This is a film I know some of you have heard of despite being pretty obscure. Only because the question I get the most often nowadays is "what anime is you avatar/signature set from?" so I've talked about this one with a few of you. Robot Carnival is a bit of a cheat here for me. It's actually an OAV in Japan but got it's theatrical release in the U.S. by Streamline Pictures. The film is actually a collection of nine (technically eight since two of the shorts are continuations of each other) that center on the theme of robots and each features a different major director.
The film is bookend by the main Robot Carnival short which takes place in the far future where civilization has fallen apart but relics of the glorious past still roam around in some shape or form. A village boy discovers the infamous Robot Carnival will be coming through his village and he tries to warn them so they can all escape. The Robot Carnival is pretty much what it says on the tin, a traveling carnival machine filled with derelict robots who have a bad pension of exploding and love audience participation. It's black comedy in its purest form. These sequences were directed by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame.
Franken's Gears is a comical parody of Frankenstein involving an old scientist trying to bring his robot creation to life via lightning. It's animated well and is childishly amusing as the robot apes his creator's movements to his detriment. It was directed by Koji Morimoto who worked with Otomo on a lot of his works and also has credits on Macross Plus, Fist of the North Star, and The Animatrix.
Deprive is a sentai series style short that is very reminiscent of Casshern and Android Kikaider. An alien robot invasion strikes earth and kidnaps a young girl who is trying to be saved by a helper robot. Later, the aliens fortress is attacked by a powerful human warrior who is revealed towards the end to be the helper robot remade into a combat robot to save earth. This short was done by Hidetoshi Omori who is apparently a major animation director who has worked on more things than I can mention but highlights include Inu-Yasha, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, Cyborg OO9, Android Kikaider, Kill A Kill, and most interesting of all, he was the animation director for Final Fantasy VII.
Nightmare (Chicken Man and Red Neck in Japanese) is a robot version of Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia which involves a strange robot (Red Neck) using it's powers to reawaken all of the broken and derelict robots within a city and lead them on a strange march through it. The Chicken Man is a lone homeless man who witnesses the event and eventually gets chased through the city by this macabre scene. It is both amusing and frightening at the same time. The short was directed by Takashi Nakamura who worked on Yatterman, AKIRA, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
Cloud is one of two serious pieces directed by Manabu Ohashi who worked as an animator for Cyborg 009, Sailor Moon, and Doreamon. This is a simple story following a robot walking the earth while the clouds in the background tell of the rise and fall of human civilization. It is one of the quieter pieces in the whole film and helps to serve as a break from the more kinetic pieces.
Star Light Angel is an amusing piece because it was apparently based off of the music video for A-Ha's Take on Me. The story is about two girls going to an amusement park only to discover that they are dating the same guy. One girl storms off and the short follows her as she tries her best to forget him while causing some surreal action throughout the park. The whole time she is being followed by a robot she's running from who turns out to be a concerned worker who is actually a human in a suit. The short was directed by Hiroyuki Kiyazume who worked on Zeta and ZZ Gundam which is incredibly obvious based on the character designs. He also worked on Moldiver and Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross.
A Tale of Two Robots (Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion in Japanese) is a hilarious short about a western mad scientist bulding a steam powered robot to conquer Japan, but is thwarted by a Japanese steam powered robot that was oriignally built for a parade. The whole thing plays out as a strange combiantion of WWII era Japanese propaganda films, and Kaiju battle. It also one of only two stories actually voiced and the cast is pretty hilarious even if the original English dub feels a bit uncomfortable from the awful fake Japanese accents. In the film adaption, it's the final short before the ending. It was directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo who worked on Black Magic M-66, Akira, Golden Boy, Roujin Z, and Blood: The Last Vampire.
Finally we have Presence, which is where my avatar and signature come from. This is the other voiced short and tells the sad story of a robot engineer who yearned for femininity in his life. He builds a robot girl who becomes self aware and falls in love with him, but his insecurity and her psychological evoltuion leads him to do something terrible that haunts him until his final days. This piece is easily one of the most haunting pieces of the film and the most recognizable part in promotional materials next to the actual Robot Carnival short. It also my favorite piece and was directed by Yasuomi Umetsu who worked on L.I.L.Y. Cat, Casshern: The Robot Hunter, and is probably best known as the creator of the infamous Kite films.
Overall, this is an awesome collection of shorts done by some really prolific animators and directors of 80s and 90s anime films. I love the range of all the pieces and its one of those films where there is probably something for everyone here if you stick with it to the very end. The animation quailty is also pretty top notch and really showcases the strngth of hand drawn works. I'd highly recommend it and it was thankfully recently re-released by Discotek Media four years ago, so it's much easier to find. I actually own both the VHS release and the original DVD release before Streamline Pictures went under.
Coming Up: It couldn't be, are you related to the Noble Ancestor?
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