relationship with Cenco and his annoyance at Yuki, and Yuki herself is incredibly charming, her mannerisms doing most of the work, Cenco is a bizarre creature, but you can't help but see a twisted sense of loyalty from him.

The story is interesting, and raises really cool ideas and concepts, but ultimately the "what could have been" is fae more interesting, this is excellent material for a longer show or movie.

As a whole, Cencoroll is a very unique product, but one that is worth the time, both from a production to a writing standpoint it has an unique identity that will leave a print in your memory.