Category: Genius Party

Ah, of course. Robot Carnival had Robots, the Animatrix had the Matrix and Genius Party has imagination. Every short movie is about imagination in one way or the other. Shanghai Dragon is the work of Shoji Kawamori, the guy behind Macross, who is currently directing Macross Frontier. There are indeed plenty of grand mecha-battles in this one, but I don’t think that you can predict what this one will be about, just by looking at Kawamori’s other series.

First of all, Shanghai Dragon is about a pair of Chinese kids (who also speak Chinese), but it’s also a satire, parodying the trope of the useless kid who suddenly finds the ultimate weapon. It’s just this time, the ultimate weapon is more ultimate than ever, and the kid also couldn’t be more useless. And yet, these have been some fun 20 minutes of airtime, mostly thanks to an adorable cast of characters, which manages to be dynamic, despite the short length of only 20 minutes.

It’s strange, though: the space-soldiers in this short speak Japanese, while the kids are Chinese, and they seem to have no problem understanding each other. The biggest flaw of this short, however, is the rather intrusive CG that sometimes doesn’t flow well with the other animation at all. Shoji Kawamori obviously couldn’t get the same budget for this episode as for an average Macross Frontier episode, and this shows. And it’s a shame, because the other graphics look pretty interesting.

Overall, Shanghai Dragon nothing special, but without a doubt a fun way to spend 20 minutes. Like Genius Party (the first short of Genius Party), it’s also full of symbolism. It may not be the most subtle storyline, but it’s both a parody and homage to an overused cliché in anime. It may start out like a joke in the beginning, but it ends strangely heart-warming.

Storytelling:	8/10
Characters:	8/10
Production-Values:	8/10
Setting:	8/10

Ah, why not? Who cares, I’m just going to write a different review for each part of Genius Party. I’m also reviewing the individual episodes of Kara no Kyoukai, so why not Genius Party? It’ll be an interesting experiment, to see whether these compilation movies are best reviewed as a whole of by their individual parts. Robot Carnival, The Animatrix, The Cockpit and Memories have always been difficult to review, simply because the quality of the different parts can be so incredibly different. When I watched Memories, I ended up not writing a review about it, simply because I didn’t know exactly what to say about the combination of Cannon Fodder and Magnetic Rose, and my review about the Animatrix probably doesn’t do justice to the amazing Second Renaissance.

Anyway, enough blabbering, onto the review. This one’s more for completion’s sake, as it’s more of an introduction than an actual short movie. The honour of kicking off Genius Party goes to Atsuko Fukushima, which couldn’t have been a better choice, as she also did the opening and ending for Robot Carnival. The first movie is called Genius Party for a reason, as it basically serves as an introduction to the rest of the shorts. It’s probably the shortest of all the movies, and instead for a straight and concrete storyline, it goes for the abstract approach.

Genius Party was meant to be surreal, a piece of art in a way. It’s up to the viewer to give his own interpretation of what happened, and you may want to end up watching this several times in order to properly catch what the heck went on there. It’s a thought-provoking piece, that an have many different interpretations.

Obviously, there’s only so much you can do in just five minutes and apart from a great style and a cryptic story, this first movie hardly anything more than that. Alone this won’t leave much of a lasting impression, but as an introduction, it serves its purpose.

Storytelling:	8/10
Characters:	6/10
Production-Values:	9/10
Setting:	7/10