ChaO

ChaO 🧜‍♀️ 

The Animation Plus section at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival played host to the sold-out North American premiere of Yasuhiro Aoki’s directorial debut with his anime feature film, ChaO. 

Yasuhiro Aoki has been an animator on many notable anime projects, such as Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, The Last: Naruto Movie, and Psycho Pass (highly recommend!), and he even worked on Dragonball Z back in the 1980s, so it’s safe to say he’s paid his dues and deserves this opportunity, which he takes full advantage of by crafting an original story from scratch.

ChaO takes place in a version of Shanghai where mermaids and humans must learn to coexist, but when the growing tension between the two groups reaches an all-time high, it’s up to an average joe to take one for the team and be a bridge to peace. That average joe is Stephan, an office worker by day, who for whatever reason piques the interest of the Mermaid Princess ChaO, leading to an arranged marriage Stephan must endure for the sake of mermaid/human relations.

On one hand, this movie’s intricate, incredibly detailed use of animation made diving into this world seemingly effortless. On the other hand, the pacing of this story is bonkers, and trying to care about the characters when you can’t latch onto the emotional crux of the story until the very end forced me to barely like a movie I was ready to love.

ChaO is filled with hijinks and has an absurd silliness to it that I think will bode well for audiences who need constant stimulation or have short attention spans and can appreciate the frenzied pace in a way I couldn’t.

What worked well for me was how the end put an emphasis on childhood trauma and how we mask it as we get older, but these core memories still exist regardless of how hard you try to hide them, and seeing those moments come to light added a wonderful dimension to the story that I wish we could’ve gotten sooner.

The animation team at Studio 4°C Co. deserves a ton of praise for their ability, creativity, and effort in designing a world that felt like a rich tapestry that meticulously fills every frame with a whimsy and wonder that I found myself endlessly admiring. By the end I felt this might’ve been better served as a silent film so that audiences could properly marvel at the animation, rather than the over-the-top, clumsy, screeching affair we ended up with.

ChaO is a tale of sea-crossed lovers who will win you over by the end, but that's only if you’re able to endure the fumbling buildup, which is only made tolerable by the impressively immersive, aquatic-inspired world.

Enjoy!

5.6/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr30mins
Where: The 2025 Fantasia International Film Festiva

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