A Wind Named Amnesia
by Kazuo Yamazaki
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Denica Fairman, Kappei Yamaguchi, Kazuki Yao, Keiko Toda, Yűko MitaDirector: Kazuo Yamazaki
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-29
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Us Manga Corps Video
Movie Reviews of A Wind Named Amnesia
Movie Review: "And wherever you go you will teach men what they've forgotten."
Summary: 5 Stars
In the late 1990's, the Amnesia Wind swept over the entire Earth, and all at once nearly every man, woman and child on the planet forgot EVERYTHING. They forgot who they were and who their families were. They forgot how to speak their languages and operate their machines. They forgot their art and their music, their literature and their philosophy. In an instant, all of mankind's accumulated knowledge was quite literally gone with the wind; and they were reduced to primitive savages, governed only by instinct. The doctors and scientists at a military research facility in Montana were no exception. They, too, lost their minds and soon fell victim to the human weapons they had created. However, their most important experiment, Johnny the wheelchair-bound boy genius, was immune to the effects of the cruel autumn breeze thanks to the computer they had implanted in his fertile brain. Poor Johnny--possibly the only person in existence who was able to understand the horror of his plight--was on his own, with nothing but his trusty Magnum to protect him from the mindless, telekinetic bullies that roamed the grisly, corpse-strewn grounds of the abandoned base. Then, one fateful day, a cerebrally-challenged teenager with a penchant for eating white roses wandered into Johnny's life and helped him fend off a vicious psychic attack from a wire-laden, speedo-clad giant. Johnny thanked the stupefied young man by introducing him to the memory refilling helmet in the facility's still-functioning laboratory. After his first session beneath Johnny's magic helmet, the dark-haired flower-taster's previously vacuous cranium was replenished with just enough knowledge to allow Johnny to begin teaching him some of the things he knew before the malevolent zephyr stole his cognizance. The immobilized instructor named his student Wataru--which is a Japanese word meaning `to go from place to place'--and, after countless days of intensive training, sent him off on a mission to travel all over the world in a jeep and try to help humankind relearn what the wind had made them forget. "You alone can look back on history and show man where their empty ambitions led," Johnny told his eager pupil, "You alone must teach them new aims, new desires...to take them in a new direction, where they will achieve what they are capable of."
Eventually, Wataru's epic journey took him to San Francisco, where he witnessed an unfortunate group of feral citizens being mercilessly slaughtered by the blazing canons of a swift-footed mechanized beast with a lifeless skeleton locked in its olive-colored cockpit. An artificial vociferation of the words, "You're under arrest," emanated loudly from the metal fiend as it turned from the bloodbath to face Wataru, who stood watching with a single teardrop rolling down his youthful cheek. Suddenly, the dreadful thing opened fire and, almost simultaneously, the red-headbanded traveler jumped nimbly into his army jeep and backed out of the dark, smoky alleyway, tires squealing. The maniacal hunk of mecha pursued him, and as he clutched Johnny's pistol in his gloved hands, a feminine voice sounded from under a nearby `Thrifty' billboard, "Aim for the turret, that's the nerve center!" Wataru took the advice without questioning who was offering it, and the evil machine was soon enveloped in an explosive crash.
When the smoke cleared, Wataru's battle-weary eyes beheld a vision of loveliness by the name of Sophia. Long white hair, highlighted with shades of lavender, flowed over her pale shoulders, which were exposed above an ankle-length black gown. Like Johnny, Sophia had not been effected by the Amnesia Wind, but Wataru did not know why, and Sophia did not volunteer an explanation. The alabaster-skinned beauty informed Wataru that the thing that had attacked him and the others was a Guardian--the relentless enforcer of an authority that had longed ceased to exist. The Guardian's creators had programmed it to continue to function even after its human controller had died of thirst and starvation in the wake of the wind's devastation. The ruthless robotic hunter had also been equipped with a computerized self-repair program, and its newly-formed objective to seek and destroy Wataru was likely to resume shortly...and continue, unstoppably, until it accomplished its terrible goal.....
`A Wind Named Amnesia' is a riveting anime masterpiece with a deep and powerful story, appealing character designs and animation, and a nice ending song. The DVD picture is a little soft, and the pan shots are noticeably jerky, but overall it looks okay. The only extras on the disc are two sets of film clips titled "Meet the Mecha" and "Meet the Cast," and the usual trailers for other shows. Don't be fooled by the misleading '13 and up' tag on the back of the case--one scene at the end of this movie definitely warrants an R rating.
"In our hands we now hold the key to the doorway leading to the future. Gotta turn yesterday's pain into strength to go on"
Summary of A Wind Named Amnesia
From the director of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, X ? The Last Vampire, Ninja Scroll, and Metropolis. A miasma has descended upon the world and everyone forgot who they were and how to use the tools that society had come to rely on. Now, two years after the disaster, a young man tries to make sense of a world suddenly gone mad. "a total gem" ? Animenewsnetwork.comThis sci-fi road journey is set in the near future (1999--six years after the film was initially released). Human civilization has been devastated by a mysterious wind that erased everyone's memories--even the basics of language and self-care that real amnesia doesn't affect. Their minds wiped clean, the survivors haunt the ruined cities, scavenging for food. Wateru ("traveler" in Japanese), whose mind was laboriously restored by a survivor at a government research facility, wanders through America in a jeep, trying to bring knowledge to people. In San Francisco, he meets Sophia, a mysterious woman with unexplained powers; she joins him on a journey to New York that turns into a transcontinental escape from a murderous and seemingly indestructible robot. Along the way, they encounter the members of a cult that worships an enormous wrecking machine, and two puppetlike survivors in an fully mechanized city. Wateru struggles to fulfill his mission to start people on the long journey back to civilization, but he often has to rely on Sophia's extraordinary powers of communication. A Wind Called Amnesia is more thoughtful and less violent than most anime features; unfortunately, it ends on a weak, unsatisfying note. Rating: 16 and older for animated sex and some violence. --Charles Solomon
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