Memories

Memories (1995) is a Japanese science-fiction anime anthology you can watch online on iFILM. Three short films about humanity's near future, gathered under Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira, and brought to the screen by three different directors.

The collection opens with Magnetic Rose, its best-known segment, directed by Koji Morimoto from an Otomo script. A crew of deep-space salvagers picks up a distress signal and boards an abandoned station shaped like an enormous rose, where the hologram of a long-dead opera singer refuses to let go of the past. Next comes Stink Bomb, a pitch-black comedy about a lab assistant who swallows the wrong pills for a cold and, without realizing it, becomes a walking chemical weapon, leaving a trail of corpses and military panic behind him. The set closes with Cannon Fodder, an antiwar sketch about a city whose entire existence revolves around firing endlessly at an enemy no one ever sees, staged in what looks like one continuous shot under the steady thud of artillery.

Each story speaks its own visual language, from the baroque gothic of Magnetic Rose to the gray industrial streets of Cannon Fodder. Yoko Kanno scored the first segment, turning it into a literal space opera. This is anime as authorial statement rather than kids' entertainment, and it rewards viewers who want exactly that. Stream Memories (1995) online on iFILM.