A breathless journey through life, competition, and self-discovery.
100 Meters is based on Uoto’s popular five-volume web comic Hyakuemu. The story caught readers’ attention because it was short but deep, and it looked at youth, competition, and finding oneself. In his independent debut, On-Gaku: Our Sound (2020), Iwaisawa used a tactile, rotoscoped animation style to bring the intensity of sprinting to this full-length adaptation. He mixed traditional 2D animation with live-action models to do this.
The movie first came out in theaters in Japan during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September 2025. It was later released on online services around the world, such as Netflix. Iwaisawa’s method focuses on how a ten-second race can affect people emotionally, showing that even the smallest competitions can be like bigger problems in life. The story takes place over more than ten years, but it never loses sight of how immediate and personal the 100-meter dash is.
Iwaisawa and his team didn’t just turn the manga panels into motion pictures; they rethought the story using rotoscoping, a technique that uses live-action images as a guide rather than a strict outline. This lets the movement be smooth and lifelike while keeping the artistic style of the source material. Also, young artists were hired, which gave the production a vibrant and new feel that matched the characters’ youthful exuberance.
It’s not enough to just win; how you run the race is also important.
At its heart, 100 Meters is about two boys named Togashi and Komiya whose lives are connected by their love of running and their battles with it. Togashi, whose voice was done by Atsumi Tanezaki as a child and by Tori Matsuzaka as a teen, is naturally talented.
He breezes through the 100-meter dash, capturing both the thrill and simplicity of natural talent. Komiya, whose speech is done by Aoi Yūki, is the exact opposite of him. He is clumsy, out of breath, and laboring with every step. He runs not because it’s easy, but because it helps him escape from his own problems.
A clumsy sprint down a suburban street is how they meet for the first time, but it sets the tone for a rivalry and bond that lasts for years. If Togashi asks Komiya, “Do you like running?” and he replies, “No, it’s hard,” that answer sums up the story’s two sides: running as easy and running as hard, which is a metaphor for life itself.
The story moves through a number of rounds, including races, training, and growth as a person. Early scenes focus on the coming-of-age story, with Togashi mastering his talent and Komiya trying to catch up but getting stronger by sticking with it.
After Komiya suddenly leaves, the story jumps to when they are adults and both of them have grown as players and people. The story looks at both their athleticism and their mental growth, with themes like friendship, rivalry, ambition, and finding out who you are.
The movie also has supporting characters, ranging from classmates to semi-professional athletes, who show the different stresses and joys of competitive sports. Togashi’s story is about how natural ability meets personal discipline, while Komiya’s is about how growth happens through struggle and resilience. Together, they make for a well-balanced look at different ways to achieve excellence.
Every step you take while running is like a reflection of your life.
One of the best things about 100 Meters is how well it writes characters. Togashi is demonstrated to be both realistic and emotive. The animation shows his casual smiles, contemplative expressions, and even his angry times without making them too big. Komiya is quieter, but his tenacity and athleticism make a big impression, especially in scenes that reveal how hard he is striving to perfect his sprinting form.
The two have few but important contacts with each other. The story does a great job of not making their relationship into a typical rivalry trope. Instead, it focuses on links that are short but powerful. These scenes add to the movie’s thought-provoking look at relationships, which are sometimes life-changing and sometimes short-lived but always important for personal growth.
The fact that the movie is shaped like a circle lends credence to the idea that both life and sports are full of things that occur repeatedly over and over again. Characters continue to run, continue to improve, continue to fail, and continue to start over.
This teaches kids to be patient, to think things through, and to make changes in a gentle manner. This pattern is similar to the life of a sprinter, in that it consists of brief surges of energy followed by a slow and steady return to the starting line.
The tale does have some problems after the time skip.
In later races, philosophical conversation can feel disconnected from the emotional stakes. However, the final race brings all the storylines together, providing a satisfying, if understated, emotional conclusion.
Visually, 100 Meters is a great example of how to try new things in art. Rotoscoping lets the film show small details about the body, like how muscles bend, how breaths sound, and how fast a runner walks. Keisuke Kojima’s character designs keep the manga’s charm while making them more realistic by showing how time has passed through small changes in posture, facial lines, and body language.
The way the world is shown in the movie is also very creative. The backgrounds change from dimly lit suburban streets to wet tracks. Each scene is rich and expressive without drawing attention away from the characters.
Some races use unusual filmmaking techniques, like tilting the camera up and letting the sound be the only thing that plays during the race. These times of poetic abstraction make even the shortest sprint more dramatic.
Rough, textured linework gives the animation a lot of motion, and nods to other art forms, like watercolor, pencil crayons, pastels, and even Greek pottery, give it depth and variety. Some scenes are almost too much like photobash, but generally the effect is lively and interesting, keeping the viewer interested even in scenes with a lot of running.
There is an animation that goes as quickly as the runners.
Composer Hiroaki Tsutsumi writes a score that is like the story itself: it’s light and exciting, but also has a sad side to it. The music adds to the emotional impact of the races without taking over, breaking up times of victory, effort, and quiet reflection. Sound design is a big part of making running seem more real, from the way Komiya’s feet hit the track to the way he breathes hard as he pushes himself to his limits.
During the most important events, there is very little dialogue, which lets the movie’s visual and auditory elements carry most of its story and emotional weight. This restriction makes the movie more meditative by allowing people feel both the excitement of running and the slow evolution of character arcs at the same time.
100 Meters is a deep look at young people, their desires, and how they can keep going even when things get hard. The movie uses Togashi and Komiya’s parallel journeys to show how running is like life: it’s full of challenges, repetitions, successes, and mistakes, and each one shapes who you are and your fate.
In later parts, the story may get a little off track, but the emotional core stays the same, building up to a satisfying and thoughtfully open ending. The movie looks great and works perfectly.
A story about a 100-meter race feels big, important, and deeply human thanks to rotoscoping, creative photography, and new art styles. Iwaisawa’s direction shows both bravery and careful attention to detail, making him a director who can combine emotional stories with new ways of doing things with the form.
Even though sports fans may be the ones who enjoy 100 Meters the most, it goes beyond its genre and has universal themes about desire, friendship, and personal growth. It’s a short but deeply moving movie sprint that makes you think about the energy needed not only to run, but to live a full life.
