Following one anime feature, let’s look at another, of a very different sort—an anthology set. Animated anthologies, where directors can let loose whatever creative impulse they want in the contained and focused format that is the short, are always something I’m interested in—sometimes the results may not always be perfect, but they’re at least always interesting. Our creative lead here is Katsuhiro Otomo, best known for Akira—and he himself staked something for a name with anthologies, such as Neo Tokyo and Robot Carnival. Those were the days of the Japanese economic bubble that let investors throw money at such ambitious projects showcasing so much talent—and since that burst, they’ve been all the rarer, making something like Memories all the more interesting.
The first of our three segments is Magnetic Rose, directed by Koji Morimoto and written by Satoshi Kon of Perfect Blue and Paprika fame. It’s generally considered the best of the anthology, and for good reason, as we find—our focus is what seems like a fairly typical scifi setup, with a deep space salvage crew of fairly blue-collar types stumbling across a distress signal.
Normally this would be a prelude to slavering monsters or something, but it gets much more interesting as they discover something entirely unexpected in the bowels of a mysterious hulk in the void. What happens next is a look at what happens when nostalgia and, well, memories themselves get corrupted, made to consume all to satiate dreams of what could have been. Everything is paced and structured perfectly for a short format—what could’ve been made a feature is done no less satisfactorily for a fraction of the length, making all the impact it has to. The animation is great too, setting the standard for the rest of the film—gorgeous painted backdrops, grotesque effects, great lighting…this is exemplifies all I love about pre-digital art of this kind. See this chapter for sure if nothing else.
Up next is Stink Bomb, directed by Tensai Okamura and written by Otomo himself, taking on a very different approach straight off the bat. The setting is more or less than-contemporary Japan, with a far more satirical and black comedy tone to it all. Our focus is on a young lab technician Tanaka, who bumbles into work one day with the flu—and after taking the wrong pills, ends up emanating a chemical miasma that kills everyone around him. Unfortunately, his superiors, unaware of this, give him instructions to head to Tokyo—which he does unquestioningly, spreading catastrophe as he goes while the authorities try desperately to stop him.
I can see what they’re going for here, with an attack on both overly slavish work culture and bureaucratic irresponsibility—the animation itself continues to be top notch, with epic shots aplenty once the entire JSDF tries to eliminate Tanaka with all the usual success they have against Godzilla. But after a bit it becomes some repetitive, with Tanaka unable to clue anything together even as he goes through the same scene of people running from him over and over, while he magically evades every weapon tossed at him. There is a twist ending of course that doesn’t make a lick of sense when you think on it for more than a picosecond—which leaves our middle section the weak point of an otherwise strong anthology.
Finally we have Cannon Fodder, this time written and directed all by Otomo—once more a solid one. This time we have a snapshot of a whole city, technology and style all circa 1914, entirely dedicated to firing artillery guns of varying sizes. Otomo has shown elsewhere a thing for immense hydraulic machinery belching steam and vapor, all on display here—the highlight is this one sequence entirely dedicated to the loading and firing of an immense cannon, all short and scored as intensely as possible. Such was the scope of this shot that an entire mural was covered for the background—now that’s about a great an exhibit for traditional-style animation as you can get here.
The rest of the short has a sort of Terry Gilliam tone, satirizing bluntly mindless militarism and propaganda—what the city is even fighting never becomes clear, and everyone has a seemingly cartoonish look that soon seems to suggest a pallor from all the toxic vapors they have to endure. Compared to the previous one, the satire works way better—everyone’s almost literally a cog in a machine here, all juxtaposed with a child’s cheeriness.
And that leaves Memories—not entirely even, but definitely worth a watch. Anthology styles still continue with all sorts of live action projects, especially at festivals I’ve been too—with animation sometimes on display. But things like this showcase the breadth of what you can do in this sort of medium—whether a true successor's out there or in the cards, I'm not sure myself…
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