Memories (1995)

nMemories (1995)

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nDirectors: Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo

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nKatsuhiro Otomo, the director behind the seminal anime filmnAkira (1988) is one busy dude. He not only produces, he also writes andnanimates! His productions include some of the best anime anthologies around;nI’m talking about films like Robot Carnival (1987), Neo Tokyo (1987) and mostnrecently Short Peace (2013), an anime anthology that I will try to get a holdnof soon, so expect a review for it in the near future. Otomo also produced thenanime anthology I’ll be reviewing today: Memories (1995). I’m really enjoyingnwatching all of these anime anthologies because they offer a quick jolt ofnawesomeness. Though each individual story lasts about forty minutes or less,nthey are always entertaining because the filmmakers involved in each short givenit their all in both the story and animation departments. Memories doess just that,nvisually it packs a wallop, yet it also has some depth to it. Let’s not forgetnthese anthologies are an artistic tour de force, compiling a lot of talent into one singlenmovie. As you can see, animated anthologies have a lot to offer. So, what’s thisnparticular one all about?

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nAnthologies are usually connected by a theme, something thatnholds them together.  But in the case ofnMemories, the shorts have no real connection to one another; all three storiesnare totally different. The first one is called ‘Magnetic Rose’ and it comes tonuse from director Koji Morimoto, a director I’m not entirely familiar with, butnwhose work I have seen a lot of. For example, he’s worked as an animator innfilms like The Animatrix (2003), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and SpacenAdventure Cobra (1982). He also directed the ‘Franken’s Gears’ segment in RobotnCarnival (1987). So anyways, he’s the director behind ‘Magnetic Rose’, a shortnthat shows many interesting influences. The story is all about these spacengarbage men, who are suddenly given the responsibility of responding to andistress signal from a derelict spaceship. When they board the ship, theyndiscover that the ships A.I. has created a holographic world completelyncomposed of one woman’s memories. As they explore the ship, the astronauts beginnto encounter visions of a woman called Eva. Who is she? And why are they allnexperiencing supernatural shenanigans?

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nThis short reminded me of various films, but most of all, itnreminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) because for example, the wholenshort uses classical music, just like Kubrick used classical music in 2001. Thensimilarities don’t stop there; the short is all about discovering a derelictnspaceship and a ghost like entity living in rooms furnished in European style.nIt’s also about astronauts drifting through space for all eternity, so, ifnyou’re a fan of Kubrick’s 2001, then you’ll more than likely spot thenparallels because the filmmakers behind ‘Magnetic Rose’ obviously loved Kubrick’s classicnsci-fi film. Magnetic Rose also reminded me of Event Horizon (1997) because itndeals with astronauts facing their fears due to a supernatural force that’snmessing with their minds, so you can expect a “ghost in the machine” type ofnstory with this short.

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nThen we move on to ‘Stink Bomb’ my favorite short in thenwhole anthology and in my opinion, the one they should have closed thenanthology with. This one was directed by Tensai Okamura, a director who’snconcentrated most of his career on television series like Samurai Champloon(2004) and Wolf’s Rain (2003) rather than on theatrical features, but you wouldn’t know it from seeing this short. As it turnsnout, Stink Bomb is the most entertaining of the three shorts on this anthology.nIt’s all about this lab technician named Nobuo. A regular Joe who works in anscience lab. Unfortunately, he also has a cold! When he mistakes a bottle of experimentalnpills for cold medicine, he unwillingly becomes a walking weapon of mass destruction!nWhen he took the experimental pills, he really took pills that are part of anweapons experiment being conducted in collaboration between the Japanese andnAmerican governments! After he takes the pills, he becomes a walking death bomb!nWherever he goes death follows! Anybody who comes within a few steps of Nobuo instantlyndies! This short turns real epic real fast, my recommendation is stick with itntill the very end, it’s a very entertaining and rewarding short. Because of itsnfunny tone, you don’t expect it to get so epic, but it does!  This short speaks about weapons of massndestruction, but it’s really just a fun short that plays out a bit like anGodzilla movie, with Nobuo being the destructive force headed towards Tokyo,nwhile the military tries their best to stop him.

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nFinally, the anthology ends with Katsuhiro Otomo’s CannonnFodder, a short that takes place in a fantasy world where society is builtnaround war. Every single building in this walled city has a cannon or a gunnsticking out of it. The story takes place in a city where its people only livenfor making bullets for their giant cannons, to shoot at an enemy they don’tneven know. All they care about is shooting their cannons. It’s interesting, thematically,nit reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984, because it’s a dreary, sad society whosenonly focus is producing, producing, producing. When they are not producing,nthey are being programmed to hate an invisible enemy they have never seennthemselves. Since the short focuses on how a child sees the world, it commentsnon how the environment we grow up in forges our dreams and aspirations. Thenidea being that if we are surrounded by guns and violence; chances are we willnwant to become something associated with that world. Hence, the little boy whonstars in the short draws guns with his crayons and aspires to become the mannwho pulls the trigger of the big cannon.

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nWhen this anthology was released, the short that receivednthe most acclaim was Magnetic Rose, and I agree, it is the deepest of all thenshorts, playing in the same ball park as Kubrick’s 2001, but also AndreinTarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). ‘Stink Bomb’ was heralded as the most entertainingnand funny of the bunch, though it wasn’t praised for its depth. Interestinglynenough, it was ‘Cannon Fodder’, the short that comes from the most acclaimed ofnthe directors involved on this anthology that got the worst reviews. Not thatnit’s a bad short; actually, it’s very unique visually. It focuses more on stylenand a certain type of tone. Stylistically, Cannon Fodder is amazing, verynunique looking and it has a distinctive anti war message to it, which I think isnwhere its thematic strengths lie. It sticks to its one theme through andnthrough. I personally dug all three shorts for different reasons. One is deepnand haunting, one is entertaining, funny and epic and one is stylish andnoffers social commentary. So we get a little bit of everything on this anthology.nWhen we see it as a whole, it’s another gem in the world of anime anthologies.nHighly recommend it.

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nRating: 5 out of 5   

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