Kicks and Punk

Post-COVID, the Young Animator Training Project was renamed from Anime Tamago ("Anime Egg") to Anime no Tane ("Anime's Seed"), and the length of the shows was reduced from  22-24 minutes to 7-10 minutes. No explanation was given. Perhaps the cost of producing a "throwaway" full-length anime episode had become too high.

In any case, the reduced length makes it more difficult to create a fleshed-out story. This is exemplified in Kicks and Punk, from the 2024 edition of Anime no Tane. It's set in a future in which advances in transportation have made walking unnecessary. (Nonetheless, people still look lean and fit.)

A sneaker fan(atic) named Nike(!) still runs everywhere, to the consternation of the robot traffic police.

Her goal is to get a new edition of sneakers from the legendary manufacturer "Dynamelos," which can only be obtained on the black market. She is saved from the police by a woman named Shelly Walter, daughter of the head of Fractal Walter, which created the current transportation system. 

Nike and Shelly over their shared love of sneakers. 

By unbelievable coincidence, Shelly is actually the head of Dynamelos and has the sneakers Nike craves.

And that's it.

As befitting a short about the joys of running in sneakers, the animation is very dynamic, with simplified character designs and vibrant colors. On the other hand, Nike's relentless genki enthusiasm wears out its welcome pretty quickly, and Shelly is more a plot contrivance than a character. Still, it's all over pretty quickly.

The voice cast is small and not well known.

• Ikuta Teru (Nike) played Futaba in the Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight properties, Natalia in Idolmaster Cinderella Girls Gekijou: Extra Stage, and Himawari in Edomae Elf. She has also appeared in film and stage productions. 
• Kimura Akiko (Shelly Walter) played the title role in the Rockman EXE franchise, Kisaragi in the Happy Lesson franchise, and Fey Rune in Inuzama Eleven Go: Chrono Stone, among many other roles.
• Matsumoto Kohei (Cyber Police) appeared in Bleach, Ergo Proxy, Valkyria Chronicles, and other shows.
• Masuda Kento (Clerk / Narration) has no other anime credits. 

The short was produced by Nippon Animation. The "chief" director was Kamiya Jun, who directed Blue Seed, The Third, Penguin no Mondai, Seikimatsu II: Humane Society, and The Girl from Phantasia; the last two are Orphan releases. The director was Ichimura Jinya, in his first directing role. He also did the storyboards.

Perevodildo translated and timed. He doesn't like the Young Animator shows. Frankly, Kicks and Punks illustrates why he has reservations. I edited and typeset; the hardest part was finding a font to match the opening title. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw is from someone named jireh, about whom I know less than nothing.

Kicks and Punk is the last of the 2024 Anime no Tane shows to be subtitled. The others are:

• Pop Pop City, released with English subs and encoded by Toonshub
• Bridge: My Little Friends, subtitled by gugugaga
• Ephemere (Salteel, according to Wikipedia), subtitled by gugugaga

You can get Kicks and Punk from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.