Among a group of Kyoto university students out for a night on the town, a senpai devises ways to get the attention of his crush: ‘the girl with black hair’, who can drink almost anyone under the table. Based on Tomihiko Morimi’s eponymous novel (illustrated by Yusuke Nakamura), director Masaaki Yuasa creates a fantastic night of debauchery with traditional narrative thrown out the window. Amid the many strange happenings, the heroine learns a peculiar dance move from a sophistic debate club and competes against a mythical being in a drinking contest, while the hopeless romantic desperately searches for his underwear and a book from the girl’s childhood.

As Science SARU’s first official feature film, Night is Short, Walk on Girl sets the tone for the animation studio’s idiosyncratic style that sets it apart from the aesthetic direction of other mainstream anime.

Masaaki Yuasa (b. 1965, Japan) worked as an animator for popular series such as Chibi Maruko-chan and Crayon Shin-chan in the 1990s. He directed his first feature film Mind Game (2004) to universal acclaim. Soon after founding Science SARU with producer Eunyoung Choi, Yuasa released Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017), and Lu Over the Wall (2017). He returned to directing anime series with Netflix’s Devilman Crybaby (2018). His latest film is Inu-Oh (2021).