Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari (Neo Tokyo)

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Manie Manie The Labyrinth Tales, Labyrinth Labyrinthos, Hashiru Otoko, The Order to Stop Construction, Construction Cancellation Order, Running Man, Meikyu Monogatari

Japanese: Manie-Manie 迷宮物語

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 3

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Sep 25, 1987

Producers: Kadokawa Shoten, Streamline Pictures

Licensors: ADV Films

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Novel

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural

Duration: 16 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.06¹ (scored by 12,806 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4053²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3800

Members: 34,267

Favorites: 129

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AniDB

ANN

7.06

Ranked #4053Popularity #3800Members 34,267

MovieMadhouse

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Episodes: /3

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Synopsis

Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari is an anthology film composed of three short films by acclaimed directors Rintaro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Katsuhiro Otomo.

Labyrinth Labyrinthos
While Sachi is searching for her cat, Cicerone, they both fall through a mirror and become trapped in a mysterious, mind-bending labyrinth. They follow a clown's shadow into the distance, not knowing where it will lead them.

Running Man
Bob Stone is a reporter working on an article about racer Zack Hugh, the ten-year reigning champion of an extremely popular and deadly automobile race. By the time the two meet, Zack's body and mind are shells of what they used to be. When the next race starts, Bob observes what happens when both man and machine are pushed to their breaking point, and what it takes to be an enduring champion.

The Order to Stop Construction
Salaryman Tsutomo Sugioka is dispatched into the heart of a dangerous jungle in order to halt a construction project after the foreman's mysterious disappearance. There, he discovers the deadly and uncontrollable world created by the automated construction robots. When the chief robot is resistant to his orders, Tsutomo must figure out another way to stop the project before his company's financial losses become too great.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Sachi

Main

Sugioka, Tsutomu

Main

Mizushima, Yuu
Japanese

Hugh, Zack

Main

Ginga, Banjou
Japanese

Stone, Bob

Supporting

Tsukayama, Masane
Japanese

Robot 444-1

Supporting

Ootake, Hiroshi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maruyama, Masao

Producer, Series Composition

Rintarou

Producer, Director, Script, Screenplay, Series Composition

Otomo, Katsuhiro

Director, Script, Character Design, Key Animation

Kawajiri, Yoshiaki

Director, Screenplay, Character Design, Animation Director

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

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Reviews

Nov 29, 2011

Alpharon

Recommended

Esta review también está en español.

Well, well... what do we have here...
Neo Tokyo is composed of three short films, each one directed by a giant of the anime industry. Since the works are so different from each other, I will comment them separately n_n.

Labyrinth labyrinthos (also known as Manie-Manie), by Rintaro (he participated in such things like Jungle Taitei, Astro Boy, Petshop of Horrors, X/1999 and many other renowned works).
This is the first short, and the most surreal of the three. LL introduces us to Sachi, a girl that, along her cat Cicerone, is sent to a giant maze, after crossing a clock/mirror/portal/whatever. Once in ...

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Oct 19, 2015

FAKEANIMEGIRL

Mixed Feelings

After greatly enjoying the movie Memories I thought it a good idea to check out Neo Tokyo, a similar compilation movie that adapts three of Taku Mayumura's manga short stories. Though the author and directors are different I thought with three attempts I would at least have a chance of finding one of them particularly memorable, while admiring the variety of the movie as a whole. Sad to say, it wasn't that simple and Neo Tokyo paled in comparison to its spiritual successor.

Neo Tokyo opens with Rintaro's (Shigeyuki Hayashi) Labyrinth Labyrinthos. As of writing, I haven't seen anything else he's directed so I don't know ... what his usual style is, but this piece is a near dialogue-free psychedelic trip that stars a little girl who chases her cat into a grandfather clock that functions as a portal into a strange world. This entire short segment is simply the little girl running through the strange and morphing land. With the "young girl chasing her cat into a surreal magical world" set-up this is very obviously inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but that book was carried by Lewis Carroll's acerbic wit as he justified all the eccentricities around Alice as natural. Labyrinth Labyrinthos is almost entirely a visual/auditory experience so it doesn't have that. What this means is the world loses its magic because there's no rhyme or reason holding all of its strange sights together. It's just a random display of sudden sights and transitions and is unimpressive because anyone could've come up with them. The skill comes in implying there actually is a direction behind the madness because it takes effort to find a pattern in something that's initially not recognizable. Perhaps another word for that is "inspiration". Labyrinth Labyrinthos looks magical but it doesn't feel magical. It's boring and not intriguing. The segment does feature some great character designs and coloring, but they end up amounting to almost nothing. The most clever thing about this segment is how it's set up as the framework for the other two.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Running Man follows. It suits his common serious "no humor" approach. In a bleak-looking futuristic world a reporter is hired to interview Zack Hugh, the continuous champion of a dangerous racing circuit known as the Death Circus. The reporter makes a shocking discovery about Hugh and bears witness to his bizarre final race that will never be forgotten. Running Man is the best of Neo Tokyo's segments, though it'd be more precise to say it's the one least lacking something. Again, almost no dialogue is here and the story is told visually yet is simple to infer. The high-speed racing thrills and technologically advanced backgrounds do the most justice to the movie's budget, and the western art style influence makes it a little more memorable as well. The race itself isn't very exciting to watch, but rather the strange things that happen during . Running Man has nothing mindblowing and it could be summed up in three sentences, but from a movie full of very simple stories it's the most satisfying to watch and suffers nothing from its brevity.

Last is Katsuhiro Otomo's Construction Cancellation Order. Otomo is the director of Akira, and it's very obvious through the art style. Though not set in a dystopian environment, the machinery and humans are clearly drawn by the same man who did Akira. Tsutomu Sugioka is an employee sent to the jungles of South America to order the halt of the company's construction project. Contact has been lost with the previous foreman, and upon arriving Sugioka realizes the lead robot is malfunctioning. The remaining running time is simply Sugioka's frustration with attempting to get the lead robot to listen to him. It's dull and makes Sugioka look like an idiot for not being able to fix his problem sooner in a number of possible ways. The segment has an ironic ending that feels completely out of place and undeserved. Though by far the most plot-heavy of the segments, Construction Cancellation Order's storyline has been done countless times before and there's nothing special about it in any way. The only reason it isn't the worst segment is because it at least has a hook and natural progression unlike Labyrinth Labyrinthos.

Neo Tokyo closes on the conclusion of Labyrinth Labyrinthos. A clown the little girl meets dances around and summons a bunch of friendly monsters. The girl, her cat, the clown, and the monsters all party while countless fireworks go off. This is by far better than the first half of this segment because it'll actually make you feel a tiny bit good. Then it's over.

And that last line kind of sums up Neo Tokyo as a whole. It's mildly weird and pretty enough to be worth 50 minutes, but it lacks the detailed storylines and superior animation of something like Memories. The most I'll take from the movie is its main theme song, which is actually kind of beautiful. Neo Tokyo actually feels like a compilation movie in a bad way. It's a set of three unfulfilling snacks that are supposed to amount to a whole meal, whereas Memories had three well-rounded meals that amounted to something more when had in progression. I've seen much more uninteresting anime but I don't think Neo Tokyo is something I'll recommend anyone.

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Oct 16, 2019

ktulu007

Not Recommended

Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari is a Madhouse production from the tail end of the 80s. It features three different segments, each from a different director. It's no secret that my history with Madhouse is heavily mixed. On one hand, they're the studio behind rubbish like Bio Hunter and the X-men anime. So nice of them to royally mistreat one of my favourite super hero teams. But they've also been behind such excellent anime as Monster & Petshop of Horrors. So, any time I see the studio attached to something, I don't know whether to expect garbage, mediocrity or something amazing.

Story:

The segments aren't really connected. So, I'll ...

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