even if i didn’t bring Grandfather I’d sacrifice my first-born child for the live-action Blu-ray, if they don’t sell out (they sold out), I’ll definitely rubberneck on equally attractive copies. Memories And robot carnival-Two of the greatest anime anthology collections of all time. His presence not only inspired my on-a-budget ass to make next month’s rent a problem, but he also rekindled my desire to see what a renaissance of the format would look like today.
Before you ask, yes, Memories And robot carnival Put me in your “good old thing” bag more than I’d like to admit. Hey, I’ve referenced them whenever I write about compilations that have nothing to do with them. How can I not? To me, they are pure forms of creation, I hold them in high esteem as a metric for measuring anything. Of course, leaving it at “they don’t make anime like they used to” doesn’t completely explain my craving for anime anthologies.
My problem is not that they exceed my rubric for the anthologies that follow them; The thing is that it is very rare for any anime anthology to come out. And by proxy, there are also original works, where established and emerging creators come together to create kaleidoscopic visions nowadays as a launching pad for what’s next, rather than playing in a sandbox whose corners have been well-explored or adapting other works.
let’s start Memories. Released in 1995, Memories saw great creators like Masao Maruyama (Pluto) work together with Katsuhiro Otomo (akira), Satoshi Kon (perfect blue), Yoko Kanno (for composer cowboy bebop, macros plusAnd Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), Tensai Okamura (darker than Black), and Koji Morimoto (founder of Studio4°C).
Similarly, old robot carnival Saw a similar performance from visionary animators. Against of MemoriesConsisting of three explicitly imaginative short stories, the 1987 anime anthology told nine stories. With Otomo and Morimoto, robot carnivalAnime’s heavy hitters included lead animator Hidetoshi Omori (Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack), Yasuomi Uematsu (mezzo forte), Hiroyuki Kitazume (bubblegum crisis), Mao Lambdo (cyborg 009), Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Golden Boy), Takashi Nakamura (Newbie of the Valley of the Wind), and Atsuko Fukushima (ashita no jo).
Naturally, these lists of names are enough to make anyone’s eyes widen if they have a ball with anime. But what makes them even more remarkable is that, beyond collecting all the best ever made in anime, it also serves as a gateway for these creatives. Chief among them is that it served as one of Kon’s first major screenwriting gigs, after which Otomo returned to creating short stories. akiraAs a testing ground for Studio4°C’s titular aesthetic to be established on a bigger stage, before they made it big, and before Okamura became darker than Black. And it’s really great to think how an anime anthology covers all of this.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that anime anthologies, as we know them, are a relic of the past. projects like star wars: vision, love, death + robotAnd secret level has kept that energy alive, showcasing what studios around the world can do when they’re allowed to live up to their artistic capabilities. And what they have to show for it, whether it’s expanding the small scope of the galaxy far, far away, re-contextualizing classic games, or delivering incredible fantasy fantasy short stories, is remarkable in itself. They do brave things by keeping their flame alive.
Despite being the worst streamer for animation – a sentiment that grows truer with each passing day – I also have to give props to Prime Video for this Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26One of the latest examples of this height I’ve been chasing. It features eight short stories adapted from the collaborative efforts of Studio PA Works, Zex, Lapin Track, Studio Kafka, 100Studio, and Studio Graph77. chainsaw man Producer before becoming a household name fire Punch.
also the miracle of Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 That barely scratches the itch I have for the return of an anime anthology that exists as a time capsule of one of manga’s great writers. A lot of this has to do with the fact that those short films were adaptations of stories I’d already lived with, with studios working within the same framework of mind. And the closer it comes to restoring that feeling, Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 Effectively felt like a damp cloth to soothe my chapped lips. To push this metaphor further, Immortan Joe was right not to become addicted to water lest you curse its absence, because reviewing this has only made me hungrier for the studio’s alliance to open up the hydrant and make an original, breathtaking anime anthology like the old days.
This does not mean that it has not happened recently. In fact, my most recent drop of relief came in Adult Swim Elephantwhich brought together Cartoon Network veteran Pendleton Ward (adventure Time), Rebecca Sugar (steven universe), Patrick McHale (over the garden wall), and Ian Jones-Quartey (ok ko! let’s be heroes) To create an animated version of the excellent Zombies game, create an animated story without knowing what other people were cooking. But it was also described by the creators as the wild part of creative freedom that they were fortunate to be a part of in today’s world.
and beyond ElephantI’ve made peace with rotating the block on anime filler to fill the holes anthologies I once kept. Back in the day, filler for an episode wasn’t Gen-Z shorthand for filibustering with boring non-canon deviations from the source material to infuriate them. Filler, in its truest sense, was a phenomenon where animators could diverge from the manga to cook up original stories whenever an anime strayed from its source material (or its creator became ill), and there is some really great filler that elevates the source material in ways that the manga never did.
Sadly, the era of 26-50-episode anime that led to filler seasons is gone, along with the space for animators to stretch their creativity, add imaginative flair, and make a name for themselves by helming those episodes. Which brings me back to my desire for anime anthologies to fill the void that was once filled as anime has modernized from a niche hobby to a mainstream hit.
But as a lifelong anime fan who gets giddy seeing how the sausage is made – it remains to be seen day and day Main Animation posts, discovering an author’s early quirks as they fit into their magnum opus, and reading archival interviews where artists reveal their inspirations – I can’t help but daydream about what it would look like if Science Cypress, MAPPA, Trigger, Bones, and my other favorite studios and creatives got together to make a new anthology, like the old days of animation.
In my waking dreams, I imagine a modern-day compilation that would stand shoulder to shoulder Memories And robot carnival (So I’ll stop waxing nostalgically poetic about them). But for now that dream will remain just that. Still, you can’t blame me for hoping that this will become a reality in my lifetime.
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