Search - Katsuhiro Otomo Presents: Memories on DVD

James O. (jimbo84) from FERGUS FALLS, MN
Reviewed on 4/16/2011...

The masters of anime join forces to create this stunningly AMAZING animated film featuring three separate stories: Magnetic Rose, Stink Bomb and Cannon Fodder. In Magnetic Rose, two space travellers are drawn into an asteroid world created by one woman's memories. In Stink Bomb, a young lab assistant accidentally transforms himself into a human biological weapon set on a direct course to Tokyo. Cannon Fodder shows a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at the enemy. Created by the world’s leading animé talent, THIS IS AN ABSLUTE MUST FOR TRUE APPRECIATORS OF ANIME!

A Review of the Video Quality !

Siju Thomas | India | 03/09/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I think many people have written about the virtues of the films,
I would like to comment on the digital mastering,This has been a favourite movie of mine for some time and I have been waiting for a R1 release the Japanese version was far too expensive.I was expecting a remastering job of the Quality that was done on Akira,
and I expected the result to be breathtaking,(especially on Magnetic Rose)I opened the package put the disc in ,and to my disdain ,the video looks like a rather clean laserdisc print, there is no evidence of 720\480 resolution of dvd it looked more like 352/480
of half d1 resolution.most of the time the lines on the characters facial detail , in mid shots are all smudgy ,overall it has a washed out look ,no deep blacks either,I am appalled ,one of the most beautiful films had to get a shoddy transfer like this.I have seen it on a 36 inch widescreen hdtv in 480p mode through a progressive scan player.this confirms my suspicion that the japanese directors are not approving the final transfers for the r1 discs, A similiar case was the movie Jin-roh, Another case of a beautiful film done to death by a smudgy low res transfer."

Three amazing short films from true legends of the genre

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 10/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm still pretty new to this wide new world of anime, so I can't really compare Memories to other works in the genre. I can say that it is a most interesting and impressive production made up of three very different short films from some of the leading names in anime. I don't think the visuals are quite as dazzling as that of more recent anime films, but the artistry of these three episodes certainly does help define the very different worlds in which the action takes place and demonstrates the compelling, visceral powers of anime. We have the celebrated Katsuhiro Otomo to thank for this project; each of the three films, if I'm not mistaken, was adapted from a short manga piece in Otomo's graphic novel Memories.

Episode One is Magnetic Rose, directed by Koji Morimoto of Animatrix fame. This is a beautiful, haunting tale of a most unusual space rescue mission. The crew of a space garbage collection ship responds to a distress signal from a dead part of space. Two crew members board the debris-shrouded vessel and enter a completely different world, one fueled by the memories of a beautiful young opera singer who apparently retreated to the isolation of space following a tragedy in her life. I won't pretend to have understood every thing about this story, but it is wholly captivating. The men encounter lavish rooms including opera houses and living quarters fit for a princess, holograms and other visual artifacts of "the young Madam" Eva entertaining guests and audiences, and decayed artifacts that sometimes come to life in front of their eyes. Each man is soon drawn into the vivid, colorful world of Eva's memories, but only one recognizes the unreality behind the vivid scenes he encounters - in his case, though, memories of his own wife and child serve as fuel for the increasingly realistic episodes he experiences. Much of the story takes place to a soundtrack of beautiful opera music such as that of Puccini, and the combination of such grand music and the amazing visual miracles that define anime of the highest caliber make this a most powerful film indeed.

Episode Two, Stink Bomb from director Tensai Okamura, goes in a completely different direction. Existing in some nebulous space between dark comedy and grim political satire, Stink Bomb is certainly entertaining but much less powerful than the other two films. In this story, a young scientific researcher takes an experimental fever pill that turns out to be something else entirely. He awakes to find everyone in the building comatose or dead (it's never really clear to me), and panicked company executives order him to find the pills and the secret documentation related to them so that he can bring everything to them in Tokyo immediately. He does just that, but he comes across death and destruction everywhere he goes. He does not understand that he has become a biological weapon emanating deadly gas from within his own body. It's almost comical to see the military firepower brought to bear - quite fruitlessly - against him as the military seeks to stop the spread of the noxious gas. The ending is also somewhat comical, on a dark level.

The last and shortest of the films comes from Katsuhiro Otomo himself. Cannon Fodder is an extremely dark film that vividly portrays a day in the life of a militaristic society along the lines of a post-modern day Prussia (i.e., pointy helmets are big in this world) dedicated solely and completely to the continued firing of gigantic cannons against some nebulous enemy. The obvious interpretation is one of the insanity of warfare, and the dark tones and grimly drawn characters bring the message home in a powerful fashion. Interestingly, the entire action seems to consist of one continuous shot that moves fluidly from one scene to another.

Memories dates back to 1995, but it is certainly an impressive example of anime's unique strengths and possibilities. The music, I should mention, plays an integral role in each film, especially Magnetic Rose - I think this DVD is worth owning just for this first amazing film alone. Otomo, Morimoto, and Okamuro are the same masters of anime who gave the world such wonders as Akira, Animatrix, and Ghost in the Shell, so anime newbies can rest assured that Memories will not disappoint."

Highly recommended for anime as well as sci-fi fans

Philip Lang | California, USA | 01/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first saw a trailer for "Memories" in 1996 while watching "Sabrina" at a theater in Nagasaki. I thought the bits of animation shown, along with the music were amazing and I was back in a theater when it came out. I've seen it several times since and I still regard it as one of the better anime films out there. Top rate animation, a fantastic score - I highly recommend trying to find the Victor Japan 1 1/2 disc original soundtrack (comprised of one full sized CD and a CD single sized disc 2, in some really cool packaging) - and great stories. The animation style of the three, like the different stories, are all different. Magnetic Rose is my favorite, and some of the imagery, paired with the haunting music (combining electronic music with Puccini arias and choral works), have had a lasting effect. Stink Bomb, touching on biological/chemical warefare as well as the military, is pretty damned funny, and even more relevant in today's current global climate. The final installment, Cannon Fodder, by Otomo-san, is the most original, both in terms of the animation style/character design and in the narrative. There is a weird "child's story" feel mixed with a Pink Floyd's "The Wall" vibe. I am just really excited that this is finally out on Region 1 DVD. This is a work of anime that is definitely more accessible to mainstream audiences (especially those who dislike the big, "saucer-eyed" style of anime). I am glad that I resisted buying the much more expensive Region 2 set. And did I mention how great the music is?Utte kimasu!"