Memories

Three short films. Katsuhiro Otomo produced, three directors, one anthology that the fansub community passed around for a decade because nothing else quite occupied the same space.

Magnetic Rose: two salvagers respond to a distress signal from a derelict space station. Inside: the preserved world of a famous opera singer, her memories materialized as architecture. The space station is a haunting. They should leave. They do not leave. Satoshi Kon directed this before Perfect Blue, before Millennium Actress, before anyone outside Japan knew his name. It remains one of the finest pieces of science fiction animation ever made.

Stink Bomb: a government researcher accidentally ingests an experimental drug, becomes a biological weapon, and rides his bicycle toward Tokyo because he cannot understand why everyone around him keeps dying. It is a comedy. It is extremely funny. Tensai Okamura directed it as pure farce and the farce is pitch-perfect.

Cannon Fodder: a city whose entire purpose and culture is oriented around firing a single enormous cannon at an enemy that is never shown or explained. Rendered in a single unbroken visual style that resembles no other animation before or since. Otomo directed it himself.

Start with Magnetic Rose. Then watch it again.