Hiroyasu Ishida’s “Rain Town” Is a Haunting, Beautiful Animated Short

I’m sitting here in my office, listening to the sounds of a truly lovely Nebraska spring thunderstorm. As such, it only feels appropriate to write about Rain Town, the latest short film from Japanese animator Hiroyasu Ishida. Ishida made a bit of splash back in 2009 with the frantic and hilarious Fumiko’s Confession. Rain Town is a complete one-eighty from Fumiko’s Confession, though: a haunting, mysterious tone piece set in a town where the rain never stops. Or, as the official synopsis puts it:

In this town, since who knows when, rain has never stopped.
Residents moved out to suburbs and high ground around “Rain Town.”
People’s memories are now deeply submerged.
But into this forgotten rainy town sometimes, someone wanders.

I’ve embedded the short below, but I highly recommend watching it in HD in order to experience the full extent of Ishida’s lush designs and animation.