The Anime

This is the shortest anime I will ever review and thus my shortest review. As of 04/01/24, the original 'Kakomareta Sekai' anime can no longer be found. It's a shame that one of the most iconic anime directors of our generation's first official project has now disappeared into the void of lost media (it was taken off his website due to bandwidth issues), but it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference if the genuine article was still intact. It is a 30 second piece accompanied by music composed by Tenmon. The only remnants of it now are 15 frames captured from the film that have been edited together in this video. You can still gauge the meaning of the short from the video - two people (probably a parent and child) walking somewhere (maybe a pyramid) - but it removes anything that could remotely be described as 'an experience'. The music is gone now and so is any movement. However, I can't imagine a whole lot more animation present in the original as the few frames that have been preserved seem to be totally disconnected with no flow between the two. The background art can still be assessed from these frames and it looks alright but nothing to write home about. The character designs are also fine. They look awkward but they're clearly not meant to resemble humans so they're acceptable. The title card looks fine. the shot composition actually looks very good: there's a good contrast between the light, warm and dark colours. Reflecting on it now, it actually looks like a precursor to the art direction that would later be applied in 5 Centimeters Per Second. All in all, not much to praise, but not much more to criticize.

Final Verdict

So should you watch this movie? No, not unless you're a mad Shinkai fan. It's the equivalent to watching PowerPoint slideshow that doesn't even have those annoying, unnecessary transitions bundled along with it that primary school kids like to use on their history presentations. That said, it's only 30 seconds so it's not going to hurt you to watch it. You've probably spent longer reading this review. I doubt you'll be lying on your deathbed thinking about those extra 30 seconds you could've spent if you hadn't watched Kakomareta Sekai. I can't say the same for Shinkai's later works like The Place Promised in Our Early Days or Children Who Chase Lost Voices. That garbage robbed me of hours of my life I'll never get back.

Re: I Am was written and composed by Hiroyuki Sawano and sung by Aimer for a Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn ED and got re-used as an OP for the TV version of the same anime. It was released in 2013 and received a music video that same year.

If you haven't seen it already, here's the MV. The vid is in shitty 480p quality but I assume a version in higher quality is lost in the ether somewhere. The comments say YT took down the original. Here are the English lyrics if you're interested: Please hear me
I want to tell you
Please sing to me
I wanna hear your voice
/
I wonder why we have to kill each other so long?
We've been through the fights
Now we will have to sacrifice
I can't ignore this matter
I can't think of you for now
All of my life, It's been up and down for me
/
It seems our road through life hasn't got any better
We need to find the way
We will put an end to this
I've been hold these feeling everyday
And heartache when I think of you
I need some help
I can rely on you
/
Many lives were lost but we're still alive
We can make our self better
But I don't cry for destiny
We must find out how to live and die
The truth is never everything that you can see
/
I'll never let you go
You are the only one
Forever but it's come to own me
For anyone can hold my hand
Oh you can trust in me
Could hear the siren
And the sky is crying loud as ever
I can sense the vibe between you and me
/
I wonder why we have to kill each other so long?
We've been through the fights
Now we will have to sacrifice
Can I ignore this situation?
I can't think of you for now
All of my life, It's been up and down for me
/
Many lives were lost but we're still alive
We can make our self better
But I don't cry for destiny
We must find out how to live and die
The truth is never everything that you can see
/
I'll never let you go
You are the only one
Forever but it's come to own me
For anyone can hold my hand
Oh you can trust in me
Could hear the siren
And the sky is crying loud as ever
I can sense the vibe between you and me
/
Freezing cold shatters my sorrow
And scorching sand puts it together again
Freezing cold shatters my sorrow
And scorching sand puts it together again
/
Oh It's more than anything
That you are on my side
The hands of time won't stop
I wonder where you are
Then it's more than everything
That you are the best for me
All of our life
Every piece
Heaven's peace
/
We'll never forget you
You are the only one
Forever but it's come to own me
For anyone can hold my hand
Oh you can trust in me
Could hear the siren
And the sky is crying loud as ever
I can feel this bond between you and me
/
Please hear me
I want to tell you
Please sing to me
I wanna hear your voice

Sawano was already a pretty well-established musician at the time because this was released around the time that Attack on Titan did, where humanity was entering a new phase where Sawano was now hailed as a god of music and, to be fair, some of his tracks in AoT S1 were pretty good. According to Sawano, he chose Aimer to perform this song due to her husky voice despite Aimer only having sung ballads before - making this Aimer's first rock song. Interestingly, the song's title Re I Am is an anagram of Aimer's name. The song is fine but not as good as I would've expected from the supposed dream team that is Sawano and Aimer. Ig it was only Aimer's 5th single.

I'm sure the lyrics to the piece are somewhat related to Gundam UC, which I haven't seen, so I can only try to gauge the meaning of the MV through the visuals. I'm guessing it's a story about two lovers finally meeting, or perhaps you're more pessimistic and want to interpret the end as their death/entering heaven. Possibly both. Whatever it is, it's not that deep. But it may be rocket science.

I'll be frank on the aesthetics. It's visually appalling. Just one massive CGI mess with ugly character designs, hideous colour composition and characters that continue to rewrite the laws of motion throughout the entire video. The 480p really added that classy finishing touch. I tried to find out if it was made by a studio and it wasn't. I wasn't surprised when I found out it was literally made on Adobe Flash and I'm guessing it was just one guy solo-ing it. He probably got fed up on his 130th listen of the song and gave up trying to singlehandedly animate it well. Maybe he saw a spider in the dark room he was in so tried to rush it and get the hell out of there. On my YT playlist, I just added the album cover version. The OP for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 was animated by Sunrise so obviously looks better. If you want, you can add that instead or an AMV of the track that someone has inevitably made. Or use Spotify.

Overall, it's not a bad song. Your ears aren't gonna ascend to a higher plane of musical existence upon hearing this (contrary to what some Sawano fans would like you to believe), but they're not gonna start bleeding either. I just wish I didn't have to bleach my eyes every time I watched the MV.