Memories

It's a masterpiece.

On 23 December 1995, Otomo Katsuhiro, the creator of Akira, released Memories to Japan's general viewing public. A collection of three stories, this movie brings not only variety, but enjoyment to each. "Magnetic Rose" is the first and longest of the three, followed by "Stink Bomb" and "Cannon Fodder".

The animation of each episode differs, depending on how one views it. While all three episodes are very well done, the style of "Cannon Fodder" is vastly different from "Magnetic Rose" and "Stink Bomb". "Cannon Fodder" uses more computer effects than the other two, integrating them into the perspective of the scenes (like the Sharon Apple concert in Macross Plus), rather than just using them for a computer display. All three episodes are very fluid, never once skipping a few cels per second for the sake of the budget.

Magnetic Rose: "Magnetic Rose" is set in space in the year 2092. Four men -- Heintz, Miguel, Ivanov, and Aoshima -- pilot the mighty spacecraft Corona to new heights in interstellar garbage collecting. Actually, they are one of many ships that collect garbage left over from the expansion of humankind into space. When the crew of the Corona run across a distress call, they discover a huge scrapyard of debris floating about a huge, central piece. Heintz and Miguel go to investigate, discovering living area set aside for an early twenty-first century opera diva who went into space after the death of her husband, Carlo. While there, the pair encounter strangely real and seductive illusions which make one wonder what exactly is going on.

"Magnetic Rose" - the first part of Memories, an artistic masterpiece by Katsuhiro Otomo - is one of the best animes we've ever seen. Despite its length, it's only about 50 minutes, its depth and content is amazing. A fantastic story, excellent graphix and some scary touch. We really love "Magnetic Rose's" message, and the ending is tough. You've gotta see it. 6 out of 5 stars. Hehe.

Memories (1995) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi and is made up of three short films combined into one. The first one involves a space crew that believes they've landed on a planet that can save them but everything isn't as it appears. The second storyline follows a scientist that becomes infected by his own experiment and becomes a walking chemical weapon. The final storyline is about a city that appears to be preparing for war but against what?

This movie is directed by Kôji Morimoto (The Animatrix), Tensai Okamura (Cowboy Bebop: The Movie) and Katsuhiro Ôtomo (Steamboy) and contains the voices of Robbie Daymond (Tiger & Bunny), Frank Todaro (Dolittle), Laura Post (Batman: The Enemy Within) and Ellen-Ray Hennessy (It Takes Two).

The animation in this is fun and does a great job of depicting the universe, characters and circumstances. I really wish I could see this in 3D. The space suits and ghost elements in the first film were awesome. There is a level of mystery throughout the plots unfolding on what could possibly happen next. The one complaint may be character buy-in but that's always tough in short stories.

Overall this is an excellent addition to the anime genre that I would strongly recommend. I would score this a 8/10.

Memories conveys three of the best anime segments ever done, even if so many anime fans don't know about it. The first time I saw Memories in a film festival in 1998 left me with such an impression that I never forgot about it. Now that finally I own the DVD, I can say that it's the same as I remembered: magnificent.

The "Magnetic Rose" segment feels at times like an homage to Kubrick's "2001 : Space Odissey", and now I could say it's a straight antecedent of the sci-fi tendency about the human mind in a simulated space which we have seen in "Dark City", "Matrix", etc. How a simulation program triggers the memories of the explorers and gets mixed with synthetic memories is done in a very intriguing form. The opera music plays a most important role, since it's the soundtrack what gives depth to the happenings here told.

"Stink Bomb" is funny as hell, taking the typical idiot hero in the Nintendo kind of plot (thhink Koji in Mazzinger, or Seya in Knigths of the Zodiac) as for what he should be (an idiot, every day man with the flu) , the story revolves around on the accidental creation of a human stinking bomb who treat hens the whole island of Japan. Real funny in a way most kid's animes aren't.

Finally, "Cannon Fodder" is the segment which I feel is the true masterpiece in this little anthology. A metaphorical world where a country is in a war against an unknown (and probably inexistent) enemy, and how the cannons are not only weapons, but the complete essence of the cultural, economical and social layers of this surreal "totalitarian" country. Some reminiscence of Orwell's 1984 is present, but the execution is really like anything I have ever seen or read before. It's a one shot segment, so I can hardly imagine the size of some background panels and the animation logistics of this. The music accentuates this strange feeling (very much like in Aeon Flux), and the unusual rendering style makes this a little strange jewel, not only from anime, but from all styles of animation.

As I said before, most movie and anime fans don't seem to know, or don't have any memories about this surreal collection of animated storied. I'm glad I'll never forget them.

This was an amazingly beautiful film, filled with great music that only pushed each scene along wonderfully. I thought this was a great piece of film. I have had the pleasure of showing this to friends that have always looked down on what anime is, and walk away stunned. Some might find these stories slow, but I think if you have any real appreciation of anime, you will find this to be an interesting piece of work. It consists of three stores. Koji Morimoto's "Magnetic Rose", Tensai Okamura's "Stink Bomb", and Katsuhiro Otomo's "Cannon Fodder". I would say that Magnetic rose was perhaps the deepest of these three stores. Offering a beautiful mix of classical music, with a futuristic settings to offer a sense of contrast. Stink Bomb being the more lighthearted of the three. While still maintaining a grim reality, and almost eerie sense of setting, using a more modern day look, and music. Then Cannon Fodder, right from an Orwell idealized future, with the loud sounds, and marches. These movies all offer up something different, and wonderful, while still working there way along a nice line of thought.

It's an anthology. It's three stories of 45 minutes, 40 minutes and 15 minutes that have nothing at all to do with one another. In fact, the film's title only refers to the first story. This film is one part science-fiction thriller, one part bioterrorism comedy (THERE'S a category I've never put a film in!) and one part single-shot (99% of it, anyway) borderline-documentary.

Disney couldn't make a film this engrossing if the fate of mankind depended on it.

Those who have what I call the "It's an Anime" stigma should shake it off for "Memories". Rent this. Buy this. See this!