Japanese animation has established quite a unique sub-culture for itself over the many years. And with any unique sub-culture come the people who joyfully embrace it and the people who joyfully disgrace it. The loving fanbase will spend so much effort defending their passion for anime that they tend to turn a blind eye to the cliches that should be disgraced. While the disclaimers spend so much time voicing their passionate hate for anime that they deny the aspects wich should be embraced.
It's hard to deny the cluster of cliches that overarch the medium and it can sometimes insult the intelligence of even the most hardend fanboy. But certain pieces of anime have so much beauty and gusto that they can melt the heart of even the most pigheaded hater.
Memories is the brainchild of Katsuhiro Otomo, a man well known for creating the brilliant comic Akira aswell as for directing the animated adaptation. Here, he teams up with some of the top dogs of the industry, like Koji Morimoto and Satoshi Kon, to create a compilation of three short movies. Think of it as kind of a Japanese Fantasia where each film is about 30 to 50 minutes in length.
Magnetic Rose is the first of the bunch and immediately the most impressive one. It's the future and we follow the exploits of a team of astronauts who try to scrape a living together by tracking and salvaging various space debris. After the latest job well done they receive an S.O.S from an unknown source and set out to investigate. They find out, however, that this S.O.S is more than they bargained for and soon it is them who are crying for help. This isn't the most original plotline as it is very reminiscent of two other space movies. But where Alien and Event Horizon were scary monster movies, Magnetic Rose is a sad ghost story.
The animation quality in this movie is spectacular; it has weight, it has impact and doesn't feel like a cartoon at all. This is mostly thanks to the director, Koji Morimoto, who is one of the best animators in the world. The way he blends ultra-realistic looking characters with a Disney-esque vivacity is asounding.
The music is also of a very high pedigree. Provided by Yoko Kanno, whom most will recognize from her music in Cowboy Bebop, it perfectly emphasizes the feeling of loss, sadness and emptyness of both the main character and outerspace itself. And the excerpts of Madame Butterfly fit together with the original score so well, that it's hard to decypher the two.
Magnetic Rose is an absolute beautiful movie which will most likely leave more than a few people in tears.
Stink Bomb tells the story of Nobuo, a young chemist with a bad case of the sniffles. At the bio-lab where he works he mistakes an experimental drug for flu-medicine wich transforms him into a walking biological doomsday device, of which he remains blissfully ignorant throughout the entire ordeal.
Any accusation that the Japanese have no sense of humor will be nipped in the bud by this movie. Overall, it feels like Dr.Strangelove meets Mr. Bean meets Micheal bay, since the dark wit is overshadowed only by the amount of explosions and destruction. It's hilarious to see the worldpowers dick-waving about who has the best compitence and toys. Or seeing Nobuo laying waste to entire armies just by walking up to them and then running after them, confused, as they run away from him in terror.
The animation is wonderfullly playfull and just as in Magnetic Rose, the score has a terrific way of building up the scenes and especially the action scenes.
There'll be a few moments where logic completely flies out the window, but Stink Bomb is one of the greatest action comedies you'll ever see.
Cannon Fodder depicts a day in the life of a family who lives in a communist society where everything revolves around cannons and the firing of them. The son goes to school where his classes consist of the mechanics and the history of cannons. The mother works in an ammo factory assembling shells and gossiping with the other wifes. And the father works as a loader at the city's most famous cannon, Cannon 17. Everybody wears either uniforms, gasmasks or helmets and cannons dawn every rooftop or windowsill. There's even a Cannon Fodder equivalent of Greenpeace, where protestors are demanding gunpowder that is less harmful to the enviroment.
This movie was written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo himself and is by far the strangest of this trio of films. The film itself is basically one long scene with no real cuts in between. Whenever a scene changes, the camara shifts, zooms in, out or uses another nifty little trick to focus on one of the three family members.
The score is just as weird as the visual style and sounds like a brass band playing on instruments that they fished out of the ruins of Chernobyl. So, once again it mixes perfectly well.
Memories is an amazing pearl in animated features which breaks away from the all the anime cliches. There's no real red thread that runs through these movies. And because the next movie starts the second the last one ended, you don't really get a sense of closure. It's best to watch each movie individually instead of all three in one sitting.
I don't know how much more words of praise this movie can handle so, I guess all that's left for me to say is:
It's hard to deny the cluster of cliches that overarch the medium and it can sometimes insult the intelligence of even the most hardend fanboy. But certain pieces of anime have so much beauty and gusto that they can melt the heart of even the most pigheaded hater.
Memories is the brainchild of Katsuhiro Otomo, a man well known for creating the brilliant comic Akira aswell as for directing the animated adaptation. Here, he teams up with some of the top dogs of the industry, like Koji Morimoto and Satoshi Kon, to create a compilation of three short movies. Think of it as kind of a Japanese Fantasia where each film is about 30 to 50 minutes in length.
[HEADING=2]Magnetic Rose[/HEADING]
Magnetic Rose is the first of the bunch and immediately the most impressive one. It's the future and we follow the exploits of a team of astronauts who try to scrape a living together by tracking and salvaging various space debris. After the latest job well done they receive an S.O.S from an unknown source and set out to investigate. They find out, however, that this S.O.S is more than they bargained for and soon it is them who are crying for help. This isn't the most original plotline as it is very reminiscent of two other space movies. But where Alien and Event Horizon were scary monster movies, Magnetic Rose is a sad ghost story.
The animation quality in this movie is spectacular; it has weight, it has impact and doesn't feel like a cartoon at all. This is mostly thanks to the director, Koji Morimoto, who is one of the best animators in the world. The way he blends ultra-realistic looking characters with a Disney-esque vivacity is asounding.
The music is also of a very high pedigree. Provided by Yoko Kanno, whom most will recognize from her music in Cowboy Bebop, it perfectly emphasizes the feeling of loss, sadness and emptyness of both the main character and outerspace itself. And the excerpts of Madame Butterfly fit together with the original score so well, that it's hard to decypher the two.
Magnetic Rose is an absolute beautiful movie which will most likely leave more than a few people in tears.
[HEADING=2]Stink Bomb[/HEADING]
Stink Bomb tells the story of Nobuo, a young chemist with a bad case of the sniffles. At the bio-lab where he works he mistakes an experimental drug for flu-medicine wich transforms him into a walking biological doomsday device, of which he remains blissfully ignorant throughout the entire ordeal.
Any accusation that the Japanese have no sense of humor will be nipped in the bud by this movie. Overall, it feels like Dr.Strangelove meets Mr. Bean meets Micheal bay, since the dark wit is overshadowed only by the amount of explosions and destruction. It's hilarious to see the worldpowers dick-waving about who has the best compitence and toys. Or seeing Nobuo laying waste to entire armies just by walking up to them and then running after them, confused, as they run away from him in terror.
The animation is wonderfullly playfull and just as in Magnetic Rose, the score has a terrific way of building up the scenes and especially the action scenes.
There'll be a few moments where logic completely flies out the window, but Stink Bomb is one of the greatest action comedies you'll ever see.
[HEADING=2]Cannon Fodder[/HEADING]
Cannon Fodder depicts a day in the life of a family who lives in a communist society where everything revolves around cannons and the firing of them. The son goes to school where his classes consist of the mechanics and the history of cannons. The mother works in an ammo factory assembling shells and gossiping with the other wifes. And the father works as a loader at the city's most famous cannon, Cannon 17. Everybody wears either uniforms, gasmasks or helmets and cannons dawn every rooftop or windowsill. There's even a Cannon Fodder equivalent of Greenpeace, where protestors are demanding gunpowder that is less harmful to the enviroment.
This movie was written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo himself and is by far the strangest of this trio of films. The film itself is basically one long scene with no real cuts in between. Whenever a scene changes, the camara shifts, zooms in, out or uses another nifty little trick to focus on one of the three family members.
The score is just as weird as the visual style and sounds like a brass band playing on instruments that they fished out of the ruins of Chernobyl. So, once again it mixes perfectly well.
Memories is an amazing pearl in animated features which breaks away from the all the anime cliches. There's no real red thread that runs through these movies. And because the next movie starts the second the last one ended, you don't really get a sense of closure. It's best to watch each movie individually instead of all three in one sitting.
I don't know how much more words of praise this movie can handle so, I guess all that's left for me to say is:
Merry Christmass to everyone on The Escapist.
