There’s a particular kind of dating-app despair that hits differently once you’re past 30, and Masanao Kawajiri’s Cherry and Virgin builds an entire animated universe around it. What sets Cherry and Virgin apart from just about anything else in the anime space right now isn’t the premise, it’s the form. Cherry and Virgin marks Kawajiri’s feature and commercial debut, produced by Gen Sato for Toei Video, after a long and unusually grassroots road to the screen. During the post-screening Q&A, Bottenberg opened the floor by asking whether the film’s secondary characters were drawn from real people in Kawajiri’s life. ■View this post on Instagram Cherry and Virgin builds an animated universe around dating-app despairFor our latest in film and TV, please visit our Film & TV section.