Kaze no na wa Amunejia

Title:Kaze no na wa Amunejia
A Wind Named Amnesia
Wind des Vergessens
風の名はアムネジア
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: KAWAJIRI Yoshiaki
R1 License - Central Park Media(Defunct)
Rin Taro
YAMAZAKI Kazuo
Several years after a tragic disaster resulting in the loss of all of the human race's memories, a young man by the name of Wataru goes on a journey to see what remains of the old world. Wataru was taught to speak by a boy who managed to somehow avoid the amnesiac effect due to a brain surgery giving him a mind like that of a computer. Now Wataru must continue his quest to trek across America and see the world that used to be.

[Movie, 1993, 81 min]
2:47min Movie Trailer - YouTube Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 8 7 6 5 Ggultra2764 [series:61#1552]
Think about the best way I can describe A Wind Named Amnesia is wasted potential. While I don't find it to be as bad as some folks are making it out to be, the movie does carry some pretty significant flaws that I will get to in a bit. It looked like Wind Named Amnesia was trying to explore the depths of human morality when a mysterious wind causes all of humanity to forget all their memories from basic skills of living to even communicating through speech. Wataru, a young man able to regain the capacity to think and speak rationally, and a mysterious woman named Sophia travel together through the post-apocalyptic United States where they get into several encounters with human civilizations a la Kino's Journey that lead them to question elements of religion and science. The movie does explore enough of Wataru's character where you come to learn of how he regained the ability to talk and think for himself and went on his journey to understand humanity. It also sports a solid visual presentation with detailed scenic shots and character designs, subdued color tones that do well to compliment the dramatic mood of the movie and fluid movement in many instances that does well to complement the movie's tense moments such as Wataru's random encounters with the enemy mech that actively chases him throughout much of the movie.

The biggest gripes I have with A Wind Named Amnesia come from its pacing, philosophizing and elements to the believability of its plot. The pacing for this movie goes by at a fairly quick pace, which leaves little time for the audience to take in events and themes that the movie is trying to explore. With the movie seemingly taking an approach to its storyline like Kino's Journey, A Wind Named Amnesia would have better benefited with being either an OVA series or short TV anime so it gave viewers more time to take in plot developments.

The philosophizing for Wind Named Amnesia is also nothing too thought-provoking. It pretty much milks plot formulas related to religion (fake god exploited to dominate populace) and science (computers will corrupt society) that are used in one form or another in anime and other fictional titles.

The anime also suffers in having some pretty big holes in logic regarding our two lead characters. Wataru's too naive and dense to even comprehend the most basic of concepts, which kills much of the intrigue over his quest of trying to understand humanity. The fool even outright states later in the film that "it's too complicated for me", which kills the whole point of the film being its comprehension of human morality outside a civilized setting. He's also rather trusting of unfamiliar people like Sophie too easily, which is especially insulting when we come to learn who she is and her reasons for tagging along with Wataru are (the latter also not making much sense). Also as mentioned, the sex scene that occurs at the end of the film comes out of nowhere and has no real purpose at all besides leaving you wondering what the creators of the film were thinking when they thought it up.

Pretty much, the background to Wataru's character and the persistence of the mech going after our male lead were what saved this baby from tempting me to give it an Avoid rating. Beyond that, the movie is enough of a mess in its pacing, storytelling and themes to be worth any praise that others would give it.

Last updated Saturday, May 11 2013. Created Saturday, May 11 2013.
Avoid 6 5 2 3 5 Devil Doll [series:61#752]
[Score: 38%]
And they even made a (decent) German dub for this... heavens, what a waste of time! Couldn't they have done this for a show that works?
The basic idea of this story might at least have been interesting. This is why I am so disappointed - there are other animes like Golden Boy of which I knew at once that I wouldn't like them. But here, the main character is such a fool, unable to ask himself the easiest of all questions. So what pretended to be philosophical just turned out to be meaningless rubbish.
I am not really annoyed about the fighting scenes - in a way these fill that movie's time at least. But that sex scene close to the end is ridiculous; I am not really impressed by that Sophia character who doesn't seem to be very bright either. Still, my biggest pain is watching this clueless Wataru driving through the ruins of civilization...
That wind of forgetfulness seems to have blown through the maker's head as well.

Last updated Thursday, March 24 2005. Created Wednesday, January 28 2004.
Avoid 6 6 4 0 4 4 C-Puff [series:61#350]
Only one word can discribe this film. URGH! I took it out once, whatched it once & had to force myself not to throw it in the fire (Seeing as it wasn't mine) One things fore sure I wont bother taking it out again. The whole concept was just a little farfetched. & the story line was stupid as well! It actually aggitates me just thinking about it. But i'm starting to go off the hook. I remember thinking 'Oh Come ON! why not at least gain 1 follower for goodness's sake!' But then i think they didn't get any followers because the two main characters were just so bland. How they got attracted to each other is beyond me since neither had any personality. Ya can't get attached to the characters wich to me is a major let down. The only thing I've seen that's worse is Heavy Metal.

Last updated Thursday, July 18 2002. Created Thursday, July 18 2002.
Watch 7 6 5 0 4 4 Lickylick [series:61#133]
THAT GODDAMN ROBOT WILL NEVER DIE!!!!!
A Wind Named Amnesia is, shall I say, really bad. The animation is not very good, the story is stupid, I can't really even remember the music (or if there was any). The main villain is an anti-riot bot from San Francisco that for some reason or another, feels it just has to hunt Wataru down after it sees him in SF. What kinda bullshit is this. Oh yeah, that thing can take bullets, grenades, and falls from cliffs, yet it dies by being impaled by steel beams IN ZERO-G!!! What is this! There is some nudity (including Wataru being blessed, in an act of nipple-biting that is supposed to be sex, by another speaking female). The only reason I give it a watch is that it is one of those animes that is soooooooo bad, that it is frikkin hilarious (I made so many jokes about it when I saw at a local anime club). na no da

Last updated Sunday, February 04 2001. Created Sunday, February 04 2001.

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