Robot Carnival

A massive structure roams the desert, carrying a never ending parade of robotic entertainment delights.  It is a show that brings memories and visions of worlds beyond imagination.  In each, Robots search for answers to their existence, clash for dominants on distant worlds or simply relish in the strangeness that follows them.  It’s a show only the greatest minds in Anime could conceive.  Welcome to the Robot Carnival.

Anime Anthologies can be a nice entry point to new fans of the Anime genre.  Usually they have a wide assortment of studios and directors with tons of experience under their belts that together can show off just how multifaceted Anime can be as a whole.  This has led to some truly amazing collections such as Halo: Legends, The Animatrix, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories and last weeks amazing Neo Tokyo.  However, then there are titles like Robot Carnival.  This was actually released a few months prior to Neo Tokyo in 1987 but the difference in quality between the two could not be more clear.  Whereas Neo Tokyo was an incredibly immersive and unforgettable experience, Robot Carnival turns out to be the opposite, overly long, nonsensical and worst of all, absolutely boring.
 
Alrighty you know the drill with these kinds of reviews.  Just what are the nine offerings Robot Carnival offers?  First is Franken’s Gears from Koji Morimoto, an Anime take of the legendary birth of Frankenstein’s Monster; Deprive from Hidetoshi Ōmori sees an Android fighting a Robot invasion to rescue a girl dear to his heart; Yasuomi Umetsu’s Presence tells the tragedy of a scientist who’s dream work becomes his greatest nightmare; Star Light Angel from Hiroyuki Kitazume is a music video inspired short about a heartbroken girl who finds new love in a simulated adventure; Manabu Ōhashi’s Clouds sees a young Robot traverse the world as its history is shown in…well the clouds; Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion from Hiroyuki Kitakubo finds two massive mechanic giants piloted by humans clashing in the heart of a sprawling city; Takashi Nakamura’s Chicken Man and Red Neck follows a hapless human as he evades a rising dark celebration of Mechanical Terrors; and bookending the features are two untitled shorts from Katsuhiro Otomo and Atsuko Fukushima, featuring the titular titanic Robot Carnival.
 
So here’s the thing: many of the Directors behind these stories are legends in Anime, working on such classics as Akira, Kite, Roujin-Z, Golden Boy and even the aforementioned Animatrix.  Robot Carnival is mostly known as a starting point for many of these brilliant animators and directors.  And yet even knowing this I can’t really cut Robot Carnival any slack.  There’s no doubt these are some good looking shorts with a lot of 80s animation firepower behind them.  Some of the best of these come in the back half of the feature.  Clouds is almost entirely sketch work and gorgeous sketching at that, this could not have been an easy piece to craft.  Chicken Man and Red Neck has shades of “A Night on Bald Mountain” from Disney’s Fantasia from it’s set up to imagery, just add in one unlucky Human who gets to witness it all.  The thing for me though is that, like it is with plenty of Anime, pretty pictures can only get you so far if you don’t have any story to go with them. 
 
The stories told in Robot Carnival all vary in quality, being all over the place in terms of tone, setting and even wacky factor.  There’s tonal whiplash galore but it’s hard to feel when half if not more of these tales are absolutely boring.  I found myself almost falling asleep watching Presence in particular.  It’s world was never properly explained (Androids building Androids in an early 20^th Century British looking city?), the motivations of the main character make no sense and overall just feels dour and depressing without adequate reason.  To go from almost passing out watching that joyless piece to what’s basically an 80s AMV with two girls in a Robot theme park is sudden and jarring.  Not only is there little setup for each of these shorts but the worlds they seek to create aren’t that interesting, nor are they allowed to rise to their full potential.  How the heck do you mess up two colossal steampunk robots clashing in the middle of Meiji Japan?  How is the birth of a Frankenstein’s monster lacking in amazement?  Why does Clouds look so good but feels like it goes on wayyyyy toooooo long?  Maybe they’re not all meant to make sense and are just there to be a visual feast for the eyes.  Buuuut Neo Tokyo did this whole concept way better mere months later so what’s Robot Carnival’s excuse?
 
Robot Carnival at its best is a demo reel of some early works from some of the biggest names in Anime’s history books.  A couple of the shorts do stand out for their presentations and even the dullest of them get a boost from Joe Hisashi’s score.  But the bulk of the stories lack an actual story, emotional involvement or even a cool factor to make them truly impressive pieces of art.  When you look at similar projects like Neo Tokyo or Memories, you see what can be done with fewer stories, tighter writing and greater focus.  Much like the titular colossus itself, Robot Carnival feels too overly ambitious and ready to collapse without proper maintenance and is best left to pass by until someone is willing to give it a watch out of strange curiosity.
 
3/10