風の名はアムネジア

KAZE NO NA WA AMNESIA

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
OTHER
RELEASE
December 22, 1990
LENGTH
80 min

DESCRIPTION

It happened quite suddenly, with no warning - all the memories of all the people on Earth, swept away as if by a sudden wind. In a post-catastrophic Earth populated mostly by savages without memories of their past civilisation, one man travels on a journey of enlightenment and hope, across a devastated America.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Wataru
Kazuki Yao
Sophia
Keiko Toda
Johnny
Kappei Yamaguchi
Sue
Yuuko Iguchi
Little John
Daisuke Gouri
Priest
Hirohiko Kakegawa
Mr. Simpson
Osamu Saka
Lisa
Noriko Hidaka
Guardian
Masaharu Satou

REVIEWS

SelimTheDemonLord
25/100
An Intriguing premise explored in the most frustratingly bland way possible
[Spoilers below, read at your own discretion]

The world and premise of this series I find to be seriously interesting. A world where everyone has essentially lost their mind in an instant, so many questions arise, why? How? Right from the get go, I'm hooked on learning about this world and witnessing Wataru's epic journey! Annnnnd nope! The intrigue a couple minutes in already begins to fade as you're slapped with a small exposition dump by this random lady, alright then, and then you get hit by the 20 minute exposition flashback dump, the ultimate two hit combo of how to completely kill the pace of the film. So we sit and watch Wataru's history since the amnesiac wind, and another important questions arises, why is Wataru special compared to everyone else? A knowledge machine machine... Seriously? Listen, I totally understand that the piece demonstrates the various ways technology can go, serving as the primary antagonist in Wataru's journey. But the whole superhero lab place felt too convenient for Wataru to gain knowledge and wisdom, with the only struggle being simply to trust Charles Xavier jr. This immediately set my expectations fairly low for the story going forward, and unfortunately, I was right to do so.

I'll skip the middle and its details, because as I said, it's just not that interesting. I find the ending though, to be a good example of how all over the place the story can be. It begins with a simple fight scene that is probably supposed to shut down that satellite antagonist? Even though it's in space and it's a computer? Sure righto... and then to just a random heavily implied sex scene? O-okay? I mean yeah wow, the characters are had a lot of good chemistry through their strong characters, so good for them! (I'll explain in a bit why I'm being obnoxiously ironic here) And then Wataru just walks away, without the car he used for the whole film... it really didn't seem destroyed from the fight? Anyways, he does some leaf whistling while looking at the floating Johnny head in the sky Jojo's style, and that's it. Sure I skipped the whole flying saucer mirror dome above NY, but like, the film basically did too. Looked cool I guess?

"Ah yeah Wataru, this is where I parked my spaceship, thanks for the ride."

"Yeah no worries."

So unsurprisingly based on the tone of this review, I find the main characters to be as empty as the rest of the narrative elements of Amnesia. Wataru is a kind person, a bit of a hothead, and his entire motive is to travel because his friend told him to do so. Pretty checklist character attributes that aren't inherently bad due to their frequency of use, but instead because Wataru's character is never really pushed or challenged by the events of the film or the world around him. Sure, he has to run and gun a few times in the film, but his actual core values are never contested in a meaningful, memorable way. You could replace Wataru with any generic 'shounen-type' protagonist, and their likeness would be unparalleled.

Somehow I find characters in the side cast, who have no memories mind you, to be more interesting than Wataru, such as the presumed former cop. Why does he take care of his daughter? Is it because of the photo he has with her, implying some sort of connection? Is it due to some innate paternal instinct? Is it because he was a cop? Or some other reason alltogether? Here, what's left unspoken is compelling. What he will he do after the death of his daughter? how he will lead the now godless community? who knows?

Sophia's character is built around vagueness as well, which does build interest initially. Unfortunately, nothing ever comes of it. There's no change, growth or expansion of her character, similar to Wataru. Despite being such a central figure, she begins to feel empty behind that veil of vagueness, when she's asked any question, she responds: "Eh, idk." And then she just fucks right off back to space, the ultimate enlightened neutralist.

And I think these points really highlight the primary issue with the film, my creative opinions beside, being the god awful pacing. The scope of the premise combined with how they chose to do the story was way too massive for 80 minutes. At points scenes fell so disjointed and did not flow into each other at all, like the story being based in the west coast for the majority of the first hour, but within an actual minute, being transported from Los Vegas to NY, that's a huge distance. If they had lowered their production budget in favour of a better paced 20-something episode TV show, I think a better piece would have shown itself instead.

And in regards to said production, it mostly sounds and looks good, not Akira or anything (which came out 2 years before) but hey, a lot of things aren't. But this provides me with further frustration as they could have chosen a more interesting story, appropriate to the runtime, with the budget they had.

This film has left me with a question, not about the intriguing setting, but instead, why did they choose to explore this world in probably the most bland and frustrating way possible? I can understand how a person could enjoy A Wind Named Amnesia, but I find it's way too much of a diamond in the rough for it to be worth a watch and my endorsement.
Continue on AniList