Wind Named Amnesia (DVD)

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"A Wind Named Amnesia" is a classic film made in the early 1990s. This is Central Park Media´s "Anime 101" release of the title, meaning that it´s a re-release for them. I´ve heard of this movie for years from other anime fans, and have finally had the chance to view it.

The beginning shows some humans that, although dressed in modern clothes, speak only in grunts and generally behave like Neanderthals, squatting in an ally in a ruined city. A roving machine descends upon them and shoots them, while a man driving a jeep looks on in horror. The robot then turns on the driver, who attempts to escape. As he careens wildly down the streets, a woman with long, light-purple hair suggests that he shoot the robot directly through its gun barrel. The man, Wataru, shouts back at Sophia, the mysterious woman, "You can talk too?"

Shortly afterwards, we learn what has befallen Earth. One day, a wind swept over the entire globe, permanently erasing everyone´s memories in an instant. After the wind passes, everything man ever learned that could be considered a building block of civilization- technical skills, basic survival skills, speech- is wiped out. Wataru was given back some basic abilities by a boy he ran into at a military research base, whose brain had been augmented by mechanical components as part of an experiment. After the boy died, Wataru wandered across The United States of America, observing the new state of humanity.

What follows is Wataru and Sophia´s journey across a new world, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and finally, to New York. They explore different manifestations of humanity, including a proto-tribe that has adopted a new god, to a computer-controlled utopia. Along the way, the robot that Wataru had thought destroyed back in San Francisco keeps upgrading itself as it pursues them.

Most of this brief, seventy-five minute film is a relaxed, lyrical exploration of what humanity, and its most basic level, is really like. Sophia is a non-interfering observer, while Wataru desperately tries to leave some sort of mark, to somehow raise the people he meets just a step out of their barbarism. Wataru is also trying to make sense of a world gone mad. As Sophia suggests, Wataru wants to find out who could have destroyed everyone´s memories, and why.

There are two main faults with this film. The first is the ending. There´s precious little resolution, considering the kinds of questions this film raised. Also, a small love motif is brought up too late to be fleshed out enough to matter to this viewer. I was especially irked by the answer given to Wataru´s question about whether humanity would regain their memories or not. The answer is that he´ll find out in about an hour, which is about fifty minutes after the film is over.