Towel Story

Synopsis:

Staff:

• Kinoshita, Gaku (Director)
• Tanaka, Junichi (Planning)

Reviews:

• User Sidewinder51 (Score: 5/10):
  Rate a 5 Art Piece(no subtitles or spoken words) Anime has always been a creative outlet of expression of beauty. Makes only sense that some commercial markets would capitalize on this. A towel is the object of focus. Sure, a towel can't do much but soak up fluids but how can this product be marketed in a beneficial manner? The director had a idea to sell the towel concept with an emotional undertone. Trying to get the viewers to put themselves and the towels as more than a simple product but as a companion. Sort of like a family pet. Story starts as how most see atowel as a simple object. As each episode progress we see the value or important impact it had on crucial moments in one's lives, regardless of gender. Unfortunately, while the ending makes a complete cycle back it provides a concerning message. Sure, towels are great when you need them. Heck, for some it might be a lucky charm of sort but i couldn't help but feel disgusted at the amount of implied mileage the towel got. Sort of like seeing a person offering you their pocket hanky. While the gesture is nice and the product is probably clean, i don't feel the need to use it. For i feel it has been overused to put kindly. Had this been a short movie as apposed to being episode based i might not feel as disgusted. For i would feel i would be watching a long commercial rather than thinking of a hard working towel with no overtime per-say. nnAlthough, I must note the artwork while lacking in background did help in aiding an emotional connection. Wasn't tear jerking for me but it helped along with the background music.
• User SgtSalamander (Score: 6/10):
  This is a very emotional set of towel commercials, and they really lay it on thick from start to finish. Honestly, while they are potent little emotional moments, the inclusion of some of them for the purposes of selling a product feels a little disrespectful by contrast. As such, while the stories are well-composed and achieve their goal of emotional weightiness in an impressively short amount of time, they sometimes feel a little too wild in their lack of hesitation to go for the real heavy stuff in an attempt to sell you their towels. The art is fine, best described as a simple littlepastel color type of thing, without much detail. In general, however, detail is unnecessary here, and as such the emotional impact of the events are put front-and-center. nnThe sound is unremarkable, with a sentimental soundtrack and no voice work besides a crying baby at one point. nnThe characters are the strongest aspect of this title, in my opinion, not because of their individual strength as characters, but because it's impressive that they made these vignettes so emotionally potent without any lines of dialogue shared between anyone at any point. Overall, this an interesting set of commercials, and while each story is well-composed, the way they shoehorn their product in can sometimes feel distinctly out of place.

Forum Topics:

• Towel Story Episode 4 Discussion
• Towel Story Episode 3 Discussion
• Towel Story Episode 2 Discussion
• Towel Story Episode 1 Discussion

External Links:

• Official Site
• AniDB