ANI-MOVIES, *A Wind Named Amnesia

Hideyuki Kikuchi has written numerous novels set in post-apocalyptic settings such as Vampire Hunter D and Darkside Blues, but his early 80s work of A Wind Named Amnesia is one of the few science fiction stories where mankind's downfall wasn't caused by nuclear war or a robot uprising. Kikuchi along with Vampire Hunter D co-hort Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a movie was released during the height of the Akira wave where several futuristic anime films were produced. The film itself became slightly like its namesake as it was a sleeper hit lost in the fold with numerous apocalyptic anime, mixing in action like Fist Of The North Star, and philosphical like the original Appleseed.

Happening in the far off year of 1999 AD, a strange wind wiped out the memories of all human beings on Earth, reducing them to mindless barbarians with no knowledge of their former lives, including how to speak or take care of themselves, least of all any idea of who their families were. This lead to animal pack mentality, causing the survivors to be killed off or cannibalized by humanity's remaining physical and carnal needs. The young wanderer Wataru was fortunate to be given alot of basic knowledge thanks to a lone paraplegic naned Johnny who kept all his memories thanks to a computer in his brain at a military facility that was trying to turn people into psychic cyborg soldiers. Johnny ironically gives Wataru his "Japanese" name to take his downloaded information on his journey after Johnny dies. Wataru runs into a hot lady with bleached white hair calling herself Sophie who helps him take down a rogue police mecha. The two set off across the American wasteland encountering cults, dystopian civilizations, and roaming gangs who still only have their basic instincts to fall back on. Sophie eventually reveals that she's from an alien race that unleashed the amnesia creating wind on Earth because they feared how humans were progressing to quickly, and might prove to be a threat to them down the line. Wataru has a final battle with the killer mecha again that was hunting them this whole time, and then has an obligatory sex scene with Sophie just before she gets beamed back up into space, leaving the human race to their unknown future.

A Wind Called Amnesia seems to start and end on Hollywood styled action action sequences, but the majority of the run time gets lost in its own efforts to define how destructive human nature is. Whether its reverting to animalistic tribalism or becoming dependent on technology for survival, the anime tries to rope several seperate chapters together into a single production which might have worked better as a limited OVA series. The movie is largely as forgettable as the plot device leaving alot of potential dangling with its lack of keeping the viewer interested, at least with above average animation.