Masaaki Yuasa is one of the most brilliantly inventive young people working in Japanese animation today. His style as an artist, animator, and director are so unique as to proclaim him the master of his own domain. If there were any fairness in this world, he would become an inspiration for artists and filmmakers around the world.
His directoral film debut is 2004's Mind Game. Mind Game is something that, for most people, is impossible to describe. What is it? An experiemental movie? An animation powerhouse? A psychedelic Fellini trip? A collusion of everything that makes anime great? It's all of these things and more. There really is no way to prepare yourself or prepare others; your only option is to sit down and experience it yourself.
Mind Game is available in Japan on DVD, and I to believe English subtitles are included. There is also a fansub copy floating around the internet. The tragedy is that, apart from the occasional film festival in major cities, the movie is completely unheard of in the States. Goodness knows it doesn't conform to the stale, conservative expectations of the "anime nerds." But Mind Game deserves to be seen, and it deserves a proper audience.
2 comments:
Looks like this is available from Amazon, but the region is unknown. Any idea if the DVD is region-free?
I checked into it, and, no, Mind Game is not available from Amazon. Unless you mean the John Lennon album.
No, the only DVD currently available is the Region 2 disc in Japan. There was talk that Joel Silver (the American producer of a number of bad action movies) was negotiating an American theatrical release, but that was over a year ago. At this point, it's impossible to say if or when Mind Game would appear in this country.
If I were working for one of the anime DVD publishers, I'd work overtime to get the rights to the movie, and bring it here. Then, of course, we'd have to work on Horus and the first Lupin III series and the WMT. One thing at a time.
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