It puts a wood-carved samurai in your hands and dares you to look away. HIDARI is stop-motion, and the choice is the whole point: a story about a legendary Edo-era sculptor told with puppets that look chiseled from the same block, grain and tool marks left visible so every character reads as one of Jingoro's own works come to life. The prosthetic right arm, built to replace what his senior apprentices took along with his foster parent, does not just swing a blade, it does carpentry violence, and Sleeping Cat lopes alongside him like a Nikko carving that got bored of its perch. It runs a handful of minutes and moves with more weight and intention than most seasonal shows manage in a cour. This is a pilot, a pitch, a plea for someone to fund the rest. Watch it, then get annoyed with the rest of us that the feature still is not here.

Jingoro is a legendary craftsman of Edo-era Japan whose sculptures are said to survive across the country, though no one has proven he truly lived. After betrayal by his senior apprentices cost him his foster parent and his right arm, he sets out for revenge with a mechanical prosthetic arm and a companion called Sleeping Cat. Because he works his carpentry tools with remarkable skill using only his left arm, people come to call him Hidari, the Japanese word for left. Now he confronts Inumaru, one of his enemies, in a battle to the death. This short action pilot was made to build interest in a crowdfunding campaign for a planned stop-motion feature.