Note: this review is for Magnetic Rose, Part 1 of the Memories collection.
I'm going to try something a little different for this, since these three movies are standalone titles, but there's only one entry for them on MAL. I'll edit and add to this when I've seen the other two movies, but first: Satoshi Kon and Magnetic Rose.
Overview:
Space is cold and dark. Space is empty and unfeeling. Space never ages. Within an iron cage deep in space, a team of four scavengers discovers a monument to the memory of a bygone age, one of the former glory of an opera star, but everything is not what it appears. Whether or not the singer herself is, her memories are very much alive- and they're after one thing: love.
Art: 9 (Artwork 9.5, animation 8)
Outstanding background artwork. Very reminiscent of BG art from Akira or Ghost in the Shell 95'. Idle animations are excellent, key frames decent. Character animations are good (WITH HAIR ANIMATED!). Mouths and body parts move appropriately and aren't the repetitive mannequin mouth or shadowed face when speaking. Some action sequences lost a bit of fidelity and frames, but overall very good, especially for it being the animation of 20 years ago.
Grotesque and typically crisp visuals, dark grays and browns mixed with more vibrant greens and reds in the hallucinations. A nice dynamic of color. The darkness and isolation of space are really set when seen from the exterior, with the old metal parts surrounded by deep blacks.
Sound: 9 (10 for Yoko, 8 for SFX and VA)
Soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, what can I say? Her talents are made excellent use of in this movie. To quote Stefan, "this club has everyhing: Haunting tones, opera music, a guitar, and screaming."
VA is fine, nothing much to report. Crunchy, satisfying metallic noises, guns sound decent.
Story: 8
There's not a whole lot I can say without getting into spoilers, but the basic premise is what I laid out in the overview: A team of explorers come upon a mysterious SOS signal emanating from an abandoned ship graveyard, which they're required to check out by law. Two of their men, Miguel and Heintz, infiltrate what appears to be a giant, rough hewn space station formed from the hulls of derelict ships in the graveyard, and find that the inside is actually someone, a former opera singer and international celebrity's home.
A series of inexplicable hallucinatory experiences later, and they find that there's something else alive within what was otherwise a metal tomb: the Memories of its previous occupant. What was previously a search and rescue quickly turns into a scramble for survival.
Characters: 6 (fair by MAL rating)
I rate 6 because I felt that the character development was somewhat incomplete, due to the short runtime and quick pacing of the movie. Two characters are not even addressed at all, other than as supporting the two mains, Heintz and Miguel. While we got some interesting insight into the aforementioned mains, I would have like to have seen more, but alas, the time did not allow for that, so not a whole lot to say here.
Enjoyment: 8
I enjoyed this all too brief movie. I feel that It could have benefited from another 15 or 20 minutes in length, to cover more of the backstory that was only seen in flashbacks and hallucinations. I didn't get a real feel for the characters in the show, but it was more of a mind trip than a character drama, so I can live with that.
Visuals were very good, Kanno's music was spectacular as always, and the symbolic ending was quite nice as well.
Irrelevant Side Note: Something I frequently see in animation and live action movies are when a character has a weapon, and subsequently encounters danger, that they abandon the weapon and later WISH THEY HADN'T LEFT IT IN A FIT OF PANIC. Well, they thought about that in this movie and addressed it: one of the characters not only retrieves his gun after losing it, but also picks up that of his friend's, AND makes use of them. +1 for that.
Overall: 8
Not a real mind blower, but intriguing and engaging.
+Satoshi Kon's writing
+Yoko Kanno's music
+crisp visuals
+/- Short runtime
-not enough characterization/unused characters
