Robot Carnival - Opening

As a treat, here's Atsuko Fukushima and Katsuhiro Otomo's prologue segment to the anthology vid Robot Carnival. Outside of a few early 90s showings on the US Sci-Fi Channel, this short focused animation collaboration is little seen in the West due to boring rights issues. The US anime outfit Streamline prepared a dub and monkeyed around with the films ordering, concocting new, and superfluous, credit elements for a limited American theatre run. Time Out London list a review, so perhaps the film played at festivals in Britain? If you want to see the film in full, your best bet is either an out-of-print Japanese DVD, LaserDisc bootlegs, or YouTube.

Deprive

Presented for your viewing pleasure, a delirious segment from 1987's anthology anime project Robot Carnival. Directed by Hidetoshi Omari, usually seen plying his trade on a variety of mobbing mech shows, Deprive is a seven minute shorthand account of 80s OAV genre obsessions. Fraction men crush building-bots in resplendent clothing, fey counter-culture criminals cackle, and the love of a slight woman allows the hero to transcend his limitations. Deprive is a concise, snack antidote to the flabby navel-narratives modern anime frequently succumbs to - everything you could possibly need to know is told through cross-fades and soundless scream images.

Crush them all Flame-haired Robot-Man!