Anime Short Film Released On YouTube To Promote Tourism For Uji City

Uji is one of the most historically significant cities in Japan. It's the site of several important events for the nation, and it's also the place where one of Japan's most important and influential pieces of literature was written and finished.

In order to encourage more tourism for this city, Kyoto Animation, who are the people behind beloved other beloved anime like 'Nichijou', 'K-On', and 'Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid', created a 6-minute long anime short film that shows off the rich history and culture of Uji city.

The anime short film was exclusively available to those within Uji city for a while, but just recently it became available to watch worldwide through YouTube.

The short film follows a young woman who is visiting Uji city. We first see her pulling out her phone to record some of the sights she's seeing, before being bombarded with notifications which causes her to let out a tired sigh. This tiredness quickly dissipates as she witnesses a strange looking white hare, similar to the one from the legend of 'The White Hare Of Inaba'.

This hare grabs the woman's phone, swallows it whole, then runs off, prompting a great chase that also doubles as a means of letting the woman experience the Uji in a more natural way. She gets to see the many beautiful views the city has to offer, experience how the culture blends between the past Heian Era and the current Modern Era, and most importantly, she gets to learn more about 'The Tale Of Genji', a piece of literature so important to Japanese culture that some would even compare it to Shakespeare.

The short film was directed by Takuya Yamamura. The short film is mostly devoid of dialogue, with only a few sounds from the protagonist who was voiced by Azusa Tadokoro. There is a great focus on music, though, as a whimsical and intense piano jazz plays throughout most of the short film, which was composed and played by Ai Kuwabara.

Even if one doesn't plan to visit Japan or Uji anytime soon, watching this video will certainly be an enriching experience on the city and country's culture.