Here is something that dawned to me while watching A Wind Named Amnesia, about modern anime movies: they aren’t rushed. Sure some of them are bad and all, but I don’t think I can name any movie that premiered during the past years whose story did not sort-of fit in the time that was allocated to it. Some may be fast-paced, but no movie really lacked entire arcs that should have been animated as well. It’s an interesting observation, considering how this is a problem that many TV-series and OVAs suffer from.
Some of the old movies also suffer from this, to take A Wind Named Amnesia just as an example. I haven’t read the manga (coming from the same original author as Vampire Hunter D), but at times, especially near the end, it feels like the creators skipped entire volumes out of time constraints, just to get to a very strange and confusing ending that doesn’t fit in the story in the slightest as a result. If you plan to watch this series, be aware of a very incomplete story.
The story that’s there impressed me, though. It is centred around a basic, but very interesting question, and the vast majority of this movie is dedicated to studying human behavior. It asks questions behind human culture and civilization, and what would happen if all of that would disappear: what would drive them and how do they survive when suddenly their entire lives are turned upside down? The movie is only 80 minutes long, which is way too little to really get in depth on the theme, but the stories that did make it into the movie are wonderfully told, and very interesting to boot.
It’s a very lonely movie. There’s this melancholy throughout the entire airtime that only gets strengthened thanks to some well chosen and performed background music. The protagonist here is excellent in the way that he is easy to relate to in the chaotic world that this movie portrays, while learning a lot throughout the movie and his backstory.
The animation isn’t the most consistent for a movie: some parts are really well animated, others a bit less, but it still is a visually impressive movie with strong character designs. But yeah, the ending jumps around way too much without any build-up. Ideally, this should have been a TV-series, not a movie.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 – Excellent atmosphere, but way too short for its story, which especially bites back at the end. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Both the lead and side characters are wonderfully portrayed in the short time that this movie has for them. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Excellent soundtrack, nice, though not the most consistent animation. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – Based on a number of excellent ideas, and takes excellent advantage of this. |
Suggestions:
– Please Save my Earth (done by the same director, and again ridiculously rushed despite having an awesome premise)
– Strange Dawn
– Saishuu Heiki Kanojo
Well, like many movies this is also an adaption of a novel. In this case it’s a SF-novel by Kikuchi Hideyuki named 風の名はアムネジア, also published in English under the same title as the movie “A Wind Named Amnesia”.
The novel is relatively short with about 250 pages compared to many adaptions nowadays, but like many novel adaptions this seems to crumble under the content of the source.
I still have to see this movie though as it’s quite important.
awsome movie loved it