Genius Party Beyond: Moondrive

Kazuto Nakazawa‘s Moondrive is about a treasure hunting adventure. I also mention my brief impression of the Genius Party Beyond collection.

Genius Party Beyond: Wanwa

Shinya Ohira‘s Wanwa depicts a child’s dream about his mother’s pregnancy, which is bizarre mix of fears, hopes and joy.

Genius Party Beyond: Tojin Kit

Genius Party Beyond: Tojin Kit by Tatsuyuki Tanaka is a film with minimal dialog yet excellent setting of the atmosphere and well-composed shots.

Warning: Some scenes may be disturbing.

Genius Party Beyond: Gala

As I reported previously, Genius Party Beyond is a second part of the animated film collection created by some of the best Japanese directors. Last time I posted about Koji Morimoto’s Dimension Bomb featuring Yoko Kanno in her debut as a seiyuu. Mahiro Maeda‘s Gala depicts a concert that facilitates physical and spiritual growth in an incredible world.

Genius Party Beyond: Dimension Bomb

Genius Party (2007) and Genius Party Beyond (2008 ) is an anthology of short animated films from Studio 4°C featuring some of the best directors. I already covered some of the most interesting films from Genius Party, but Genius Party Beyond films are just beginning to appear.

Dimension Bomb was directed by Koji Morimoto (Magnetic Rose – Memories, Franken’s Gears – Robot Carnival, animation director for Mind Game, storyboard for Tekkonkinkreet, animation director for Macross Plus concert scene). Moreover, this animation is Yoko Kanno’s debut as a voice actress! 😀 She composed music for other Genius Party film, Baby Blue.

Overall, while plot is questionable, the animation and music by Juno Reactor are great 🙂

Genius Party – Happy Machine

Masaaki Yuasa (Cat Soup, Mind Game, Kaiba) creates bizarre worlds and characters to explore human nature. Happy Machine is a part of Genius Party anime anthology and, much like the opening by Atsuko Fukushima, has no dialog and open to interpretation. The main theme of Genius Party is energy, and Masaaki Yuasa depicted it quite well exploring the circle of life. I encourage you to see the film before reading the rest of the post.

Genius Party Beyond – Second Trailer

Genius Party is an anime anthology and Genius Party Beyond is the sequel to be released this October (it premiered in Febuary 2008). Watch a short new trailer!

Genius Party Opening – Atsuko Fukushima

Genius Party is an opening five-minute animation directed by Atsuko Fukushima (animator for Akira, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Robot Carnival) to the animation anthology with the same name. The animation features unique characters and wide color palette that are complemented well by a very impressive soundtrack.

Genius Party – Baby Blue

Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo) and Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Macross Frontier, Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell, Wolf’s Rain) team up again to create another wonderful work. Baby Blue is a short story about two friends reminiscing about their childhood.

Genius Party – Anime Anthology

Genius Party (2007) and Genius Party Beyond (2008 ) is an anthology of short animated films from Studio 4°C featuring some of the best directors. I’ll be covering the films that I especially liked soon. In the meantime, enjoy the trailers 🙂