A 3-minute fever dream that spoils its own game's biggest twist like it doesn't care. Valis crams an entire hero's journey into the space of a music video, moving so fast you're catching the plot in fragments. This is what happens when a commercial refuses to play it safe, pure, reckless momentum that treats restraint like a waste of time.

Yuko Asou is a Japanese student of the late 1980s who is bound to protect three kingdoms: our own world, the land of the Spirits, and Vecanti, the world of dreams, using a mystical sword called Valis. Made as a TV commercial for the first Valis game on the Famicom, this roughly three-minute promotional anime sits somewhere between an advertisement and a special. It compresses the game's story into a very short action fantasy, and it gives away the game's biggest twist along the way.