Genius Party

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

Transfert

Dragon's Heaven

In the year 3195, there was a war between an army of robots and the humans. When Shaian, a sentient combat armor, lost his companion in battle, he shut down until his internal systems spotted a new human. It's now almost a 1000 years later, and Shaian's greatest enemy is still alive and doing battle in Brazil. With a new friend's help, Shaian may be able to stop this evil force before another war rages over the continent.

Project A-Ko 4: Final

A-ko and B-ko are fighting as usual, as C-ko watches from the sidelines feeling neglected by both. Ayumi-sensei has been behaving strangely lately. She's wearing a heart-shaped crystal with a hexagram inside, and is chanting mysterious prayers in private. At the ruins of an ancient civilization, an archaeologist spies a hexagram among the hieroglyphics. Deep in outer space, an alien fleet is on a course for Earth, and its flagship bears the same hexagram shape.