Picture Pikachu on a noir trip, popped loose of the 2-D plane.

That is an association you might make when entering the echoey, black-and-white, 3-D animated world of the 12-minute film "JoJo in the Stars." With its absorbing look, it offers an entirely new experience.

And that -- breaking new ground -- is the focus of ResFest, says festival director Jonathan Wells. "JoJo in the Stars" is one of 25 shorts, presented in three programs, along with music-video compilations and a couple of artists' retrospectives, screening on the ResFest tour that will touch down in Japan Nov. 20 at Harajuku's LaForet Museum.

When the festival's predecessor, LowRes, launched in 1995, the focus was low-budget films made using digital technology. The festival became ResFest in 1997, and the organizers at Res Magazine decided it didn't make sense to exclude films simply because they had bigger budgets. Soon, the digital requirement was largely discarded, too. Now, any film deemed to push the envelope, whether in terms of technique, style or storytelling, is eligible, and the only digital element guaranteed is that the films are projected using DLP projectors.

"What was interesting was people taking chances," Wells, 34, says of the direction ResFest has taken, adding that diversity of format and a drive to become "international in all aspects" are other guiding priorities.

The strategy is working. In its first year, ResFest attracted fewer than 100 submissions and played at five 100-seat venues in the United States and Europe. This time around -- the eighth -- ResFest will tour 33 cities (up from 18 last year) on six continents at 1,000-seat venues. And 1,500 films competed for a berth in the festival roster.

Tokyo became a stop in 1999, one of the first beyond the original five cities. Japan also has been a major source of contributors. Last year saw Junji Kojima and Kentaro Kobayashi's "Japanese Tradition (Relationships)" win the Audience Choice Award. This time, look for Tokyo-born Gaku Kinoshita's entry, "For Your Blossom . . . "

The six-minute animated film tells the story of a little boy soldiering through a big, indifferent world and an encounter that will free him from his destiny. The spare drawing and subdued pastel color scheme work perfectly for this touching little tale.

"I guess the biggest inspiration was coming from the conformist and conservative idea of Japanese society," 27-year-old Kinoshita said in an e-mail from London, where he works for an independent film-production company.

It is stunning to realize that the filmmaker made "For Your Blossom . . ." on a laptop computer, and indeed, many ResFest films prove how much is possible with just a few thousand dollars worth of equipment -- plus plenty of talent, of course.

Wells said the first phase -- culling the 1,500 submissions -- was relatively easy, because several immediately jumped out as top candidates. Examples he cited are the leading piece in the first shorts program, "We Have Decided Not to Die," a visually stunning non-narrative meditation on the "life force," and "What Barry Says," a hard-hitting and visually sharp 2 1/2-minute anti-neocon polemic, one of 23 titles in the "Bushwhacked" program of films highlighting political dissent in this Dubya era.

The festival is a showcase for filmmakers at two career levels -- those who have already established themselves in industry circles and are on the verge of making it big, and those who are unknowns knocking at the door.

Last year, "Spike Jonze Rarities" showcased little-seen short films as well as music videos by the director of "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." A retrospective on the work of Michel Gondry was shown before the release of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," his impressive feature film starring Jim Carey.

This time around, a Jonathan Glazer retrospective reveals that some of this filmmaker's most impressive work, before coming out with the 2000 feature "Sexy Beast," was in Guinness beer advertisements. (His latest feature release "Birth," starring Nicole Kidman, is currently garnering acclaim in the U.S.)

The "Shynola Rarities" program provides insights into the influences (old-school video games) and working process (goofy) of the four-member Brit collective that has been recruited to work on the visual effects for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which is expected to emerge from two decades in development hell next year. ("Hitchhiker's Guide" director Garth Jennings' video for Beck's "Lost Cause" was also featured at last year's ResFest.)

Equally exciting are the works of the relative newcomers -- "Pol Pot's Birthday" is the first narrative film by director Talmage Cooley, and while it is not technically extravagant, it's as wholly original and hilariously off-beat as its title. Peter Cornwell's "Ward 13" is a ridiculously ambitious Claymation action-comedy -- think "Mr. Bill" meets "Kill Bill" -- complete with sadistic doctors who stock "pain enhancement" drugs and "Viagra laxative." "Sunday," which deals with familiar teen-movie themes in inventive ways, is the zaniest feel-good movie you're likely to see this year. And "Brand Spanking" takes shots at the corporate takeover of modern life. (Fear of a corporate planet is a popular theme in this year's batch -- which is somewhat ironic, given that the festival is neck-deep in corporate sponsorship, from Panasonic and Apple to Nike and Diesel.)

All of the aforementioned entries are included in the first two short-film programs. The third set is more documentary-oriented, and one way to enjoy these portraits is by speculating which ones are real and which are just drawn that way. (The credits usually provide the answer.)

One thing setting ResFest apart from other festivals, Wells emphasizes, is the importance placed on off-screen events. Lobby highlights for Tokyo include hands-on training sessions with various Apple software applications; a presentation of the Canon XL2 digital video camera; and a Panasonic-sponsored loop of 10 short films commissioned to "explore the beauty and motion of the human body." (Sponsor alert!)

ResFest is also a community-building event, Wells suggests, where creators have an opportunity to meet. He cited the example of Syd Garon and Eric Henry, who met at a past ResFest and became collaborators. Their music video for Buckethead's "Spokes on the Wheel of Torment" -- an inevitable hard-rock exploitation of Hieronymus Bosch's visions of hell -- is included in this year's "Videos that Rock" program.

Filmmakers who will be on hand in Tokyo to mingle and answer audience questions include Stefan Nadelman, winner of the Audience Choice Award a couple of years back for "Terminal Bar," a photographic portrayal of the derelicts and die-hards who frequented his grandfather's midtown watering hole before the "Disneyfication" of Times Square. His new entry "One Step Ahead" -- a hold-onto-your-hat commuter's tale -- has nothing in common with that earlier one and demonstrates a remarkable versatility.

Such filmmaker appearances are a treat when they share behind-the-scenes anecdotes. In New York, "Oedipus" director Jason Wishnow spoke of how he had the misfortune to be shooting his all-vegetable, stop-action rendition of the Greek tragedy when California's supermarket workers went on strike. Imagine having to explain that you need to cross a picket line because a scene you're shooting requires "a taller onion."