A Wind Named Amnesia

Based on a novel written by Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, A Wind Named Amnesia is the episodic tale of Wataru, a young man who has slowly regained his wits following a cataclysmic world event that has robbed humanity of their intelligence. Directed by Kazuo Yamazaki and co-written by Yamazaki, Kenji Kurata and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Amnesia deals with a post-apocalyptic setting free of rape gangs and cannibalism, Amnesia dialling down the desperation to match the sunny, positivity of its teenage lead. Yamazaki's film is closer to a YA action-adventure than a dirge detailing the planet's funeral rights.

Amnesia never creeps anywhere near the savage masculinity you'd expect from a Go Nagai or Buronson joint, the slathering primitives that now make up mankind are less a threat here and more a curiosity. Instead it's the remnants of the old world that impact on Wataru and his otherworldly companion Sophia. The massive, malfunctioning computers and city-sized excavators (that previously massaged society), splutter out of control, single-mindedly pursuing their last inputted command. The skittish, fearful survivors attempt to cater to these broken titans, locking themselves into cycles of strange, all-consuming compulsion.

Sophia, the white-haired psychic Wataru meets along the way, is impressed that Earth's people are bouncing back so quickly from oblivion, noting that, previously, it took mankind centuries to latch onto blood sacrifice as a means of establishing equilibrium with a chaotic environment. Amnesia's tone is similarly anthropological, an alien observation filtered through the surface level understanding of a shell-shocked teenager. When the undead mech that pursues the couple throughout is finally defeated, Sophia reveals her true nature and how it is tied to the untold suffering visited on humankind. Wataru takes this appalling news in his stride, likely because Sophia is disrobing and offering herself to him right when he hears it.