Synopsis
A schoolgirl named Fumiko confesses her love, only to be rejected because the boy wants to focus on baseball training. As she cries and runs downhill through the town, her speed steadily increases. This independent animation received the Award of Excellence given to students at the Tokyo International Anime Award in 2010.
Background
Fumiko no Kokuhaku, or Fumiko's Confession in English, is an independent two-minute original net animation directed and animated by college junior Hiroyasu "Tete" Ishida, among others. At the time of the short's release, 21-year-old Ishida was studying animation at Kyoto Seika University; primarily animated using Adobe After Effects, his project was uploaded to YouTube in 2009 and quickly garnered a viral status. Fumiko no Kokuhaku won the Best Film Award at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2010 and received an Excellence Award at the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival later that year, the latter event citing the film's "exhilaration" and polished animation. In 2018, Ishida would go on to direct the acclaimed full-scale film Penguin Highway. As of 2020, Fumiko no Kokuhaku remains available for purchase on DVD. With the DVD comes a soft-cover book detailing the animation process. Additionally, the animation can be found on Blu-ray, bundled with Ishida's 2011 short Rain Town, among other original net animations.
