Modest Heroes

Modest Heroes (ちいさな英雄, 2018) is a Japanese animated anthology you can watch online on iFILM, produced by Studio Ponoc — the house founded by veterans of Studio Ghibli. Three directors, three stories, three entirely different visual styles packed into 54 minutes.

The first tale follows two tiny aquatic siblings hunting for their father swept away by a current. The second centers on a boy for whom a single egg hidden in his food can mean a trip to the hospital — an ordinary day turned gauntlet. The third tracks an invisible salaryman drifting through a city that literally cannot see him. Each story is quietly devastating in its own way, and taken together they make a case that ordinary, unnoticed courage is the rarest kind.

Stream Modest Heroes (2018) online on iFILM.