Anime: Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari

• Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari is a movie consisting in three short films. Since these short films are completely unrelated, have different art-styles and are made by different people, I will review them separately.
  The first short film, Labyrinth Labyrinthos, is the most experimental of the movie, with an original art-style that doesn’t look like anime at all, and it is hard to tell what’s exactly happening in it, despite the fact that the animation is of very high quality. It involves at little girl and her cat chasing a mime from a circus in a labyrinth. Since it is pretty short (roughly 15 minutes), there is no actual story or character development, but it is interesting for its nightmare-like visuals. Most of the background music is classical music. Sadly, the voice-acting is a bit bad, and the sound effects are weird.
  The second short film, Running Man, is less experimental, with a more classic art-style, and a more understandable story. It is set in futuristic city and focuses on a champion racer who goes crazy and starts using telekinesis to destroy his opponents. In this film, too, the animation is superb, and is even more detailed – the faces in particular – than in the previous one, and only for that, it is worth watching. However, this short film is too slow, and the voice-acting is, just like in the previous, not very good.
  The third and last film, The Order to Stop Construction, is the longest and the most complete, as it has an actual introduction, a confrontation and an end. It is about a salary-man who has been ordered by his bosses to stop a fully automated construction project. He arrives at the construction site and discovers that the robot who is in charge of the project has gone crazy and wants to finish the project no matter what. The characters and the story in this short film are most fleshed out than in the previous ones, and contrary to the second film it doesn’t focus on only one character. The voice-acting is more decent than in the two other films, and the background music is alright. The art-style is more anime-like, and the backgrounds are very nice and detailed.
  The problem with this movie is the same as all collections of short films: they are too short to leave an impact on the viewer. Nevertheless, these three short films are interesting to watch, the first for its nightmare-like visuals, the second for its very detailed animation, and the third for its story. I recommend watching them.

Sub-score explanation:

This movie, made up of three short stories, is an amazing work by three awesome directors. I will have to review them separately though, since they are so different.

1. Labyrinthe - Labyrinthos directed by Rintarou

An insane trip into the mind of Rintarou. The animation alone is a work of art, and the creative energy put into this short animation is worth the time spent watching this. You won't understand anything about the story, because there is nothing to understand. Just imagine the most insane dream you've ever had, transfer it to a Labyrinth-like world (with David Bowie the Goblin King now disguised as the Mime) coupled with Le Cirque, and you've got Labyrinthe-Labyrinthos. Crazy characters, lovely heroine with the coolest pants ever, and an incredibly funny cat make a well-balanced cast that fits perfectly this dream world.

2. The running man directed by Kawajiri Yoshiaki

A short chronicle about the mysterious death of a famous racer, Zach Hugh, who had so far survived way too many super-fast high-tech races in which many pilots simply die from going beyond their physical limitations.

This dark animation is spent going from the racer's point of view through flashbacks through the journalist writing an article about Zach. It is highly detailed and superbly animated. Thanks to a great director, we live the race as if we were the pilot, and we almost feel what he feels. No BGM is needed, it's just the pure adrenalin of the race and its after-effects. However, it's hard to understand at first what is going on because there is really no premise. This is for hard-core fans, the ones who can appreciate to the fullest an "Akira-like world meets the 40s". And speaking of Akira...

3. Construction cancellation order directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

You will definitely recognize Otomo's signature and style in this one, and I was not disappointed. The story is simple, yet you quickly find yourself caught up in the same prison as the main character, Sugioka. How do you convince an armed robot that it is insane and needs to shut down (and shut up)?

Just like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, every day painfully starts over and over with the perfectly well chosen "morning music" repeating itself over and over, until... no spoilers here :)

Overall...

...the animation is top-notch. Characters get short screen time but exploit it to the best and with very few words, and are rather interesting and original compared to what is "standard" and "cliche". The short pieces of music are also well chosen and used in key scenes, although this is hardly a soundtrack you'd wish to own. Story-wise, this is not the best, but considering it's an anthology like Twilight Q (another great "director show" I highly recommend if you liked this one), I'd have to say it's an interesting and original piece of work in the huge world of anime.

A definite recommendation to people thirsty for new things.

This Anime is very Strange. There are 2 Stories, first it´s about a racer that is driving in the future with a fast speeded transportion Machine (Looks like a Formula 1 car). And the 2nd one is about a industrie inspector for a great Company that has to go somewhere to Stop the construction becouse the goverment has changed. Well it wasn´t that good but at least it is just a Movie. But the Main Problems are the Stories it isn't something new and for a Movie it's a deathmark to me. There are alot of other Anime Movies out there and sadly most of them are crap just like this one.