Memories (movie)
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Memories (also Otomo Katsushiro's Memories) is a 1996 anime based off three manga by artist/director Otomo Katsuhiro. The film is comprised of three episodes: "Magnetic Rose", "Stink Bomb" and "Cannon Fodder".
Magnetic Rose
"Magnetic Rose" is about what happens when a deep space corporate freighter is called upon to investigate a distress signal from what, by all rights, is a derelict space station. The space station is run by the deranged AI imprint of a lovelorn, jaded opera diva, who controls the station's functions, including its life support systems and, to more dramatic effect, its VR holography and supporting nano-technical systems.
Directed by Morimoto Koji. Script by noted anime director Kon Satoshi, from a story by Otomo Katsuhiro.
Stink Bomb
More comical in tone than "Magnetic Rose", "Stink Bomb" concerns a young man who shows up to work at a bioresearch facility whilst flu-ridden. He takes some pills at a colleague's insistence. The pills he takes, however, are part of a biological weapon program. He soon acquires a deadly (literally) body odor and becomes a walking weapon of mass destruction. The self-defense forces, in scenes reminiscent of the UN's failed attempts to deter Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion, futilely attempt to keep him from delivering the toxins to Tokyo.
Perhaps noteworthy for its portrayal of a Japanese war room (a scene common in kaiju films) as under the authority of the American occupation.
Directed by Okamura Tensai. Script by Otomo Katsuhiro.
Cannon Fodder
A walled city perpetually at war, everyone's lives and livelihood depend upon maintaining and firing the cannons, the millions of cannons, from cannons the size of the Seagrams Tower to the cannons the size of a bottle of Seagrams, the entire city is cannons. Cannons take the place of smokestacks, of satellite dishes and TV antennae. The action directly concerns a young boy and his father, who helps load the ballist, but is really about the faceless masses who slave to fuel and maintain this parody of the twentieth century war machine.
Written and directed by Otomo Katsuhiro.