Neo Tokyo - Anime Jump

• Media Source:Anime Jump
• Reviewed By:Mike Toole
• Review Date:08/16/05
• Read the original review click here

"...Neo Tokyo is lightning in a bottle, stuff that sizzles and smokes with a life of its own."

"It's not just good, it's great."

Anime filmmakers don't often sit down together with the idea of creating an anthology, a set of tales with very distinct styles. When they do, the results are almost invariably worth picking up, whether they're flying under the title of Robot Carnival, Memories, or The Animatrix. This DVD is another part of the anthology puzzle, a trio of unrelated stories under the title Meikyu Monogatari ('Labyrinth Tales'), but released here under the considerably more marketable title Neo Tokyo. For years, Neo Tokyo was a guilty pleasure of American anime fandom; sure, we all pretended to despise ADR director Carl Macek's typical disregard for the script, but still secretly liked his snappy dialogue and enjoyed the animation. It went out of print for a very long time after Streamline Pictures faded from view, but thanks to ADV, we can enjoy it once again.

Let's take, for example, the idea of Rintaro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Katsuhiro Otomo all working on the same movie. Granted, Otomo and Rintaro aren't strange bedfellows (they collaborated earlier in the unappetizing Harmagedon, and would reunite again to create the spectacular Metropolis), but that's still a very intriguing combination, even considering that each director helms their own story, a short piece of Neo Tokyo's small, dense, fifty-minute pie. Easily the most surprising is Rintaro's contribution, the leadoff story and framing device, entitled Labyrinth Labyrinthos.

Labyrinth Labyrinthos is a weirdly charming story about a little girl, her pet cat, and her overactive imagination, as they stumble across a hidden, vaguely sinister circus. This is really wonderful to watch, because it's Rintaro working on material I've never, ever seen him attempt-- bold, artsy stuff, featuring decidedly unconventional character designs from Atsuko Fukushima instead of Rintaro's more familiar Harlocks and ninja. The little girl, Sachi, bounds through the environment with great energy, sliding effortlessly from one scene to the next, her fluffy, suspicious cat Cicerone in tow. This is really enchanting stuff; I must say that the spectacle of Rintaro unburdened by the concerns of plot is awesome to behold, especially when the result isn't Harmagedon.

Neo Tokyo's middle is supported by Running Man, which you've seen. No seriously, you've already seen it. It was one of those things that was on MTV's Liquid Television program in the early 1990s, along with good stuff like Aeon Flux and weird stuff like Invisible Hands. It's an utterly, indisputably obvious exercise in style and technique for Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the MADHOUSE prodigy who's inexplicably one of my favorite animators ever. It tells the tale of Zack Hugh, a postmodern Dale Earnhardt, a rocket racer who winds around a circular track that's so steep it's nearly vertical, dodging and beating other racers in a circuit so wild and dangerous it's called the Death Circus.

God, I loved Running Man when I first saw it. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and is still amazing to behold fifteen years later. Kawajiri's deft, almost casual eye for incredible detail, his gutwrenching action animation, and his jaw-dropping Bladerunner-esque scenery is brilliant; this is a film that is full of power and promise, and it's gratifying to realize that Kawajiri's really lived up to his potential since creating this. Seeing this short all the way through, after harboring dim memories of watching it chopped into four-minute segments on MTV, is a revalation; Running Man is an intense, harrowing, and unique tale.

After this, it's time for Katsuhiro Otomo to step in with his crazed, satiric social commentary. Sometime in the future, a huge corporation is using a sprawling robot labor force to build a huge construction project in the middle of a swamp in some godforsaken banana republic. When the republic's government is unceremoniously tossed out by rebels who really don't want to pay the construction bill, it's up to a stuffy, self-important salaryman to head down there and let the robots know that they should stop building.


Things don't work out that way, mainly because the lead robot, who quickly appoints Sugioka the new foreman, stammering and stuttering that they can't stop construction when they're so far behind schedule; when Sugioka tries to put his foot down, the robot just threatens him with sizzling hot death. Otomo takes this opportunity to show us a world where the machinery of civilization really is out of control, filling our heads with scenes of robotic construction vehicles performing nigh-impossible feats of building in harsh swampland, usually breaking down and exploding spectacularly in the process. The only one smart enough to put a stop to it is the hapless Sugioka, who's locked up and watched vigilantly by the shaky, trembling lead robot.

Neo Tokyo is great. It's not so short that it seems abrupt and rushed, nor is it so long that it gets boring. It's exactly as advertised, a brief, satisfying romp through the imagination of three legendary anime directors in their prime. The dub has its ups and downs, mostly thanks to Macek's sometimes incomprehensible rewrites, but there's always the Japanese version to enjoy. The DVD isn't thick with extras, but a little careful shopping will get you this bona fide classic for less than fifteen dollars, which is a small price to pay. If I must lament Neo Tokyo's release, I'll just say that it's too bad that so much of today's animation can't compare to the fluid, restless, wildly imaginative stuff contained here. In terms of animation, Neo Tokyo is lightning in a bottle, stuff that sizzles and smokes with a life of its own. It's not just good, it's great.

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 (Archive on Friday, September 16, 2005)