Memories (1995)
Directors: Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo, the director behind the seminal anime film
Akira (1988) is one busy dude. He not only produces, he also writes and
animates! His productions include some of the best anime anthologies around;
I’m talking about films like Robot Carnival (1987), Neo Tokyo (1987) and most
recently Short Peace (2013), an anime anthology that I will try to get a hold
of soon, so expect a review for it in the near future. Otomo also produced the
anime anthology I’ll be reviewing today: Memories (1995). I’m really enjoying
watching all of these anime anthologies because they offer a quick jolt of
awesomeness. Though each individual story lasts about forty minutes or less,
they are always entertaining because the filmmakers involved in each short give
it their all in both the story and animation departments. Memories doess just that,
visually it packs a wallop, yet it also has some depth to it. Let’s not forget
these anthologies are an artistic tour de force, compiling a lot of talent into one single
movie. As you can see, animated anthologies have a lot to offer. So, what’s this
particular one all about?
Anthologies are usually connected by a theme, something that
holds them together. But in the case of
Memories, the shorts have no real connection to one another; all three stories
are totally different. The first one is called ‘Magnetic Rose’ and it comes to
use from director Koji Morimoto, a director I’m not entirely familiar with, but
whose work I have seen a lot of. For example, he’s worked as an animator in
films like The Animatrix (2003), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and Space
Adventure Cobra (1982). He also directed the ‘Franken’s Gears’ segment in Robot
Carnival (1987). So anyways, he’s the director behind ‘Magnetic Rose’, a short
that shows many interesting influences. The story is all about these space
garbage men, who are suddenly given the responsibility of responding to a
distress signal from a derelict spaceship. When they board the ship, they
discover that the ships A.I. has created a holographic world completely
composed of one woman’s memories. As they explore the ship, the astronauts begin
to encounter visions of a woman called Eva. Who is she? And why are they all
experiencing supernatural shenanigans?
This short reminded me of various films, but most of all, it
reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) because for example, the whole
short uses classical music, just like Kubrick used classical music in 2001. The
similarities don’t stop there; the short is all about discovering a derelict
spaceship and a ghost like entity living in rooms furnished in European style.
It’s also about astronauts drifting through space for all eternity, so, if
you’re a fan of Kubrick’s 2001, then you’ll more than likely spot the
parallels because the filmmakers behind ‘Magnetic Rose’ obviously loved Kubrick’s classic
sci-fi film. Magnetic Rose also reminded me of Event Horizon (1997) because it
deals with astronauts facing their fears due to a supernatural force that’s
messing with their minds, so you can expect a “ghost in the machine” type of
story with this short.
Then we move on to ‘Stink Bomb’ my favorite short in the
whole anthology and in my opinion, the one they should have closed the
anthology with. This one was directed by Tensai Okamura, a director who’s
concentrated most of his career on television series like Samurai Champloo
(2004) and Wolf’s Rain (2003) rather than on theatrical features, but you wouldn't know it from seeing this short. As it turns
out, Stink Bomb is the most entertaining of the three shorts on this anthology.
It’s all about this lab technician named Nobuo. A regular Joe who works in a
science lab. Unfortunately, he also has a cold! When he mistakes a bottle of experimental
pills for cold medicine, he unwillingly becomes a walking weapon of mass destruction!
When he took the experimental pills, he really took pills that are part of a
weapons experiment being conducted in collaboration between the Japanese and
American governments! After he takes the pills, he becomes a walking death bomb!
Wherever he goes death follows! Anybody who comes within a few steps of Nobuo instantly
dies! This short turns real epic real fast, my recommendation is stick with it
till the very end, it’s a very entertaining and rewarding short. Because of its
funny tone, you don’t expect it to get so epic, but it does! This short speaks about weapons of mass
destruction, but it’s really just a fun short that plays out a bit like a
Godzilla movie, with Nobuo being the destructive force headed towards Tokyo,
while the military tries their best to stop him.
Finally, the anthology ends with Katsuhiro Otomo’s Cannon
Fodder, a short that takes place in a fantasy world where society is built
around war. Every single building in this walled city has a cannon or a gun
sticking out of it. The story takes place in a city where its people only live
for making bullets for their giant cannons, to shoot at an enemy they don’t
even know. All they care about is shooting their cannons. It’s interesting, thematically,
it reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984, because it’s a dreary, sad society whose
only focus is producing, producing, producing. When they are not producing,
they are being programmed to hate an invisible enemy they have never seen
themselves. Since the short focuses on how a child sees the world, it comments
on how the environment we grow up in forges our dreams and aspirations. The
idea being that if we are surrounded by guns and violence; chances are we will
want to become something associated with that world. Hence, the little boy who
stars in the short draws guns with his crayons and aspires to become the man
who pulls the trigger of the big cannon.
When this anthology was released, the short that received
the most acclaim was Magnetic Rose, and I agree, it is the deepest of all the
shorts, playing in the same ball park as Kubrick’s 2001, but also Andrei
Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). ‘Stink Bomb’ was heralded as the most entertaining
and funny of the bunch, though it wasn’t praised for its depth. Interestingly
enough, it was ‘Cannon Fodder’, the short that comes from the most acclaimed of
the directors involved on this anthology that got the worst reviews. Not that
it’s a bad short; actually, it’s very unique visually. It focuses more on style
and a certain type of tone. Stylistically, Cannon Fodder is amazing, very
unique looking and it has a distinctive anti war message to it, which I think is
where its thematic strengths lie. It sticks to its one theme through and
through. I personally dug all three shorts for different reasons. One is deep
and haunting, one is entertaining, funny and epic and one is stylish and
offers social commentary. So we get a little bit of everything on this anthology.
When we see it as a whole, it’s another gem in the world of anime anthologies.
Highly recommend it.
Rating: 5 out of 5