Memories

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.

Amazing anime trilogy from AKIRA's Katsuhiro Otomo, who presents three unrelated sci fi stories directed by different directors (he did the last one, writers/first-time directors Tensai Okamura and Koji Morimoto did the other two). They are amazing vignettes with some stupendous animation in three different styles. Otomo's is especially unique in that there are no cuts – the "camera" moves fluidly through every scene without a jump or a stop. Morimoto's 40-min "Magnetic Rose" is stunningly animated, the most amazing of the two, telling of a space ship's investigation of a distress signal discovering a magnificent world created by a woman's memories – the music takes advantage of the operatic aria, Madame Butterfly, arranged by Yoko Kanno, who also supplies an excellent original score. "Stink Bomb," the middle segment, is clever and funny and fast-paced; Otomo's anti-war statement in "Cannon Fodder" closes out the film with a subtle bit of thought-provocation about a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unknown enemy.

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.

Katsuhiro Otomo's "Memories" combines the vision of Otomo's usual "God's revenge for the human race believing too much in science" with two first-time, although far from inexperienced directors. The first of the three films, "Magnetic Rose" is by far the least Otomo-esquire of the three pieces, although based on one of his short mangas. The film centering mainly on the sci-fi side of anime. Space freighters respond to a distress call in a bad sector of space, and become lost in the haunting memories of an intergalactic opera singer. The second piece, "Stink Bomb" shows, if possible, a humorous side to biological warfare, as an unsuspecting pharmaceutical tech accidentally ingests a biological weapon and becomes a walking disaster. The final film, actually directed by Otomo, called "Cannon Fodder" was by far my favorite, and the most disturbing of the three films. The basic story centers around a family living in a town whose citizens devote their entire lives to bombing an unseen enemy in the sky. This story is very politically motivated, very dark, and not at all a "happy little story". The animation is unlike anything I've ever seen from Otomo, and full of sweeping single-cut shots that give you chills. Overall, I highly recommend this movie collection for any anime fan. It most definitely incorporates the vision of three brilliant directors.

An anthology movie split into three distinct pieces, so I thought it better to review them all separately.

Memories (1/3): Magnetic Rose - 7/10

Part 1 of the anthology movie that is Memories starts with what most people consider to be the best of the three: Magnetic Rose. Broadly speaking, it sees the crew of a ship in deep space investigating a distress signal, and then coming across some unexpected things.

It introduces its premise confidently, a little slowly, but overall surely, and it builds mystery well as things go along. As a piece of sci-fi, it's moderately intriguing, but I think it's all boosted immensely by the visuals on offer. What's happening doesn't seem too important, sometimes, when the animation is this striking.

Memories (2/3): Stink Bomb - 6.5/10

Stink Bomb is perhaps the best Japanese film about bureaucratic boobery that isn't Shin Godzilla. It's a good deal sillier than the first short film in the Memories anthology, but it's still fairly entertaining, following a ridiculous young man who accidentally turns himself into a bioweapon.

It does feel like a bit of a goofy kaiju movie parody, and even if that's the only real joke the short has, at least it's a funny joke, and at least it's only a short film, rather than them trying to stretch something like this to feature-length. I had fun, but it probably won't stick with me.

Memories (3/3) - Cannon Fodder - 6.5/10

The most visually unusual of the three, Cannon Fodder also stands out because it runs for 20-something minutes, while the other two shorts are both approximately 40-45 minutes each. As much as I can gather, it's about the meaningless of war, all done with a futuristic slant that bleakly suggests the human race will never change, and firing increasingly advanced cannons will always just be a thing.

It feels satirical, but not in a truly funny way. It's kind of feel-bad and has a vibe that feels off, but that feels intentional, and I think it makes for an offbeat and sort of fitting end to the overall anthology movie that is Memories.