India, Feb. 1 -- In the age of AI wars and the advent of Deep Seek and Gemini, 2D animation seems arty-crafty-almost vintage. If Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master who transformed 2D animation into a kind of sublime slow art, were to retire from filmmaking, the medium might become a lost art form or at least a niche, analog luxury like 16mm or 35mm filmmaking.

This month's short film, The Girl Who Lived in the Loo, written and animated by 30-year-old Kolkata-based filmmaker Subarna Dash, a self-confessed Miyazaki devotee, is 2D animation-let's call it "Japanimation"-at its most basic. What makes it compelling is the protagonist's interiority and the story's drift.

Four chapters punctuate the film's 12-minute, 16-second runtime: "Ice cr...