Near the end of 2016, a short film called Shelter captured the hearts of millions. With a run time of only six minutes, it's surprising that it reached the level of fame with the anime community that it did. After all, it was little more than a glorified music video, not a full length show or even a movie like most people are used to. What was it about this short story that so touched those who saw it?
The complete story Shelter tells is not immediately obvious. Most people can catch the bulk of it after watching it once, but the details may remain fuzzy unless you are paying close attention. The film begins when we are introduced to Rin, our main character and narrator. Piecing together her own words and the visuals we are given, we learn that she lives in her own little virtual world where nothing changes, and that she has been there for a long time. It's not a bad existence, as Rin has full control over her surroundings; each day she can change the landscape to anything she desires to keep herself entertained. The only problem is that she's all alone, though at first we don't know why. Despite her initial statement that this "doesn't bother her at all," something is clearly wrong.
Then, after a while, Rin begins to remember things. She's able to see herself as a child, playing with her father, and as she has flashbacks the reader can see the truth of why Rin is trapped in a simulation. A huge planet or meteor was about to crash into Earth, spelling out the destruction of everyone on it. Rin's father, being a scientist, was able to build a small spaceship and program it with a virtual reality system, but due to time constraints it only had room for one passenger. Rin was plugged in and shipped off, the last human survivor, with the hope that something, somewhere, might one day pick her up and rescue her. This memory pains Rin, but she is grateful for her father's sacrifice, and at the very end of the film she receives a message which hints that she might just be rescued after all, even though there seemed to be no hope.
The reason this story worked so well was because it never told the viewer any of the above story. All of it was presented through show rather than tell, with no exposition whatsoever, unless you count the brief narrated sections by Rin. These are so out of context, though, that they hardly count. The viewer is never spoon-fed anything, and that made the story refreshing. Though it was short, its themes of loneliness vs love and despair vs hope gave the film an emotional power that can be difficult to achieve in story-telling. The fact that the creators managed to condense that into a few short minutes only made the story that much more memorable.
