Ranked #1898

Roujin Z

Roujin Z is a futuristic, satirically funny, morality tale written by the reknowned Otomo Katsuhiro, more well known for the classic manga and anime Akira. The movie was directed by Kitakubo Hiryuki (Blood: The Last Vampire, Black Magic M-66), and received a great degree of critical acclaim, partly because it was written by Otomo Katsuhiro, but mainly because it was a movie that showed how anime was able to deal with themes that conventional filmmakers would find extremely difficult to cope with, especially given the time of it's release.

The story is set in the 21st century, and opens with the alarming news that there are too many old people in the world. Now, as everyone knows, healthcare is always a hot topic in political circles, and Roujin Z is no exception. The story in Roujin Z is satirical in the main, but it has disturbing echoes in the real world. The medical students in Roujin Z consider Geriatric care to be a career deadend, something that is also widely believed in the real world, and because of this, funding is provided for the development of the ultimate in geriatric care - the Z-001 "Superbed".

The Z-001 is designed to provide the patient with everything that they need, including home entertainment, baths, massages, attending to bathroom functions, performing diagnoses (and administering medication), etc, etc. The machine is powered by a mini atomic reactor, and is designed to function autonomously in the event of power shortages. The Z-001 is viewed as the future of geriatric care, and as a godsend to the young doctors and nurses and much of the populace, all of whom are unaware of the somewhat sinister nature behind the design of the Z-001.

Another aspect of the story is the inclusion of the Japanese belief that spirits can exist in any object, something which becomes a major theme later on in the movie.

The art and animation in the movie aren't really anything special. Generally the production is sturdy and well animated, but there is nothing really spectacular about it. The sound is equally well done, yet nothing special. My only gripe is that, with the english dub, the dialogue between the VAs tended to vary too much in style, intonation, and accent, from one person to another. Although the english dub is definitely watchable, I prefer the japanese dub on the whole.

There aren't many real characters in this story. The main two charcters are Takazawa Kujiro, the dying old man who is chosen as the test patient for the Z-001 prototype, and his nurse Haruko, who is against the idea of machines taking care of humans, especially her patients. Add to these two a mixture of police, scientists, politicians, military types, and student nurses.

Although the two main characters get much of the screen time, the real star of the show (in both the japanese and the english dub), is the Z-001 (if I explain more it would spoil the show).

Roujin Z is a bit of an odd movie on the whole, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. The movie itself addresses a theme that is becoming more and more relevant in the world, especially as people are now living longer than ever before. The fact that politicians and scientists come up with a method of geriatric care that has all the warmth and empathy of a thrown knife is a central part of the film, as is the callous disregard given to those people who allowed us to get where we are today.

This movie would appeal to many fans of many different genres, most especially fans of sci fi or black comedies. The film is darkly satirical from beginning to end, and is surprising in how openly it attacks the idea that simply caring for the body is caring for the patient.

Roujin Z - odd, satirical, enjoyable, and strangely enough, more relevant now than when it was first released. read more

The story is pretty entertaining and the Otomo vibe is definitely there. You can see Otomos trademark for example in the character of a guy pretty similar to the character of the colonel of Akira and in the animation too, which is pretty good and you feel familiar with it, even though Otomo being not credited for the animation I get the feeling that he did something in that department.
The story is about a new invention, a super bed that is able to take care of the elders like a nurse can take and even more. The thing is that this new invention goes berserk as there is more to it than meets the eye.
We also had a little of a Akira vibe in the story perfectly mixed with Shynia Matsumoto “Tetsuo the Iron Man”, in the department when [spoiler]the machine went berserk and started to assemble parts of other machines into its own body, that was pretty “Tetsuo” influenced, I wonder if it was intentional.
The characters were all decent, except perhaps some moments of the lead girl when she was running around screaming “Ojii-chan!! Ojii-chan!!” And in the end “Oba-chan!! Oba-chan!!”[/spoiler]
In terms of entertainment and overall feeling, I can relate this one with Otomos Stink Bomb. The little bits of well thought comedy, allied with political critic are very similar.

All in all a nice watch for an hour and 20 minutes.

Rate; 7.5/10 read more