Genius Party

Genius Party Opening: 9/10 Abstract animation doesn't get better than this. Reminiscent of MIND GAME, although director Masaaki Yuasa wasn't involved here. Uplifting techno soundtrack complemented the visuals well.

Shanghai Dragon: 9/10 Superb crowd pleaser. An adrenalized action-thrill-ride that avoids stylistic cues of other hyper-kinetic films like DEAD LEAVES or FLCL.. (not that there's anything wrong with them..) and very funny to boot. Flawless direction and pacing. This is a minor anime masterpiece.

Deathtic 4: 8/10 Conspicuously Tim Burtonesque stylings utilized to great effect. Inventive and unexpected use of CG throughout. Hilariously dark.

(thus far GENIUS PARTY was turning out to be ridiculously good. Too good to be true apparently... )

Doorbell: 7/10 Solid little psychological yarn about multiple selves/personalities vying for dominance. Unfortunately, bogged down by substandard animation (the worst of the bunch) which was all the more ostensible after having just sat through the first three installments. I liked the story so it still gets a 7 from me.

Limit Cycle: 5/10 Others will probably be less lenient with this one than me.. but the visuals were great. If ONLY the pointless rumination actually meant something or went somewhere. Promising early on, the over-intellectualizing quickly spirals into repetition and utter confusion. Cutting the length in half would have EASILY salvaged this. Director has an inexplicable James Dean fixation.

Happy Machine: 8/10 A surrealist moving take on early childhood and growing up. Cute, funny and original.

Baby Blue: 7/10 A sentimental tale in the vein of the work of Makoto Shinkai (VOICES FROM A DISTANT STAR), except not animated nearly as well as his stuff, which is a shame as it's a well-written short that manages to dodge most of the clichés that rid this kind of story.

FINAL SCORE 8/10 recommended without reservation.

This is one of the wildest anthology films I've ever seen, and I'm not sure... it might've been a bit much for me. I appreciated things technically, but several of these segments wore out their welcome at a point, and a couple I wasn't able to get much from at all, outside appreciating the visuals and some of the imaginative elements. All of it does have clear care and attention to detail present, so I couldn't call anything here lazy or uninspired.

I guess if you want an animated anthology film that's next level when it comes to the sorts of crazy things on display, Genius Party is recommendable. Maybe the title should be taken literally; you could well have to be a genius to fully comprehend it, and I was just a bit too slow to think much more than "Hey, these colors are pretty and the animation's crazy."

It can get pretty depressing, being an anime fan with taste. You force yourself to sit through the latest season's pablum, thinking that it's alright, but also something you've seen a thousand times before -- especially the bland, repetitive art style. And then along comes something like Genius Party, which takes some of the best young* animation directors and turns them loose with no limits to their creativity.

Genius Party is a short film anthology, without much of an overarching theme. Most of the shorts are quite good, with the navel-gazing "Limit Cycle" being the only real misfire. Predictably, Masaaki Yuasa and Shinichiro Watanabe provide the anthology's best material, with Yuasa turning in a terrifying look at the world from a child's point of view and Watanabe doing an uncharacteristically naturalist high-school story.

More than any of the plots, what you really get with this film is pop-your-eyes-out animation, with every piece using its own unique style to sweep you off your feet. Other than the standard anime stylings of "Doorbell", what you get is very unique, personal styles, in both writing and art.

Given how disconnected these shorts are, it may be worth watching the better ones individually, but as a collection they also hang together pretty well. Genius Party comes thoroughly recommended for the anime lover looking for something more artistic, or really anyone who's interested in the possibility of animation. Just feel free to fast-forward through "Limit Cycle", or maybe mute it.

*Okay, Watanabe isn't really an up-and-comer, but he still provides a nice capstone to the collection.