A Wind Named Amnesia (1993)
So, this was a blast from the past - this was, literally, the first real anime I ever saw (I'm discounting the Americanized version of Dragonball, here). And unlike a lot of things from that era of my life, it actually stood up to the test of time pretty damn well.
The basic premise, without giving anything away too much, is that all of mankind has lost their memory, and reverted to animalism/babarism. Not really that new of an idea, but really, skillfully executed. The protagonist, named Wataru, is no exception, but encounters a boy who had part of his brain replaced with computers, and so didn't lose his memory. Ah, cyborgs, the best post-apocalypse trope, but this one with a twist. You see, the guy with the microsoft head doesn't do anything else; no lasers, no crazy jumping, nothing. He's actually in a wheelchair, which is kind of a neat way of turning the cliche on it's head. Anyway, after finding a way to teach Wataru a few things, wheelchair-boy dies, but gives Wataru a mission: go see what has become of the world.
What really impresses me about this is the animation and the character designs. You get the sense that the people working on this really loved it, wanting to do the best job they could bringing these characters to life. And, as the friend I watched it with said, you just don't see those types of designs anymore, proportioned like people instead of stick-figures.
If I were to put on caveat on all this fan-boy love, it would really be the ending. Though I like the fact that the movie doesn't really "resolve" in any meaningful way (the hero does ride off into the sunset, but when you consider how...), the five or so minutes leading up to that are rather unsatisfying. His companion's big sort-of reveal, which had been so heavily alluded to as to be almost laughable, felt hurried and cheap. The sex scene (get your mind out of the gutter, it was mostly dialogue) was just disappointing in its contrived-ness, and the departure of an utterly undeveloped character is lacking in emotional impact.
Still, this was a great movie, and I'll probably be watching it again and again for years.
The basic premise, without giving anything away too much, is that all of mankind has lost their memory, and reverted to animalism/babarism. Not really that new of an idea, but really, skillfully executed. The protagonist, named Wataru, is no exception, but encounters a boy who had part of his brain replaced with computers, and so didn't lose his memory. Ah, cyborgs, the best post-apocalypse trope, but this one with a twist. You see, the guy with the microsoft head doesn't do anything else; no lasers, no crazy jumping, nothing. He's actually in a wheelchair, which is kind of a neat way of turning the cliche on it's head. Anyway, after finding a way to teach Wataru a few things, wheelchair-boy dies, but gives Wataru a mission: go see what has become of the world.
What really impresses me about this is the animation and the character designs. You get the sense that the people working on this really loved it, wanting to do the best job they could bringing these characters to life. And, as the friend I watched it with said, you just don't see those types of designs anymore, proportioned like people instead of stick-figures.
If I were to put on caveat on all this fan-boy love, it would really be the ending. Though I like the fact that the movie doesn't really "resolve" in any meaningful way (the hero does ride off into the sunset, but when you consider how...), the five or so minutes leading up to that are rather unsatisfying. His companion's big sort-of reveal, which had been so heavily alluded to as to be almost laughable, felt hurried and cheap. The sex scene (get your mind out of the gutter, it was mostly dialogue) was just disappointing in its contrived-ness, and the departure of an utterly undeveloped character is lacking in emotional impact.
Still, this was a great movie, and I'll probably be watching it again and again for years.