Review of Memories
When Akira was released in 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo became a household name in the anime industry with the film and if it wasn't for Akira, anime would have never gain the huge exposure both on the East and West. Later in 1995, Otomo came back to produce an ambitious animation project called Memories, a compilation of anime films that consists on 3 stories that were all written by Otomo himself and the purpose of this compilation is to showcases different styles of animations that can be successful for the animation industry. The result is a unique experience for those who want to see animation ina whole new way and boy, does Memories impresses on the animation by a mile. Since this is a movie of 3 stories, I will review each anime story separately on this review rather than just review them all at once. Let's get started then!
Episode 1: Magnetic Rose
Directed by Koji Morimoto and animated by Studio 4C, it's about a group of engineers who received a distress signal from a salvaged ship called Corona and 2 engineers, Heintz and Miguel, decided to answer the distress signal from the ship and find out if there are survivors on the salvage. What they found is something more sinister and crueler than reality itself. This is regarded as one of the best parts of the compilations and it's easy to see why. It combines elements of fantasy, science-fiction and horror perfectly while portraying a heartbreaking story that deals with love, eternal loss, betrayal, murder and being blinded by our own reality in life. Top it off with breathtaking animation that conveys an atmosphere of fear and loneliness that will make Dead Space jealous and a fantastic score by renowned composer Yoko Kanno, Magnetic Rose is such a masterpiece in both the story and animation department that it deserves it's own full length animated feature film. Truly, this short film is a spellbinding experience from beginning to end.
Episode 2: Stink Bomb
Directed by Tensai Okamura and animated by Madhouse, this comical short film is about Nobuo Tanaka, a lab technician who's battling with a terrible cold and one of his partners decided to tell Nobuo to take a pill from a blue case because they though it was fever medicine that would help Nobuo get rid of the flu instantly. However, what he doesn't know is that once he swallowed the pill, Nobuo becomes a living biological weapon that is set to destroy everything in his path, including Tokyo. This short, while not as strong and perfect as Magnetic Rose, is still a fun story on what would happen if a clueless lab technician became a massive weapon and destroyed everything in his path including people and animals around him. The best part of this short is the epic chase scene that has the entire Japanese military army hellbent on stopping Nobuo from reaching Tokyo with all matter of missiles, tanks and jets, which ends up being both hilarious and intense. The animation is very impressive with some gorgeous detail in the character models and excellent use of contrast throughout the whole short. While not as strong as Episode 1, Stink Bomb is still an interesting but fun as hell short with some top-notch moments of tension and humor.
Episode 3: Cannon Fodder
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo himself and animated by Studio 4C, This is probably one of Otomo's most interesting takes on animation because this entire short film is animated with no editing or scene transitions. The short is basically set in a city with cannons and why? Well apparently, they are fighting against an unknown enemy of some sorts and they decide to shoot with their cannons every day without any use of strategy or patience. What's fascinating about the short is that while nothing really happens a lot in the story, it does talk about an interesting social commentary about the addiction of humanity with weapons and if their addictions of using weapons of destruction will ever stop. The animation is also deserves huge kudos for having a different and interesting take on animation that Otomo used in this short and the entire sequence uses no cheap editing tricks, everything is a long animated shot sequence that goes fluid and steady all the way to the end. Overall, it doesn't end with a bang but the animation alone is worth the look.
On the whole, Memories is a very ambitious compilation of anime films that showcases the amazing use of hand-drawn animation by experimenting with different techniques that will surely be used for future animated projects to come. If you're a big fan of animation, Memories is worth the time of admission. Now, if we could only get Otomo to make a full-length movie of Magnetic Rose then my life might be complete right now.