Animatrix - World Record

While not one of favorite shorts from the Animatrix series (The art style isn't really my cup of tea as much as I hate to say it and I couldn't help but cringe every few seconds, thinking that the guy's calf muscles would burst at any time, though I suppose that was what the animator was aiming for in the first place), I found the animation style for World Record to be considerably unique and distinct (I repeat, the animation style).

Takeshi Koike is notable for having a very surreal (If not fluid) and almost deformed style of animating, and is never afraid to completely exaggerate any part of a character to further enhance whatever action it is they are carrying out or how they are affected by their own surroundings. This especially works for this short considering it focuses on an athlete taking part in a 100 meter sprint.

World Record, like the Animatrix shorts, had its own way of creating some unbelievable tension (The type of tension that causes you to hold your breath every once in awhile), aside from the slow motion scenes, the black shadows and background silhouettes used creates a very heavy atmosphere (And oh gosh the sounds, I just need to add this in, Dane Davis was wise in creating sounds that would exaggerate the physical parts of the character's body, it was no wonder I was feeling so uncomfortable throughout the running scenes, thinking a part of his body was going to erupt (And I'm still surprised that didn't happen), it definitely brought out the tension tenfold).

Throughout the short, the character can be seen running in fast and slow motion, allowing viewers to probably take him the entirety of his form and how it moves during the race, further creating that tension. Perhaps the interesting part is how the characters still manages to remain realistic enough (Something tells me that Koike decided to hold back a little on the deforming aspect this time round), creating a form of balance for the movement of the muscles in a subtly deformed style, realism of the human form seeming absolutely necessary for this story in particular.

Koike had actually studied further into the way people ran in slow motion (Which I believe must have been one of the more challenging parts to animate) before going directly into the animation itself, finding that making the hands rather than the legs swing with a stronger impact have a more realistic feel to the animation.

While it was definitely the running scenes that were the main focus points of the short, it was nice seeing other little details such as how other characters contrasted so differently to the main character in terms of personality (Such as his whacky, overactive trainer… whom most of the audience giggled at when I was watching it for the first time with my family in the theaters , I will also admit that I liked the more muted color scheme (Almost monochromatic even, especially when it comes to the characters) that was used.

And now I suddenly appreciate this short more after writing this up… go figure.