Huhuan Shaonu Special: Xiang Zuo de Shi Daodi Shi Shenme

Let's start with the context behind this special episode. So much resources were dedicated to its animation quality that like a firefly, the studio burned brightly and went bankrupt in the process. Well, in a certain fashion, that's one way to immortalize your studio and staff in anime/donghua lore.

This special episode focuses on a group of three girls (Ye Xi, Sun Zhiya, and Bai Xiaotao) who formed a friendship and shows their everyday school lives as an anthology of short stories. The voice acting and mixing is done very well and serves for the viewer to immerse in their little world, as you react on ... their unique situations and struggles.

But let's go back to the pièce de résistance: the animation. This is the outcome if anime is budgetmaxxed and yet another proof that professional animators are highly talented, yet constrained financially. Almost every frame of this episode is a joy to watch, and rewatchability is high as you hunt for the little details that you might have missed in a previous watch.

I hope someone picks this up as a passion project and produce more episodes with this level of quality. For the circumstances that lead to its creation, and also for its technical merits outright, the "Call Up Girls" special episode is one that can I recommend anyone to see at least once.