Customer Reviews

Neo Tokyo

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's unfortunate they renamed this trio of shorts "Neo Tokyo" from its original title, "Mani Mani," as it makes searching for this difficult-to-find gem somewhat frustrating. They did it in hopes that it would make people think it had some sort of tie-in with "Akira," which, other than featuring Katsuhiro Otomo, it doesn't. In 1986 this was one of my first tastes of anime (other than Starblazers, Battle of the Planets, Robotech and Voltron) and it blew me away; nearly 20 years later, it is still a delicious piece of eye candy as much as a thought-inducing trip into surreal "what if" scenarios.

Mainly I wanted to get the DVD to see "Labyrinth Labyrinthos" again, by Rintaro. Throughout the entire 3 shorts, there is little dialogue, and I think it adds to the mystique and surreality glazed over the collection. Labyrinth serves as the intro and outro, or "bookends" to the other 2 stories, but is a beautiful story in itself about a young girl with a vast imagination, playing hide & seek with her pet cat. The stark piano solo sets a profound mood of both childlike playfulness and imminent, nightmarish danger, intertwined. Though it is short, I found Labyrinth having a deep emotional impact on me. Watch it in both the english dubbed mode and subtitled mode, there are quite a few differences in what little dialogue there is (and not just lost in translation, either). Sloppy or intentional?

The second story is "The Running Man," a haunting and frightening plunge into the story of a burnt-out futuristic racecar driver. This deserves more than one watching; not only is the animation amazing (not for the squeamish!) but the narration is stark and leaves a lot to be filled in. I think this is intentional, as it forces the viewer to watch carefully. In the early 90s, MTV showcased this anime on their Liquid Television series, a weekly collection of animation from around the world. I find I like the english dubbed version more, simply because the narrator takes on a 1940s American film-noir air that matches the feel of the anime design, but watching the subtitles, again, provides for some interesting slight differences that (perhaps) make the story a little clearer.

Finally there is the claustrophic and very stylistic "Construction Cancellation Order," which is my least favorite of the three only because the ending is quite predictable. The animation, though, is top-notch and Otomo fans will enjoy seeing some of his other work besides the (deservedly) well-known Akira. Just don't expect it to BE Akira.

If you can find the DVD in the $9-15 range it is well worth the money, a key element in anyone's anime collection, and entirely rewatchable. Tuck it in right alongside "Robot Carnival." I wouldn't call it "perfect," as it has its flaws, but it represents a point in anime history that should not be overlooked. It rather grows on you...like Otomo's endlessly destructive jungle vines.

Neo Tokyo is an anthology of 3 short films, the best of which is the middle film called Running Man, which ran years ago on MTV's Liquid Television along with Peter Chung's Aeon Flux.

Neo Tokyo begins with Labyrinth, which features a small girl being lured into a carnival tent where she sees the 2nd and 3rd films, Running Man and The Order To Stop Construction. Running Man, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, is about a futuristic race and its god, Zack Hugh, who, like most athletes, don't know when it's time to quit. The Order To Stop Construction, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, is set in the Amazon where a construction manager is ordered to halt a construction project gone haywire under its rogue construction manager, which happens to be a robot, a la Frankenstein.

I don't think that telling a story is the real object here as much as it is to showcase the talents of the respective directors, Rin Taro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Katsuhiro Otomo. All of their styles are strong and distinct. You have Taro's surrealistic look, Kawajiri's realistic look, and Otomo's obsession with mechanical details. But of the three, the best imo, is Kawajiri's segment, and career for that matter. Anyway, anyone interested in seeing what real anime is, when it was really good and before it went south trying to please American tastes, check out this collection.

Anime of this type--the short story collections (Memories, Animatrix)--seem impossible, to me, to do any wrong. If one story fails, the next one will steps up. Neo Tokyo (also known as Manie Manie) is one of these anime, yet all of the tales have their own special intrigue to them that is sure to attract older fans of anime (those old enough to remember Liquid Television on MTV).

This collection brings together some of the greatest anime directors around, and when you consider the production credits of all the creators of Neo Tokyo (Galaxy Express 999, Metropolis, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Steamboy, and Tokyo Godfathers) you can't help but realize that this is a special film indeed. And all of these shorts were created well before they became as legendary as they now are, so in many ways Neo Tokyo is a genesis anime.

Who are the anime directors in which I'm talking about? Rintaro, Yoshiyaki Kawajiri, and Katsuhiro Otomo, that's who. If you want to see the earlier works of some of the greatest minds in anime, not to mention a classical anime that was well ahead of its time, then I highly recommend this title.

The Stories:
1. Labyrinth Labyrinthos: This story follows a curious little girl as she and her cat make their way through a magical maze. Guided by a strange dancing clown she meets many interesting creatures. This story is more a frame story than anything else, beginning and ending Neo Tokyo.

2. Running Man: A futuristic tale where an investigative reporter is doing a story on a prolific, and psychopathic, arena racer, who is the star of the most deadly race around. Yet during his investigation, the reporter discovers the horrifying secret to the racer's success, as well as the reasons in which the running man runs. An expectantly violent tale from the maker of Ninja Scroll.

3. Construction Cancellation Order: It's obvious who created this short from the first character intro: Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira and Steamboy). A man is sent into a jungle-buried city, where expensive robots work endlessly, in order to replace the lost super-attendant and shut down the work of the robots. But the robots have other plans for him... The back of the Neo Tokyo DVD case describes this tale perfectly as "Bradbury-esque."

This is some of the best anime of all time. The stories are moving while the characters are intriguing and captivating. This is a classic and should be at the top of the Anime list.

this was the first anime i ever saw and i loved it. when i was a kid, mtv had a show called liquid television. they showed part of this. i was amazed. since i've grown up and seen more anime, i still look back at this as quintessential anime. a must have for any collector.

There's a small percentage of anime movies that are anthologies made up of short stories. Some like Batman: Gotham Knight and The Animatrix are set in the same storyline, while others like Robot Carnival are set to a certain theme. This movie was a trio of sci-fi/fantasy tales done by some of the best anime directors in the biz. Originally titled Manie-Manie(or Labyrinth Tales)in Japan, it was released in America as Neo Tokyo because Katsuhiro Otomo who had created the hit Akira was one of the contributors on it, and the idea was to make people think that this film has some connection to it by naming it after the city Akira takes place in.

The first chapter was directed by Rintaro(Metropolis)in the vein of Alice In Wonderland featuring a young boy and his cat going to scary circus with creepy clowns. This story actually comes around at the end as a bookend to the trilogy. The second part is The Running Man by Yoshiaki Kawajiri(Ninja Scroll)about a race car driver in the future who during his last race suddenly gains psychic powers, and runs across the souls of every racer that died in one of his races. The last one is by Otomo called Construction Cancellation Order, where a large corporation sends one of its office drones to deal with a giant construction project in the South American jungle where the facility is run entirely by robots. He comes to realize that the robots have gone mad, and tries to sabotage their efforts which involves revitalizing the enviroment.

All the stories were based on the works by Japanese sci-fi writer Taku Mayumura, who has mainly dealt in space operas. This movie was first released in America on dubbed VHS by Streamline Pictures, and then later on DVD by ADV Films which kept the original Streamline dub. It's biggest claim to fame in America is that The Running Man segment played on MTV's Liquid Television during the 90s. It's a movie that's been praised more for its artistic value, similar to films like Tekkonkinkreet and Perfect Blue, but its still very entertaining and packed somes of the best visuals in an anime production. Watch it at least to get a little culture into your otaku catalog.

I have waited a long time for this to be released on DVD. I was turned on to it first when the second of the three feature vignettes aired on MTV's liquid television. My VHS copy was stolen, I quickly acquired another copy, which has now been played almost to death, so the DVD version is arriving just in time.
This is a series of three vignettes around the central theme of "The Circus". The stories and themes range from the mildly amusing to the profoundly disturbing, waxing metaphorical on more than one occasion. The animation quality is excellent, and the stories as well developed as possible for their running time.
The devout anime fan will be impressed by the quality of graphic design, and the tenative anime fan will be greatly entertained. In short, a "must-have" addition to anyones anime/manga collection.

Let me start by saying that I commend studio A.D.Vison for putting out the DVD. We need companys to bring the oldies but goodies out for the fans. But I have to say it is a shameful product. And here is why...like some of the other's I also still have my VHS copy. But let me tell you that my old school tape (coped from a laser disc! remember those?)is in letterbox. which if you are a true fan of anime would want, how could you not? Neo Tokyo is great animation for it's time and still holds it's own now as far as i'm concern. These three story by these wonderful artist, Rintaro, Otomo, kawajiri, are awesome. For anyone who loves japanese animation this is a great and must have DVD. But keep in mind that there could of been a great version of these cartoons on DVD. MY old school VHS tape is more crisp then the A.D.vison DVD. And let me tell you I couldn't wait to sell my DVD to a friend at the job.

(If it only could of been like "memories" ! thank you Columbia Tristar)****

This was previously available through the now-defunct, Streamline Pictures. Before that, only one clip was known to US fans and that was Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Running Man (no relation to Stephen King's story), which was shown as an edited version on MTV's late-night Liquid TV show. The fact that it was edited should make any avid film buff cringe with disgust, but the upside of this television version was that it was narrated with a deep, raspy smoker's voice (I think the name of the voice actor is Jose Ferrer, but I'm not too sure about that - this same voice actor also did voice overs for other Liquid TV segments). The problem with the Streamline unedited version is that they dubbed this clip with another voice actor whose voice completely does not fit what fans had seen before. And so it has been for more than 10 years. We either had a duped and edited copy from television or we had an unedited, horribly dubbed version on old, worn out, out-of-print VHS (yes, I still have mine too). This DVD is a welcomed addition to fans of the wave of sophisticated anime that came to the US in the late 80s and early 90s (Akira, Wicked City, Bubblegum Crisis, etc). Despite the bad rep Streamline gets for the bad dubbing jobs, let's not forget they were the ones putting this stuff out there for more people to see. Before there was a Cartoon Network, the only place you could see anime was at conventions or at limited theater releases of Streamline products (were it not for them, most new US fans back then would have missed out on what was going on in the animation scene). And thanks to ADV for remembering the older core fans (who were around to buy the first run of Devil Hunter Yohko videos at 40 bucks a pop!).

I also first saw one of the short stories taken from this compilation on MTV..which happen to be Running Man,after seeing this i quickly started building up my anime collection along with my already owned copy of Akira.I searched and finally rented Neo Tokyo from my local block busters, so i could see the other stories and i was very satisfied with all three, even the first one with the girl and her cat using a classic instrumental as
it's background which i still do not know who the artist is to this day. i highly recommend! this DVD for any serious anime collector to buy and add it to your collection. it is truly a work of art