When it comes to analyzing anthology films, there is always the question of how to approach them. Should each entry be examined based on its own merits, or should the collection be discussed as a singular entity? In short film anthologies where multiple filmmakers are gathered to create pieces under a unifying theme or idea, one should expect that each work will vary greatly in narrative, tone, style, and even the artists' personal interpretations of that coalescing concept. This encourages the analyst to consider the entries independently. But then what is the point of gathering them under a common banner? Is it simply for convenient consumption? In this piece I will take a look at Studio 4°C's presumptuously titled GENIUS PARTY, a collection of seven animated shorts by Japanese filmmakers, and ponder whether its entries need to be seen as an undivided unit or if they are better cherry-picked from the lot and enjoyed as standalone projects.

GENIUS PARTY

The film opens with Atsuko Fukushima's GENIUS PARTY, which lends its title to the anthology as a whole. The short begins with what appears to be a man dressed in a makeshift bird costume wandering through the desert. When the bird-man finds a stony sphere with a face admiring a flower, he snatches the little stone's heart and eats it, causing him to grow fiery wings. Another stone witnesses the strange transformation and decides to eat its own heart. A tall, iridescent flower sprouts from the rock creature, develops wings, and flies into the sky to the amazement of all the other smiling boulders who are now exposing their own hearts. A bolt of lightning descends from the sky and bounces from heart to heart taking us to our title screen, which serves to bookend this collection of films. We briefly return to the bird from the beginning who is staring blankly at a massive, fleshy, pulsating film projector surrounded by a floating ring of stone creatures. Thus ends the first segment of the movie.

Although undeniably strange and kinetic, this introduction doesn't serve to establish much of an overarching concept or idea for the films to follow. Sure, I could wax intellectual and pronounce the unifying nature of cinema appreciation as the central theme of this opening segment, but the short barely gives me enough to make such an assessment. Moreover, the films that follow don't seem to share this message. Apart from the animation, the best thing about this segment is its percussive, electronic soundtrack.

SHANGHAI DRAGON

Next up is Shoji Kawamori's SHANGHAI DRAGON. This film follows a bullied Chinese boy who finds a glowing device that will bring into reality whatever he draws with it. Soon after this discovery, the planet is invaded by space ships and robotic war machines. The boy must exploit his newly acquired equipment to save the Earth from destruction. After becoming a superhero in the vein of popular super sentai series and saving the world, the boy learns that the invaders came from a star far away and in the distant future. He sketches and summons a dragon to travel there and, presumably, fight on.

Perhaps the strangest thing about this portion of the anthology is how inconsistent the animation quality is. From top to bottom, it constantly wavers between top-tier production values and the stuff of TV budgets. One of the more interesting aspects of the animation is how the elements drawn with the device never look like they are totally part of the surrounding world but actually like what they are: haphazard doodles come to life. Despite the issues and an ending that feels tacked-on, SHANGHAI DRAGON proves too charming to dislike and is among the better segments in GENIUS PARTY.

DEATHTIC 4

The cute-but-grotesque DEATHTIC 4 breaks up the mostly traditional animation that fills out the rest of the anthology. We are introduced to a world full of zombies and monsters living out run-of-the-mill, day-to- day existences. When a strange storm brings a living frog to this morbid place, a zombie boy recruits his friends to help him return the frog to the living world before it is discovered and killed.

An interestingly produced piece to be sure, director Shinji Kimura appears to have digitized hand-drawn textures and layered them over computer animated characters and backgrounds to create a world that exists visually somewhere between CG animation, claymation, and traditional animation. Outside of action sequences, the frame rate suffers. The stop-and-go vibe doesn't work quite the way it does in claymation and ultimately only distracts the viewer. This derivative story about the subjectivity of "life" and whether it is worth protecting is no where near as successful as its stylistic cousins by filmmakers like Tim Burton and Henry Selick.

DOORBELL

Comic book artist Yoji Fukuyama's DOORBELL tells the story of a high school student who must outrun ghostly clones of himself to his daily pedestrian destinations. If the apparitions beat him, they commandeer his life, making him — the "real" version — invisible to friends and family.

Perhaps more than any other animated film I've seen, DOORBELL is noticeably the work of a manga artist. Fukuyama, who had only worked in comics prior to this project, has made a distinctly static animated film. Impeccably framed and kinetically stunted, this segment is an excellent example of how a medium can perform outside your limited expectations. Not above or below them, mind you, but in a different space than you might envisage given the chosen art form. This is not to say that the short is a series of unmoving images; the shots that the director chooses to linger on define what the audience will take away from the experience when it cuts to black. What ends up being a cogent allegory for self-improvement is a standout in this collection.

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Genius Party Opening: 9/10 Abstract animation doesn't get better than this. Reminiscent of MIND GAME, although director Masaaki Yuasa wasn't involved here. Uplifting techno soundtrack complemented the visuals well.

Shanghai Dragon: 9/10 Superb crowd pleaser. An adrenalized action-thrill-ride that avoids stylistic cues of other hyper-kinetic films like DEAD LEAVES or FLCL.. (not that there's anything wrong with them..) and very funny to boot. Flawless direction and pacing. This is a minor anime masterpiece.

Deathtic 4: 8/10 Conspicuously Tim Burtonesque stylings utilized to great effect. Inventive and unexpected use of CG throughout. Hilariously dark.

(thus far GENIUS PARTY was turning out to be ridiculously good. Too good to be true apparently... )

Doorbell: 7/10 Solid little psychological yarn about multiple selves/personalities vying for dominance. Unfortunately, bogged down by substandard animation (the worst of the bunch) which was all the more ostensible after having just sat through the first three installments. I liked the story so it still gets a 7 from me.

Limit Cycle: 5/10 Others will probably be less lenient with this one than me.. but the visuals were great. If ONLY the pointless rumination actually meant something or went somewhere. Promising early on, the over-intellectualizing quickly spirals into repetition and utter confusion. Cutting the length in half would have EASILY salvaged this. Director has an inexplicable James Dean fixation.

Happy Machine: 8/10 A surrealist moving take on early childhood and growing up. Cute, funny and original.

Baby Blue: 7/10 A sentimental tale in the vein of the work of Makoto Shinkai (VOICES FROM A DISTANT STAR), except not animated nearly as well as his stuff, which is a shame as it's a well-written short that manages to dodge most of the clichés that rid this kind of story.

FINAL SCORE 8/10 recommended without reservation.

This anime anthology film reminded me other experiments like this, such as "Robot Carnival" and "Memories". Pretty much like any other anthology movie, this is a uneven, but interesting collection which at least deserves to be recognized as a meritorious effort to create something unique and different to all the clichés often associated with Japanese animation.

The shorts are very, very different from each other.For that reason, I think it will be better review each one separately:

"Genius Party"-Directed by Atsuko Fukushima: The short that serves as the introduction for the collection. Very little can be said about it, since it almost doesn't have a story. However, the animation and the designs are quite impressive and well made. 7.5/10

"Shanghai Dragon"-Directed by Shoji Kawamori: An OK science fiction animation, with a little "retro" feeling on it. The animation was good and the designs were pretty well made. For some reason, while I was watching this, I had the impression that it was only the beginning of a much bigger story, as it were some kind of pilot for a new anime series. 7/10

"Deathtic 4"-Directed by Shinji Kimura: A visually impressive animation, with a cartoonish aesthetic which reminded me stop-motion movies like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride". While the plot is a bit simplistic, it was also very entertaining to watch. The use of CGI was interesting, original and well made. The designs were pretty good too. 8/10

"Doorbell"-directed by Yoji Fukuyama: The worst short of the collection. The animation from it was mediocre at best, the character designs were incredibly ugly, the plot didn't make any sense and it was incredibly boring to watch. Of all the animations included in "Genius Party" this is the only one which I hated. 1/10

"Limit Cycle"-directed by Hideki Futamura: A incredibly pretentious but visually impressive philosophical monologue (Or something like that) While it can be tedious at moments, the visuals are good enough to make it worth-watching. 6.5/10

"Happy Machine"-Directed by Masaaki Yuasa: An imaginative and beautifully animated short, which despite the cute appearance of the designs, it could be very bleak and sad as well. 9/10

"Baby Blue" directed by Shinichiro Watanabe: My favorite short of the collection. The creator of awesome anime series like "Cowboy Bebop" and "Samurai Champloo" makes here a different kind of story: A heartwarming tale of teen love and friendship that never turns corny or clichéd. It is also beautifully animated and it has a nice ending. 9.5/10

My final verdict: Excluding the awful "Doorbell" this is a worth-watching collection, which has some impressive animations and fascinating stories. In all case, it serves to show that not everything have been said in the anime medium.

8/10