Memories

Memories is a compilation of three standalone short films encompassing different genres.

Magnetic Rose
In the far reaches of space, after tracing a distress signal to a large abandoned space station, a pair of engineers—Heintz Beckner and Miguel Costrela—find a derelict mansion and decide to explore on foot. Their investigation reveals a dark secret surrounding the fate of Eva Friedel, a renowned opera singer with a tragic history. Hallucinations soon begin to plague them, and they must fight to retain their sanity in order to escape the station alive.

Stink Bomb
Hapless lab technician Nobuo Tanaka consumes some pills at his laboratory to cure a cold. Unknown to him, however, the pills are actually experimental drugs that enhance his flatulence to a lethal degree. As the toxic gas escaping him kills everyone in his vicinity, he is ordered by his superiors to retreat to the company headquarters in Tokyo. The journey to the city is made all the more arduous as Nobuo struggles with his deadly odor while the police, military, and foreign adversaries are hot on his trail.

Cannon Fodder
In a fortress city filled to the brim with cannons, a young boy wishes to surpass his father by becoming a revered artillery officer. Despite no proof of an enemy nation, he cannot resist the urge to partake in the daily bombardment routines organized by the city. Whether at school or just before bedtime, he only dreams of someday firing a cannon for the sake of his homeland.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Beckner, Heintz Main

Isobe, Tsutomu Japanese

Tanaka, Nobuo Main

Hori, Hideyuki Japanese

Friedel, Eva Main

Takashima, Gara Japanese

Boy Main

Hayashi, Yuu Japanese

Costrela, Miguel Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Mother Main

Yamamoto, Keiko Japanese

Father Main

Yamada, Keaton Japanese

U.S. Military Officer Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Grandma Supporting

Kyouda, Hisako Japanese

Kamata Supporting

Saka, Osamu Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Kawajiri, Yoshiaki Producer, Key Animation

Watanabe, Shigeru Producer

Inoue, Hiroaki Producer

Reviews

Sep 29, 2024

YoungVagabond

Recommended

Watching “Memories” in 2024, it's a unique relic one can instantly ascribe to the mid 90's, even without knowing its release year beforehand. For one, it's a compilation film, which were last popular, whether animated or live-action, in the mid 90's. (“Four Rooms” also came out in 1995, amusingly enough) It also features distinct animation styles which I've always loved, but have sadly fallen out of use. And not just an updated version of Katsuhiro Otomo's prominent noses and realistic faces we all know from 1988's “Akira”. Let's examine each of the three segments separately and then discuss how they coalesce together.

1. Magnetic Rose

When ... one thinks of the best 90's anime, Magnetic Rose deserves a mention.

A space freighter receives a distress call and two crew members are sent to investigate. They come upon a gorgeous mansion and see visions of a long-dead opera star.

This was the first significant contribution by Satoshi Kon to the anime genre, who would go on to be one of its greatest geniuses with the movies “Perfect Blue”, “Millennium Actress”, “Tokyo Godfathers”, and “Paprika”. He wrote the script, a fine example of his ability to blend darkness and tragedy with incredible beauty and pure, unbridled emotion.

To talk too much about the short would ruin its surprise, but it clings to the “memories” theme more intensely than the next two segments do. The bitter memories of the opera singer Eva Friedel haunt the mansion and all those who come in contact with it. Crew member Heintz is haunted by memories of a family tragedy which the mansion tortures him with. As with Kon's later work, the symbolism and beauty mix together magically throughout, with a picturesque ending.

My wife complained that much of the segment was predictable, having played survival horror games like “Dead Space” and watched “Event Horizon”. This is fair, but one should note that “Memories” preceded most of those. I'm not claiming it was the first such story; Stanislaw Lem's “Solaris” was published in 1961, featuring a ghostly space station where the protagonist is tormented by visions of his lost lover. However, the subject was much fresher in 1995.

Overall, this is a wonderfully executed, beautiful example of 90's anime.

2. Stink Bomb

Sick office worker Nobuo gets a shot and then unwittingly eats an experimental capsule at his work, the combination turning him into an overwhelming, very stinky bioweapon threatening all of Japan.

The first act is a neat look at 90's Japanese office culture, much humbled from its 80's economic golden age, after crashes in 1990 and then 1992. Perhaps that was an inspiration for the dark comedy, displaying how workplace incompetence, including working through illness, can cause an entire company to perish. In this case literally so.

After that we get a bunch of scenes of Nobuo, utterly oblivious to the death and destruction he is causing, driving all across Japan as the military repeatedly tries and fails to kill him. It's modestly funny to begin with but gets less comical with each iteration. By the end, one can't help wondering why the hell all the bullets and bombs are magically missing and leaving him unscathed, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. That might work if this was treated as a pure farce, but we're also subjected to serious discussions between high-ranking military and political leaders, which clashes discordantly with the slapstick.

The ending is supposed to be a surprise, but is fairly predictable, while also being impossible and nonsensical. Despite that negative appraisal, there was no other clear way to end this black comedy.

Overall, it's okay, but a far cry from Magnetic Rose, and the most forgettable of the three shorts.

3. Cannon Fodder

Utilizing a unique visual style rarely found in anime, we get a gritty, dirty tale of some European hellhole which has devoted all its resources and elite human capital to building, maintaining, and firing cannons at an unseen enemy. The characters are ugly, deformed, and dirty, the architecture is brutalist, and the living quarters shabby and cramped. It does a fine job of depicting the terror and risk of firing the behemoth cannons.

One can easily guess where the cannonballs are actually going to, and the segment depicts this for just a few moments, well before the conclusion.

The ending itself lacks resolution, as the main character, a young boy, simply goes to sleep. It's a memorable visual exercise conveying its setting exceptionally well, with a few neat scenes, but ultimately feels pointless. What did we learn here? That militaristic governments are bad, through an especially silly caricature of one? This desperately needed something more. At least a punchline.

Magnetic Rose is by far the best and most significant of the trio, and choosing to open with it was likely a mistake. Frankly, Memories would have had a far stronger ending, and perhaps a larger emotional impact had it opened with the simple, short Cannon Fodder, kept Stink Bomb as the comic interlude, and ended with the majestic, tragic science fiction tale.

All that said, Memories is slightly more than the sum of its parts. The segments are all different enough in tone, style, and even the animation to engage the viewer when one ends and the next begins.

Overall, one excellent segment and two solid, if flawed ones make for a very good anthology.

74/100

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 7, 2024

RyanSpring

Recommended

Memories is tricky to review for two reasons- 1. Rather than being a movie in and of itself it is actually a collection of three entirely different movies, which are completely unrelated to each other and from different directors, and 2. At the time of this writing it is nearly THIRTY YEARS OLD, and while you can certainly look back at something and review it from a modern perspective or discuss how well or how poorly something has aged, the only proper and fair way to review a piece of art is in its own time. With those important items out of the way, let's ... get into it!

The three movies, while all generically sci-fi to varying degrees, are not particularly similar or of the same subgenres. The first movie, Magnetic Rose, has a space theme and setting, could be aptly categorized as adventure and mystery and dips lightly into horror, though I think simply calling it creepy or spooky might be more applicable. The second film, Stink Bomb, is more or less just a comedy or perhaps to some extent a parody. The final film, Cannon Fodder, is steampunk with a military subtheme and one could argue it is also a social commentary.

It would be fair to say that all three films are artistic, original, experimental, prime examples of "anime as an art form" and a far more pure form of the medium than what we see today. They put a creative type at the helm and gave him the green light to create whatever he wants rather than the overwhelming majority of modern anime that feel very corporate and have to go through a cost/benefit analysis before they can be created. These films also look INCREDIBLE for 1995. Obviously thirty year old graphics won't blow anyone away today, but wow were they a visual marvel for the time! The amount of detail and very obvious thoroughness and care put into these pieces absolutely oozes off the screen and only magnifies one's appreciation for how dedicated these artists were to their work.

As far as the individual films, while I genuinely enjoyed all of them to varying degrees, the clear winner for me was the first film, Magnetic Rose, which felt a notch or two above its successors. It felt fleshed out, very well-paced, atmospheric, creepy, original and genuinely engaging from start to finish. This was by far the closest of the three to an actual MOVIE with an actual STORY rather than simply feeling like a setting and a concept. I have very few criticisms about this film and would confidently give it an 8.5 or even a 9, and if the entire anthology were as good as this opening film, Memories would be a timeless masterpiece.

Stink Bomb was perhaps more amusing than actually funny, and it continued to be more and more over the top as the film continued on, but unless you really appreciate its one and only joke and are way into the base concept, I don't see how one wouldn't feel like this film drags on a little too long, wears out its welcome and simply doesn't have enough meat on the bone to justify its runtime. There's zero character development here and its simplistic plot revolves around one thing and one thing only. To love this film you have to find its base concept hilarious to begin with and then you have to still find it hilarious 40 minutes later. I definitely got to a place around the midway point where the joke just wasn't funny anymore and it was like "Okay, I get it. Is there more to this?" and the answer is no, there is not. For me, this film is perhaps a weak 7. It looks nice, it's mildly amusing but there really isn't anything to it beyond that.

The third film, Cannon Fodder, is probably going to be the most hit or miss for most viewers. It's simplistic, lacks character development or meaningful plot points and is closer to a fleshed out setting and concept rather than a proper "story". My wife liked this film the least of the three and found it outright boring, which I can see others agreeing with, but for those a bit more appreciative of art, social commentary, bigger picture messages and concepts to think about after the credits roll, perhaps this is for you. Thematically, and as far as its allegorical message is concerned, this is the strongest piece. It's also the shortest piece, so I feel like this should be inoffensive and pretty enough to look at for most people even if you don't find its content riveting. This is likely the most difficult film to give a rating to because first and foremost it's trying to give you something to think about, and depending on how well that resonates with you and how much you care about its message, your personal score for this may vary wildly. I feel comfortable giving it a 7.

Ultimately I am going to give this collection a 7.5. Generally speaking I click "Mixed Feelings" rather than "Recommended" for anything below an 8, but in this case I'm going to make an exception and go ahead and recommend it because if nothing else it's an excellent representative example of anime as an art form and it's very original and has a notably distinctive feel compared to the overwhelming majority of modern anime. It's worth experiencing for how unique it is, even if it doesn't end up being your cup of tea. This anthology is probably best enjoyed a smaller, more specific audience, who I think will really love it, rather than "for the masses", and I think it's very important that those kind of anime continue to live on and not everything is about marketability and profit.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 7.5-8
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7.5

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 31, 2024

Ba-Cii10

Mixed Feelings

Funny

An anime film composed of three different stories, interesting....


Movie 1-Magnetic Rose

The story tells the story of a group of space engineers who received an SOS signal somewhere in the middle of space and decided to go to help those who sent it...

A very atmospheric beginning, the attention to detail is amazing, we can easily feel that we are somewhere in space with people living like this on a daily basis.

The animation is great, as befits a movie, but what impresses me even more is the sound design, the saxophone in the background does the job, it's a pity that ... from the moment we reach the ship sending the SOS signal, the story starts to get stupider and stupider.

I think the characters are too accepting of the weirdness they encounter, like a palace in the middle of a spaceship isn't weird to them? if not, the anime should explain it because it's weird to watch.
They no longer behave rationally on this ship and do stupid things, are they really a space crew? The fact that they separated is the stupidest thing of all.
They don't make realistic decisions and don't ask valid questions about what's happening here, there's a big dissonance between a credible beginning.
And that's how it is for half the movie, but despite the low credibility of what was happening, the mystery and tension saved it all, the atmosphere pouring out of the screen was still there, then they completely let go of the brakes on the hallucinations , everything turned into an oric dream, cool, but the topic of this anime although quite interesting, it turned out to be too simply presented and served on a platter and some of the secrets were predictable, the MC thread connects nicely with the topic but in the end nothing comes of it and does not arouse any emotions, the final explanation of it all was quite interesting but not as if it could be if everything was more subtle, it's not always expected, but such a short anime has too little time to compensate for it somehow.
7/10

Movie 2-Stink Bomb

A very stupid beginning of this story, important capsules that should not be taken are normally on the desk in the office that anyone can enter... then it doesn't get better, stupidity after stupidity and I don't know what purpose it serves, it sounds like a "comedy" of errors to me it's not working.
I honestly gave up about halfway through.
4/10


Film 3-Cannon Folder

Well..it seems like a satire on Germany during WW2 or other regimes.
A stylized and pessimistic, quite unique story, the senselessness and absurdity of war, people presented as cogs in the machine, children who will inherit all this "dirt" and the wheel of shit will continue.
A pleasant, although slightly depressing anime with an interesting visual setting that makes watching the events on the screen much more interesting.
A huge advantage is that the length is perfect, the anime shows everything it has to show and is not forced, short and to the point.
8/10

Due to the fact that the second and worst part takes so much time, I cannot 100% recommend this movie as a whole, so it gives me "mixed feelings" but ultimately I encourage you to check it out for yourself.
7/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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	Poll: Memories: Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) cantius - Jun 25, 2009	105 replies	by WilliamMinerva20 »» Nov 26, 8:22 AM
	Poll: Memories: Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) cantius - Jun 26, 2009	80 replies	by lonewatcher565 »» Oct 24, 4:33 AM
	Poll: Memories: Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Jonnieh - Apr 30, 2009	93 replies	by lonewatcher565 »» Oct 20, 12:24 AM
	Nazi Symbolism animejnkie - Apr 9, 2009	4 replies	by luckyducky9999 »» Sep 29, 2023 5:30 AM
	help Starlord09 - Mar 1, 2023	11 replies	by GoCrayzee »» Mar 4, 2023 8:59 AM

The Brilliant Manga of Satoshi Kon

Before he was one of the greatest anime directors of all time, Satoshi Kon was a manga artist. From early success in college to ambitious collaborations with the likes of Katsuhiro Otomo and Mamoru Oshii, his manga work is highly recommended to better understand his genius.

by removed_user

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