Welcome to a special time of the year, where the best wandering spectacle you'll ever see shall bring happiness and smiles to all the children around. Action, romance, the beauty of arts; the Robot Carnival has them all! Nevermind the disrepair of the actual attraction, because you're about to embark on a special journey, where even a robot can dream of love! (Safety standards not guaranteed. Caution is advised around the firework devices).
Produced by A.P.P.P. in the middle of the 80's OVA craze, this anthology stands as a fascinating microcosm of the anime scene of the decade. Between the technically demanding, luscious visuals, the collaboration between nine renowned anime directors doing basically whatever they pleased, the particular outlook on technology it carries through and Joe Hisaishi's electronic score, everything about it couldn't have been made at any other point in animation history. Speaking of those directors (which include Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame), each segment brings a different flavor and tone representative of the many aesthetic and thematic trends around the time.
I wasn't kidding when I said this antology has a little of everything: black comedy, hot blooded shonen fights, the blossoming romance of youth (with some added flying robot sequences), a bit introspection about the nature of affection vs obsession, and even a fairly abstract music video spiced in, all presented in remarkably distinct visual styles with differing ammounts of dialogue too (though leaning mostly on the wordless).
Admittedly, it can be self indulgent and it carries some of the warts of the era (Flashing lights warning galore), but it's little wonder it has become a cult classic, being such a compelling argument about the varied qualities of anime as a medium. You're bound to like some segments more than others but for a pack of 9 for the price of 1 you can do a lot worse.
Now, I think it's worth getting a little more into detail about each segment, because you can see many of the strengths and fascinations of each director reflected on them, even bringing different sound directors and background designers to reflect their respective desired tones to fruition:
Opening/Ending
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Backgrounds: Nizo Yamamoto
Sound Effects: Kazutoshi Satō
Where people in the far future are tying to make a simple living in the desert when their lives are suddenly disturbed by a giant wandering machine that has been long in a state of disrepair. Serving as a framing device to the whole ordeal, these segments play into a fairly acrid sense of humor, between the Hannah Barbera sound effects, the jovial music and the expressive desert inhabitants played against the absurdity of the size of this malfunctioning carnival and the deadly threat it presents. Both segments have the attention to detail expeceted from Otomo, though used in more playful ways still laced with black comedy.
Franken's Gears(Furanken no Haguruma)
Director: Kōji Morimoto
Backgrounds: Yūji Ikehata
Sound Effects: Kazutoshi Satō
A brief reinterpretation of the story Frankenstein where the doctor is instead trying to create a masterpiece of a large robot, it's use of lighting is as impressive as it is epilepsy unfriendly. The wordless characterization is impeccable too, charming and silly with particularly smooth animation that focuses on character acting, which adds to the black comedy punchline of the segment.
Deprive
Director: Hidetoshi Ōmori
Backgrounds: Kenji Matsumoto
Sound Effects: Jun'ichi Sasaki
After an alien invasion where a young girl is captured by its robots, a wandering android charges into the enemy forces directly against their evil overlord to rescue her, for she is important to him.
A traditional hotblooded slugfest, the segment nevertheless encapsulates many of the visual stylings of 80's anime we don't see anymore, be it's approach to action framing, the particular way effects and particles are animated or the pervasive use of intense pitch black shadows on character designs. It's as straightforward as it gets but it's still a fine hyper brief action romp.
Pressence
Director: Yasuomi Umetsu
Backgrounds: Hikaru Yamakawa
Sound Effects: Kenji Mori Animation
Production Assistance: Shinsuke Terasawa, Hideki Nimura
In a distant future, a man keeps a secret from his family. A small, secluded cottage keeps it well hidden; an automata he's been constructing in the shape of a girl, for the man craves closeness he never got from his family...only to push her away and smash her to pieces the moment she shows more intelligence and a proper consciousness coming through the circuitry. Though, as years go by, he starts having visions of her.
Visually lush even for the standards of this OVA, the segment is a curious representation of obsession both in the contents of the story and the general aesthetic direction. Outside of the small parallels it has to (once again) Frankenstein, the emphasis it can have on background clutter or the borderline unnatural smoothness of the every move you see on screen. It says a lot this one required special animation assistance, almost every moving part of the production is animated on 1's.
Star Light Angel
Director: Hiroyuki Kitazume
Backgrounds: Yui Shimazaki
Sound Effects: Kenji Mori
When two girls meet at the theme park to have some fun, one introduces the other to her boyfriend. But when the second girl realizes he's someone who played with her feelings, she runs away in tears, meeting someone truly special who's willing to actually stay by her side in the process.
Effectively, what if A-Ha's Take on Me Music video wasn't about a girl and a comic book character but a girl and a robot disguised worker in a theme park... with giant antagonistic robots for some reason. It's as 80's as you can get in every possible sense, between the music, the simple but charming love story, the out of nowhere laser sequence (as well as the completely unexplainable flying sequence), the Akira character cameos in the background or even how the cheating boyfriend looks like Char Aznable from Gundam for some reason.
Cloud
Director / Scenario / Character Designer / Backgrounds / Key Animation: Manabu Ōhashi
Animation: Hatsune Ōhashi, Shiho Ōhashi
Sound Effects: Swara Pro
Music: Isaku Fujita
A small robot born from a cloud walks in front of different kinds of clouds, as the history of time unfoldsd in front of them.
That's really as much as you can parse from the plot in simple terms because this is where the movie gets abstract (and notoriously authorial). Minimalist on it's beauty, the short creates some genuinely striking imagery using an animation style that looks like it was drawn directly on pencil, with very simple movement each shot managing to be poster material you can hang on your wall. It's not particularly concerned with being spectacular as much as it is with being contemplative, and it's as engrossing as you're willing to interact with the piece on its own terms.
Basically, the dream of every art and animation student.
Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion (later known as A tale of two Robots: Part 3)
When a mad scientist from a foreign land brings up a giant steampunk automaton of terror to control the country, it's up to the youth of Japan to protect their homeland with a contrapction of their own. Unfortunately for both sides of the skirmish, and specially the people of Meiji era Tokyo... technology isn't quite up to the task yet.
Effectively, a parody of early film serials and World War II era propaganda films featuring the goofiest, lamest mecha battle ever where neither side looks partiularly intelligent in the process. It features staples of the mecha genre such as the bickering couple, the big second in comand and the young smart kid, just to lampoon the crap out of them, victory being achieved by serendipity and a generous dose of both stupidity and inneptitude on both sides.
It's patently ridiculous, and all the more humorous for it. And no, the later title doesn't allude to anythinng; there's no sequels or prequels to this thing.
Chicken Man and Red Neck
Director / Scenario / Character Designer: Takashi Nakamura
Backgrounds: Hiroshige Sawai
Sound Effects: Junichi Sasaki
As the apocalyptic robot wizard known as the Red Neck turns the inhabitants of Tokyo into robots ready for a feast, a single man avoided the terrifying fate. Only problem for everyone, he's not the smartest nor bravest of folks, so seeing all the commotion simply gets the poor bum to run screaming bloody murder.
If this plot summary sounds strangely structured, that's no coincidence. The segment in question follows fairly loose, dreamlike logic and is more interested in both the physical comedy of Chicken Neck's misfortune as well as using robot related imagery for visually imaginative and surreal scenarios that strangely remind me of old Disney shorts, namely some segments of Fantasia and their adaptation of Sleepy Hollow.
Is it poignant? Hardly. Is it visually fascinating? Oh, you bet.
