Mind Game

Original title: Maindo gêmu

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Loser Nishi, too wimpy to try to save his childhood sweetheart from gangsters, is shot in the butt by a soccer-playing psychopath, projecting Nishi into the afterlife. In this limbo, God - shown as a
series of rapidly changing characters - tells him to walk toward the light. But Nishi runs like hell in the other direction and returns to Earth a changed man, driven to live each moment to the fullest.

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Adult Animation Anime Adventure Animation Comedy Drama Mystery Romance

After a deadly encounter with two yakuza, a loser with a crush on his childhood girlfriend goes to heaven and back, embarking on a psychedelic self-discovery experience with her and his frie... Read allAfter a deadly encounter with two yakuza, a loser with a crush on his childhood girlfriend goes to heaven and back, embarking on a psychedelic self-discovery experience with her and his friends.After a deadly encounter with two yakuza, a loser with a crush on his childhood girlfriend goes to heaven and back, embarking on a psychedelic self-discovery experience with her and his friends.

Directors
- Masaaki Yuasa
- Kôji Morimoto
Writers
- Robin Nishi
- Masaaki Yuasa
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Masaaki Yuasa
- Kôji Morimoto
Writers
- Robin Nishi
- Masaaki Yuasa
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Nishi
(voice)

Sayaka Maeda

Myon
(voice)

Takashi Fujii

Jiisan
(voice)

Seiko Takuma

Yan
(voice)

Tomomitsu Yamaguchi

Ryou
(voice)

Toshio Sakata

Father of Myon and Yan
(voice)

Jôji Shimaki

Yakuza boss
(voice)

Rintarô Nishi

Yakuza
(voice)
(as Rintarou Nishi)

Kenichi Chujou

Atsu
(voice)

Directors
- Masaaki Yuasa
- Kôji Morimoto
Writers
- Robin Nishi
- Masaaki Yuasa
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The movie's main character Nishi is based on Robin Nishi, the man who wrote the underground cult comic on which Mind Game was based. Some elements of the story are said to be autobiographical.

Goofs
Typo of "loading". In the movie it shows "Now Lording..." on the computer screen.

Actually, this is a play on words as Nishi finds himself in "heaven," about to meet "the Lord."

Quotes
Nishi: We've gotta leave. It's that or drown.
Yan: But how?
Nishi: The boat, of course!
Myon: The cops'll be looking for us.
Nishi: So?
Myon: The Yakuzas'll come after us!
Nishi: So what! I wanna get out! 'Cos there's so much out there! So many different people, living different lives! Incredibly good guys, bad guys... Folks completely different from us! It's one huge melting pot! See, it's not about success, dying in the streets, who's better, who's not! I just want to be a part of it! I realized that even if I've no connections, no talent, even if I'm one big loser, I want to use my hands and feet to think and move, to shape my own life! We can just die here or we can try, see what we've got!

Connections
Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Underappreciated Anime Movies (2016)

Soundtracks
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2
Written by Franz Liszt

User reviews37

Featured review

Probably the most underrated animation in Japanese cinema.

This movie is to a human mind what solving a really complex formula is to a physicist: an eureka! What I mean by this is this movie has all the elements of a life changing experience. You go expecting another entertaining dime-a-dozen type of film but you come out bewildered instead. Okay sure maybe this is a bit of an overstatement but it deserves some overstating since it only gets a poor review of not even 8 stars here on IMDb. I decided to give it a full 10.

I am not going to spoil the experience for you and I will just to sum it up in a few short words. This is the story of a loser named Nishi who bumps into his old flame while she's being chased by some bad guys. They eventually end up the girl's family restaurant where bad guys show up things go horribly wrong and everything changes for everyone.

I found the little snippets in between the story to be most valuable rather than the story itself. Although you need to follow the story closely to understand the snippets. Is is the little things that count. This movie is a lesson. Maybe some sort of don't do what I did type of lesson I don't know. But whatever it is I feel is the only drug you can take visually.

Enjoy.