Mind Game

Nishi is an aspiring Manga artist who is this close to losing the love of his life to another man.  Then, one night, he is killed in a hostage situation gone wrong.  What should be the end turns into a new beginning for Nishi when he meets God and gets a second chance at life.  What follows is a journey unlike any other as Nishi and three friends find themselves at first on the run and then lost in a world with no exit.  To find their way back home, these four wayward souls must face their own insecurities and let go of inhibition in order to survive.  Who knows, if they can survive this seemingly unbeatable Mind Game, they might just learn how to have some fun living life to the fullest.

There were multiple times where I was looking at the barrage of insane images brought to me by Mind Game and I wondered “What the heck am I looking at?”  The funny thing about that question was, under normal circumstances, it would mean I wasn’t enjoying the movie.  That was not the case with Mind Game, a trippy, down the Anime rabbit hole experience from the director of Devilman: Crybaby.  Does it rank up there with some of my all time favorite Anime film titles like Akira, Your Name or Ghost in the Shell 2?  Not quite but Mind Game is still an experience im glad I witnessed.

Mind Game is one of those Anime that dares to try asking thoughtful questions about how one approaches life, deals with personal insecurities and becomes a better person with a bit of clarity while also injecting a cocktail of rapid fire imagery that is all experimental and all as trippy as the craziest episode of Panty and Stocking.  If you come away remembering anything from Mind Game, it will be the animation, no ifs, ands or buts.  This is not your typical looking Anime.  If anything its style fits the same vein as say FLCL, though Mind Game is trying to be it’s overall own thing while FLCL was a massive love letter to the Anime medium.  The best way to describe Mind Game’s animation is unpredictable.  One of the most pivotal scenes of the film sees Nishi talking with God, a character who never looks the same for more than a couple of seconds.  If you think you know what might be coming next, I guarantee you, Mind Game will throw you a curveball of an animation trick that you never see coming.  Just be ready to sit back and enjoy (or try to survive) the onslaught of visual mayhem that this film achieves in spades.

Beyond the wall of randomly coated paint, there is a surprisingly sincere story to go with Mind Game.  As I said above, it is asking some good, facts of life type questions in the middle of all the crazy.  Nishi, Myon, Yan and the Old Man all have their own trials to overcome at the start of the film and are all given ample time to develop as characters…well almost everyone.  I feel like between the sad life story of Old Man and the blossoming romance between Nishi and Myon, Yan kind of becomes the odd girl out.  Sure she has some outrageous moments but I never felt like we learned quite what made her tick like the other three members of her party.  But everyone does get their moment to shine, especially Nishi, who not only talks with God and provides the film with an unwavering sense of childlike optimism…he’s also responsible for several of Mind Game’s best moments including one of the best gun sequences in all of Anime you’ll have to see to believe.  Overall though, everyone starts at a pretty low point in their lives and Mind Game gives you plenty of reason to cheer them on and hope that they’ll escape their personal and shared prisons.

I feel like Mind Game should be hailed as a perfect product of Anime genius for the animation alone.  However, I don’t think it’s without its flaws.  I’ve already discussed Yan’s lack of true character exploration.  I do think the erratic pacing and constantly changing animation does take a little bit to get used to and some of the timeline jumping kind of had me lost, though I’m sure that was intentional.  But most of me knows that this is both a thinking mans Anime and an Anime not meant to be analyzed too deeply.  Mind Game feels like a passion project that has a destination even if the map is all over the place.  The messages of never giving up even when life hits rock bottom are powerful and very heartfelt.  You do have to wade your way through some visuals that will leave you asking that same question I asked at the start of this review.  But, for me, Mind Game accomplishes a lot and I don’t think it’s a story that could be told in any other medium other than Anime (Ralph Bashki maybe?).  It’s not perfection but it is a fun experiment to check out at least once.  If nothing else…Mind Game is one helluva ride through the mad house of Anime…one you’ll never forget.

9/10