A Piece of Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria (In Japanese ファンタスマゴリア, released in America as A Piece of Phantasmagoria), is a 1995 series of 15 five-minute episodes by illustrator Shigeru Tamura, based on a earlier children book by him. It was distributed by Bandai Visual in America, and broadcast in the now defunct Latin-American channel Locomotion.

While traveling the realm of dream...
I discovered the little planet "Phantasmagoria".
This was a story from that planet.
Goodbye.

—The iconic lines at the end of each episode

The series deal with snippets from the daily life of the inhabitants of the titular planet. But the planet of Phantasmagoria is anything but usual: the night sky is projected by a giant planetarium, the colors for paints are obtained by scrapping a rainbow, there is a glass ocean, people with stars for heads, walking buildings, sentient cacti, and a town made of bread, among several other wonders.

The third episode, "Glass Ocean", was eventually expanded into a 22 minutes short film titled The Glassy Ocean in 1998.

Do not confuse with the video game of the same name.

Tropes used in A Piece of Phantasmagoria include:
  • Coolest Club Ever/Local Hangout: The Altair tavern. It's even star-shaped for extra coolness.
  • Dream World: it's implied that Phantasmagoria is one.
  • Patchwork Map: as seen in the ending of each episode. It could be justified by its dreamlike nature.
  • Pink Elephants: the distillery town is so reeking of alcohol, alcoholic-like hallucinations happen constantly
  • Riddle for the Ages: the mystery of the lone bulb in the desert.
  • Shaped Like What It Sells: Many of Phantasmagoria buildings. The Café near the planetary is shaped like a coffee pot, in Santa Claus Town there are many buildings on Santa's likeness, and the tavern Altair is star-shaped. The bakery deserves a special mention by not only being shaped like a bread loaf, but it's also made of bread too!
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: for a series based on a children book, there are a lot of references about alcohol and drinking. There is a complete episode devoted to an illegal distillery town, and there is the famous tavern Altair, who is constantly mentioned and it's the center of another episode.