I rented this movie one day and this anthology was very good. All of the shorts are based on manga by Katsuhiro Otomo and Otomo directs one short and the two others are directed by different people. Here are summaries of the shorts. If you want to see for yourself, you should not read these summaries: Magnetic Rose- This is the most thought-provoking short. Directed by Koji Morimoto (Animatrix), this short is about astronauts, answering a mysterious SOS signal, landing on an asteroid. The asteroid is actually an amalgamation of holograms, based on the memories of a mysterious opera singer named Eva Friedel, whose life went to turmoil after she lost her voice. Chaos ensues.
Stink Bomb- This is the funny short, although the subject matter is not funny. It is directed by Tensai Okamura (Wolf's Rain, Neon Genesis Evangelion). A stupid scientist has a bad fever and a friend suggests to sneak to his boss's office to take a prototype medicine that could cure him (the friend says that it's a blue pill in a red capsule). Instead of taking the "blue pill in the red capsule", our idiot hero takes the "red pill in the blue capsule", and as a result, he not only is cured of his fever, but he also becomes a walking, talking bio-weapon that kills millions of people and wreaks havoc in Japan. Chaos also ensues, and the ending is funny.
Cannon Fodder- This is the satire short. It is directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (the writer of the stories in the movie and the director of Akira and Steamboy). It is about a day in the life of a family that lives in an eerie country where cannons are fired at an unknown enemy. A little boy goes to a school where the teacher subliminally shoves war and glory into examples of work (physics of firing a cannon, cannons in math problems, etc.) The boy's mother works in a factory where they make the cannon shells. The boy's father helps load the shell into a cannon. As everybody else does hard work (fueled by jingoism such as "There Is No Conquest Without Labor"), some fat ugly person people call a ruler just walks to the cannon in pretentious uniform and fires the cannon. He just pushes a damn button, and he just walks there in a blaze of glory, pushing a button. He may fire at the enemy, but the workers did a more gutsy job than the ruler. Obviously, this is meant to be satire, as you'll find out in the ending. Usually, people might say this is the worst of the shorts, but if you go beyond the surface, you'll discover the message: War is not only bad, but it is a stupid/simple way for people to keep their minds off of reality by relying on imaginations of the enemy when they do not know who the enemy is, and those that question that might wind up dead.
I love these shorts, but the only problem (though small) is that all of these shorts are from the imagination of one person. Sure different people directed, but they were all manga by one person. I'd like to see completely different people writing stories when it comes to anthologies. It is a small problem and I don't care. Nevertheless, these shorts are great and they are different ("Rose" is thought-provoking, "Stink Bomb" is darkly comic, and "Cannon" makes fun of reality). ' I give this anthology of anime a 10/10
Stink Bomb- This is the funny short, although the subject matter is not funny. It is directed by Tensai Okamura (Wolf's Rain, Neon Genesis Evangelion). A stupid scientist has a bad fever and a friend suggests to sneak to his boss's office to take a prototype medicine that could cure him (the friend says that it's a blue pill in a red capsule). Instead of taking the "blue pill in the red capsule", our idiot hero takes the "red pill in the blue capsule", and as a result, he not only is cured of his fever, but he also becomes a walking, talking bio-weapon that kills millions of people and wreaks havoc in Japan. Chaos also ensues, and the ending is funny.
Cannon Fodder- This is the satire short. It is directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (the writer of the stories in the movie and the director of Akira and Steamboy). It is about a day in the life of a family that lives in an eerie country where cannons are fired at an unknown enemy. A little boy goes to a school where the teacher subliminally shoves war and glory into examples of work (physics of firing a cannon, cannons in math problems, etc.) The boy's mother works in a factory where they make the cannon shells. The boy's father helps load the shell into a cannon. As everybody else does hard work (fueled by jingoism such as "There Is No Conquest Without Labor"), some fat ugly person people call a ruler just walks to the cannon in pretentious uniform and fires the cannon. He just pushes a damn button, and he just walks there in a blaze of glory, pushing a button. He may fire at the enemy, but the workers did a more gutsy job than the ruler. Obviously, this is meant to be satire, as you'll find out in the ending. Usually, people might say this is the worst of the shorts, but if you go beyond the surface, you'll discover the message: War is not only bad, but it is a stupid/simple way for people to keep their minds off of reality by relying on imaginations of the enemy when they do not know who the enemy is, and those that question that might wind up dead.
I love these shorts, but the only problem (though small) is that all of these shorts are from the imagination of one person. Sure different people directed, but they were all manga by one person. I'd like to see completely different people writing stories when it comes to anthologies. It is a small problem and I don't care. Nevertheless, these shorts are great and they are different ("Rose" is thought-provoking, "Stink Bomb" is darkly comic, and "Cannon" makes fun of reality). ' I give this anthology of anime a 10/10