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.

Story: 9 (this is not shallow. this is not lack of development. this is parsimonious model of story)
Art: 9 (i like the art, animation, and pale color...typical old anime style)
Sound: 5 (not so engaging, but that's okay)
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 10

When coming to Mecha, often i see similar theme that was either wars between parties involved to get limited resources or protecting their home from evil darkness. This theme was okay for us at appropriate amount but human being cannot accept this amount when it exceed the inflection point where, after that point, the level of enjoyment becomes gradually decreasing. Unfortunately, back from the history of ... anime to the recent anime years, this theme has exceed our inflection point. It is just telling the same theme and pattern but at different way, merely repeated re-interpretation.

Roujin Z is the only anime that i've ever seen so far that disrupt the doomed cycle of similarity within mecha theme. It's about entirely different things that are unique, creative, original, all of which was meant to criticize the dark side of commercialism and Mediacare benefit for elderly but within Japanese context, while the other party (US research & development) gains in smart way. Typical respond for this political matter was arguably uninteresting for most 20s-age people but Roujin Z manages to cope this problem by involving typical fighting mecha with military, polished with its creativity and imagination to make the fighting to become unusual, and armed with great art and animation of course. This is the aspect that enough for me to give Roujin Z overall 10 ratings because that's the important thing when involving art.

Another reason for my 10 ratings is that, although the concern of this anime is the lack of story stretching (we want more story development beyond this. we want more!!), it is quite reasonable to be humble for this aspect and forgive it unless there is incremental development from other authors. Moreover the premise of the arguably simple story is strong enough to tell the whole picture, making it unnecessary to be explained more further. That's why this anime stand on its own in less crowded space.

Some might argue this anime was silly or dumb. And some might argue the story is too short and shallow. My counterargument for this: it is silly but not silly and watching anime shouldn't be so serious unless the anime itself forces us to be so serious. So that's why Roujin Z makes more fun to watch than deep political theme of mecha in Jin-Rou or Ghost in the SHell series.

Growing tired and frustrated with caring for the elderly simply because it's cost demanding and physically taxing. The government plans on putting to action "Project Z". They build a supercomputer dubbed Z-001, which is in the form of a bed that is linked to a persons brainwaves, and in theory provides all of the essential needs to care for them, which sounds like a great idea. However, it's devoid of the caring emotion that one needs from other people. Their first unwilling patient is Mr. Takazawa. The nurse caring for him named Haruko is uneasy about his situation, and she attempts to free him but ... there is more to the bed itself than expected.-summary

I'm not a rocket scientist and I never claimed to be one, but it doesn't take one to see the primary reason why this anime film is hailed as a classic. Can anyone guess why? Well, it's written by the creator of Akira himself Katsuhiro Otomo. Therefore, this film is great and it's a classic because he can do no wrong. Personally, I never bought into Akira's masterpiece status, and I don't buy into this films status as great anime either. I find it to be decent at best.

It appears that Otomo was shooting for something thought provoking and he succeeded. Roujin Z definitely has a very interesting concept. I do know what it's like to help take care for an older person whom can't feed or wash themselves. It can definitely feel like a burden a lot of the time, and sometimes one could just wish that the person would go away. It's a very evil and selfish way of thinking but that's human nature.

The film uses these feelings to establish an emotional link with the viewer, and at the same time it provides a solution to their problem. The people's reaction to the first live display of the bed's capabilities is proof. At first, the direction was pretty well done painting a picture of the selfish nature of people. Some of the folks in the audience were even uttering that they can now take a vacation. They completely ignored that the person still needs care from other human beings. Otomo had something serious and really deep going on here, but decided to turn it into a satire of Japan's feelings towards the elderly. I wish he could have been more serious with this one.

I really didn't care for the direction that the film went, and I wasn't gripped by the plot at all. The film dabbles between comedy and action in the form of a silly cast, as well as uninteresting mecha fights. The only reason why my rating doesn't plummet any lower is because the mecha battle and wacky madness is actually necessary. They play into the themes and the heavy symbolism taking place with Takazawa. The substance present in the film can seriously have some viewers saying "Wow!", once everything finally comes together. I really didn't have a problem with the music, because it fits well with the comedy and action but there's nothing truly note worthy. This also goes for the voice acting which didn't stand out to me for neither language.

The bit of comedy present certainly delivers through the animation and artwork. The facial expressions can be funny on certain occasions, and the action scenes have decent animation. The viewer gets to know several characters personalities somewhat but there isn't much for character development outside of Takazawa.

Overall, I feel Roujin Z is worth a watch to the more serious anime fan. It's not something I'll be watching again and I don't consider it bad, but it could have done without the silliness. If you come into this searching for loads of blood and action, or even a dark angst ridden story shades of Akira. Then you'll definitely be disappointed.

Highs: Realistic and interesting concept

Lows: Typical characters, weak plot half way through