Sixteen different directors, sixteen different visions of Tokyo, all crashing into each other in one night. Some of them are funny, some are strange, some are so brief you're not sure what you just watched. What makes it work is that the city itself becomes the real character, indifferent and alive, reflecting back whoever's looking at it. You don't need every segment to land because the ones that do stay with you, and the misses just become part of the texture. This is the kind of anthology that rewards rewatching because you catch different things depending on what mood you bring to it. Nobody talks about this one, but it's exactly what happens when you let artists play in the same sandbox without trying to make them agree on anything.

Sixteen different filmmakers take you on rapid-fire journeys through Tokyo, each crafting a short piece of animation inspired by the city. Image Forum, a Tokyo center for experimental and art cinema, put the omnibus together to mark one hundred years since Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, often called the first animated film shown to the public. Veterans such as Yoji Kuri, Taku Furukawa and Keiichi Tanaami appear alongside younger talents like Kei Oyama, Tabaimo and Tomoyasu Murata. A single score by Osaka musician Seiichi Yamamoto ties the shorts together: he wrote music from each artist's sketches and storyboards, then reworked it to match the finished cut. Think of it as a creative showcase where Tokyo becomes the real star, refracted through wildly different artistic sensibilities.