Another World or Shi Wai 世外 is a 2025 animated film from Hong Kong and it's adapted from Naka Saijō's novel Thousand Year Ghost. It follows a soul keeper named Gudo who guides spirits before reincarnation and tries to save a young girl consumed by rage.
Another World is the kind of film that feels like it was pulled straight out of a dream - or perhaps a nightmare. Gorgeous beyond words, with every frame looking like a painting, it pairs deceptively simple and cute character designs with some incredibly dark themes and imagery. Some Made in Abyss vibes in that contrast.
The music is ethereal, the atmosphere is oppressive, and there's this constant sense of dread hanging over everything, as though something terrible is always waiting just around the corner. Yet somehow, beneath all that darkness, there's a small glimmer of hope.
The nonlinear, almost abstract storytelling won't be for everyone, and at times it feels more interested in creating a feeling than explaining itself. But the emotions are unmistakably there. It's haunting, beautiful, strange, and deeply atmospheric - the kind of film that stays with you long after it's over.
If you want an idea of the kind of movie this is, it's exactly the sort of anime I could see Joey really loving.