Memories

[DB]

Here we go again. We'll go with a one shot, which is actually three seperate stories that have nothing to do with one another under one title. While it has been around since '95, it was only recently licensed in NA and released on DVD. It's 'Memories'.

First it should be known that this was the results of the combined efforts of manga and anime legend Osamu Tezuka (who's done everything from Astro Boy to Metropolis) and Katsushiro 'Akira' Otomo, who each directed two of the pieces, while a third was directed by the lesser known Koji Morimoto (with a helping writing hand by one Satoshi Kon). The irony I feel behidn this will be explained later.

We'll lead off with what I consider was the weakest of the stories. 'Cannon Fodder' done by Tezuka. Here we have a day in the life look at a bleak future which is remincient of Orwell on a bad day or 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. It's a totalitarian society where people report to work manning giant cannons which are shot on a daily basis at an enemy we never see. They then punch out their time clocks, and go home to rest, only to punch back in and fire their cannon again.

It's obviously a statement type work, which suffers from the main thing many such similar ideas people try to espouse: it's boring and excessively preachy, rather than what it should be doing, entertaining the viewer while having a message inside. Something that tends to be forgotten when people want to stand on a soapbox and editorialize rather than entertain.

I've never really liked Tezuka's artwork, and this is worse than his usual stuff. It falls flat and had no real interest to me. I had to fast forward to some of the longer, ponderous things, like when the bloated military commander takes forever to arrive at the firing button for the cannon. I'm disappointed I couldn't have taken a cannon to this piece. Luckily, we aren't subjected to the torture for too long, although even a minute is really too much.

'Cannon Fodder' gets a 2 out of 10 for me. At least there was a message in the mess.

We'll go to the second part: Stink Bomb, by Otomo. Here the artwork is the same style Akira was, and you'll see that instantly. Unfortunately, that's the only real redeeming part to it. The story is, quite honestly, too silly and preposterous, since it only borders outright farce and doesn't quite go over the line. Yes, it's supposed to be a satire, but it's framework is too silly and contrived.

In a nutshell, we have a nameless lab techie at a pharmasutical company who has a headache. At the recommendation of this peers, decides to go the boss' office to try a random sample drug that one of his coworkers claimed 'helps with fevers'. So of course he trots on in announced, picks up one (among a host of them) marked 'sample' and downs it, then lies down to go to sleep.

The drug has the effect of his body giving off a scent that kills everyone who smells it (and coincidetily, makes plants grow) He is immune to it, but the aroma is so powerful that it can affect a whole city full of people, even if they're wearing gas masks, bio-hazard suits, and whatnot. Oh, did I forget to mention that it causes in EMP type pulse so no missile can hit him, even when a thousand are shot at him at once?

Like I said, it's silly, but not quite silly enough, and again is preachy. This time out we're subjected to satire on modern beuracracy, the military, government, and just about any other institution. It's just too ridiculous to be serious, and not comedic enough to be parody. Not quite as bad as Cannon Fodder, but still not worth watching, IMO.

Stink Bomb: 3 out of 10.

And on to the last: Magnetic Rose

Now, with all of the negativity up to this point, you'd think 'Memories' is a hopeless piece. After all, we've just gone over the works of the two 'Big Names' associated with it, and there's only one left. But there's a couple of things that salvage it:

Koji Morimoto and, perhaps more importantly, a little known writer on the project at the time, Satoshi Kon, who has gone on to do such obscure things as Perfect Blue, Millinium Actress, and the more recent Paranoid Agents. Magnetic Rose has a Kon flavor to it, and the animation and character designs work well. In this one, we aren't subjected to any preaching, and are instead treated to a sort of locked room thriller, with a touch of the psychological thrown in.

It's the future and in deep space. Our group of four characters are spacemen in a ship salvaging and cleaning up space debris. They end up getting a message on an emergency channel, but it's not a standard SOS. Rather it's a song snippet from Madame Butterfly. It turns out the signal is originating in the 'sargasso' of space, where few ships every return due to magnetic intereference. Still, our intrepid adventurers go in to find out what's happening (hey, wouldn't be a story otherwise, would there?)

Once there they discover a mysterious huge piece of manufactured debris which is the size of a small asteroid. It's the origin of the signal. Two of the astronauts go in, only to discover it's a private hideaway of a opera diva from nearly a hundred years ago. It appears abandanded, but mysterious things begin to happen from the moment they set down. and we learn that some memories never die, and can come back to haunt the present.

Then again, one of astronauts has memories of his own that come with him as well...

This one was eerie enough to easily see Kon's trademarks remincent of Perfect Blue in pacing and making the watcher come along for the ride. The top notch animation style and character designs are a beauty to behold. They even had Yoko Kanno do a music piece for it. I won't give away any spoilers, but this was by far the best of the lot. An irony, considering this was the one created by the 'no name' director.

I won't give away what happens, but this is the only thing really worth watching in Memories, but it's definitely worth watching. A pity they didn't dump the supposed 'heavyweights' and let Kon and Morimoto just do all three stories. Then we might have had something worth shelling out the money to buy, rather than just renting. ^_^

Magnetic Rose: 7 out of 10.

[Dracos]

I have to note Stink bomb is amusing if only for the sheer ludicriousness of it's setup.  It's far more enjoyable not to see it as it is, but to see it as the AMV that was made from it, cutting out most the crud and making a rather absurd comedy/dramaesque amv out of it.

Of course, taking it from a having a point perspective, yeah, it does suck pretty significantly.

Dracos

[Edward]

Overall, I agree with your review, except you've rated 'Cannon Fodder' far higher than it deserves.