Don't miss this new monthly column if you want to check out what we consider the Top 10 among the most trivial matters you can think of. Always related to anime of course. And for this month, we've decided to bring you THE TOP TEN WEIRDEST ANIME
I bet you are thinking that Evangelion, FLCL, Utena, Paranoia Agent and Lain are all going to be part of this Top Ten. Well, no. If you thought those anime shows were weird, then prepare yourself to learn about the strangest stuff anime has to offer. You'll see everything from absolutely absurd and funny, to surreal and poetic. Let's start!
TEN Otaku no Video
It's an anime, it's a film, it's a...documentary? No, sorry, it is a mockumentary. And one hell of a funny one. Like the name says, Otaku no Video is a video about otaku. Not only anime otaku, but otaku of all kinds. From the computer geeks to the military nuts. It tells a story in anime style while also presenting live-action fake interviews with real life otaku. Pretty funny, original, and yes...weird.
NINE Memories
Based on three different manga by Katsuhiro Otomo (writer/director of Akira), Memories is also three different stories released as one single film. Each one of these stories is shown with a very experimental visual style, probably hard to digest, but in a way, interesting to try to interpret. The three segments are called Magnetic Rose, Stink Bomb, and Canon Fodder. Worthy of mention is that Magnetic Rose was scripted by Satoshi Kon, the man who'd later bring us such masterpieces such as Millenium Actress and Paranoia Agent.
EIGHT Dead Leaves
Not only is Dead Leaves one of the weirdest anime ever made. It is also one of the craziest. If you think FLCL was crazy, then let me tell you that Dead Leaves is possibly twice as crazy. This Production I.G. Film tells the story of two amnesiac freaks, a girl and a dude, who land on Earth with no clothing (yes, naked), no food, and no money. After they are involved in a crime spree, they end up in prison where they start planning a massive prison break.
SEVEN Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space
Let's get this out of the way. Tamala 2010 is all about the music and the eccentric visuals. Other than that, the movie has little or no value. I won't even bother to explain the plot because it is utterly pointless. However, that doesn't take away the oddity of Tamala. The settings present a wild parade of imaginative situations and characters, and the flow of the movie is nearly as fast paced as Dead Leaves.
SIX Digital Juice
Digital Juice can't be called a movie in my opinion. It is an OVA combination of six short (very short) animations with a combined running time of about twenty minutes. Most of these animations tell an utterly absurd story, although there's also stuff like Keikaku, the OVA's first segment which is basically a music video with images of Samurai that move to the beat of the music. This isn't a fantastic piece of animation, but just for its oddity, it is worthy of watching.
FIVE Noiseman Sound Insect
It's a short film, yes, but it could also be considered a music video. And since the music is by no other than Yoko Kanno, Noiseman certainly delivers. Not only does it have good music, but the animation is paced most of the time to move along with the music. Even some of the dialogue is heavily linked to the beats and the music itself sometimes feels like part of the dialogue.
FOUR Mindgame
If you combine the unique but strange animation of the American film Waking Life, the absurdity of FLCL and the fantasy of Pinochio, you'll end up with something like Mindgame. It's main character, Nishi, gets killed by a bullet that goes all the way from his butt to his head. He ends up in heaven where he meets god and starts an argument with him that lasts until god starts to get ready for a date. Yes, god in Mindgame is pictured in a way that many wouldn't have thought of. You don't see that kind of blasphemy even in South Park. Nishi soon escapes from Heaven and gets the chance to go back to his life at the point where he got killed and try to win the girl he loves. But first he must escape from the giant whale that just swallowed him!
THREE Winter Days
Winter Days follows word by word the poem of the same name by the legendary 17th century poet Matsuo Basho. It was a renga type of poem, meaning many poets collaborated different lines. For this work of art, director Kihachiro Kawamoto assembled a team of 35 animators from all parts of the world to animate a specific segment that illustrates a single line of the poem. You'll see segments created by such names as Isao Takahata, Yuriy Norshteyn, Alexandr Petrov and Mark Baker. The animation style is out of this world. The film itself is epic in its own way, but mostly funny and obviously odd.
TWO Cat Soup
This award-winning acid trip was inspired by the suicide of a mangaka nicknamed Nekojiru. Years after her death, her husband contacted J.C. Staff and convinced them to make a film based on many of the drawings and ideas that Nekojiru left behind. Cat Soup couldn't be inspired by a less tragic story to tell the type of story that it tells. It shows us a world where animals take the role of humans and vice-versa, where god is portrayed as an old man who eats planets (a weird version of god, although not as weird as in Mindgame), and in which the soul is a tangible thing that a child can fight to retain. Watching Cat Soup isn't easy. It might create feelings on viewers that they don't want to feel, or bring thoughts into their minds that they don't want to think about. And it doesn't even need any dialogue for that. The only thing close to dialogue in Cat Soup are the balloons that pop out of the heads of the characters, which show nothing but pictures.
Those who have seen Cat Soup are probably thinking "but what could be weirder than Cat Soup?". Well, the answer is:
ONE Angel's Egg
Written and directed by the world-renowned Mamoru Oshii (Urusei Yatsura, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell), Angel's Egg is the perfect example of progressive anime. Anyone, and I mean anyone who says that they truly understand Angel's Egg is either a God or a liar. The plot follows a mysterious girl who lives in a dark and desolated world and whose only companion every day of her life is a weird object shaped like an egg. You're probably thinking now that you get where the name of the movie comes from, but that's all you're going to really get. Angel's Egg isn't mean to be fully understood, but to be thoughtfully interpreted. There are very few lines during the course of the film, and most of the meaning is present in the combination of images and sounds. Every second of the film is full of symbolism in every spot you take a look at. All the objects, movements and sounds have a purpose. The imagery is the weirdest that can be found on anime, it's extremely surrealistic and in many ways, beautiful. If Pablo Picasso had been an animator, he'd have drawn something like Angel's Egg. It's the weirdest anime there is. Bar none.
