A man returns to the ocean knowing his pain will chase him there. The demon comes anyway, unbearable and relentless, and he runs. He goes back. That cycle, repeated without fanfare or explanation, is the entire shape of human suffering, and this seven-minute film refuses to soften it with music or metaphor. Most animation at this scale operates on spectacle. This one operates on recognition. You watch someone you've never met choose the same hurt twice, and suddenly you understand why people do.

A man walks along the beach when a demon appears and gives chase. The creature is his own pain, and the agony it brings runs through his whole body. He manages to escape, yet he eventually goes back to the sea, fully aware that the demon will return if he does. This short supernatural drama is a 2022 graduate film from the animation department of Tokyo University of the Arts' Graduate School of Film and New Media.