Reviews for Mind Game

Contrary to the title, this doesn't so much play with your mind as it rubs its crotch against it furiously and dunks it in an ocean full of hallucinogen. Produced by one of the most innovative animation studios around, Mind Game takes an abstract approach to a theme that a lot of mainstream anime has been promoting to viewers for decades: Don't give up, live life. You see it everywhere, from Naruto to Mobile Suit Gundam to Ghibli. Anime is always reminding you of how short life is; encouraging you to stop watching it and go outside. Stop being self-conscious, act freely, chase yourdreams, jump into the melting pot of humanity!

Mind Game's humorous approach is through a breezy kind of animation style that isn't afraid to become inconsistent at random moments. The most striking moments are when characters' faces are replaced by actual real life actors, which gives a surreal charm to the whole thing. A reason why I keep thinking of obscure quirky live action Japanese films, like Survive Style Five+, instead of other anime, because that's where Mind Game's sensibilities lie.

It is both aware and ignorant of the fact that it's animated, taking full advantage of the medium to show us wonderfully insane visuals, and ignoring it to use a narrative template that is underused in anime-land which is obsessed with plot driving the characters rather than the other way around, and whenever it is the other way around its labelled as 'slice of life'.

Not so much slice of life in Mind Game as it is a gigantic bite. We follow Nishi as he hooks up with a childhood sweetheart, we laugh at a violently ugly encounter in a restaurant, we grin stupidly at a loony action scene and spend the long remainder of the film captivated by a couple humans stripped bare, their hearts naked for all to see, and with that freedom enforced on them they're truly able to live life like they never were before.

The enforced freedom ultimately has to be taken away, which results in the film's powerful climax which is basically a race for life. A metaphorical dash across the debris of 21st century living; a furious rush that takes everything in the characters to achieve a future full of life and possibilities.

Mind Game itself shows the future and possibilities of anime. Another accomplishment for Studio 4C.

This was a 'solid' effort. Fair. Decent. Average. 6 out of 10. There isn't a modest and balanced review for this movie on this site yet, and I feel its fair to those who are interested in it to realize its not the '10 OUT OF 10 FIVE STARS 1000%!!!!' bonanza its been made out to be. However, if you're convinced this movie is just that, don't read on. Despite the title, this isn't a movie that will mess with your head or challenge you to think. It has a very simple message, one that was clearly stated: Live Life. The characters go ona journey that, while being fantastic, ended up feeling like a hollow victory come the climax. You can either blame that on the "reset button" ending or on the fact they chose to send us on acid trips over fleshing out the story.

The characters themselves were very much the same as the story. Decent, with some depth, but you could feel as though there was a wealth more to be explored that simply wasn't for one reason or another. Again, more time was given to the exploration of the art.

But what about the art? This movie is probably best known for its atypical style and beautifully executed animation. The problem though is its not a matter of execution, its a matter of content. Yes, the animation was expertly done, but the animation itself was a Wal-Mart bargain bin of good, bad, and indistinguishable. In this department, it really relies on the person watching and their preferences. Personally, I found it to be distracting and in some cases, absurd.

Basically it should come to this. If you've seen the movie or if you're thinking of watching it, ask yourself this one question..."Did I enjoy it?" . No, don't ask yourself if you 'understood everything' or if you 'appreciated the art'...ask yourself if you truly and honestly 'enjoyed' it.

Personally, its not a movie I'll watch again nor a movie I'll forget. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that one amazing movie that its hyped to be either. It falls in the middle of the road.

It was fair. Decent. Average. 6 out of 10.

Mind Game is easily one of my favourite anime movies....all the way through. At first I was a little offput by the art, some scenes work REALLY well...some scenes don't. But seriously, this anime is the best thing I've seen in a LONG time of watching anime. Story: It's a story that you cannot take seriously. There are essentially 3 different scenes in it. All three of them are beautifully executed. The pacing in this movie is also very nice, the few slow scenes are beautifully shown, there's never a single moment of tediousness. Art: " I think that Japanese animation fanstoday don’t necessarily demand something that’s so polished. You can throw different styles at them and they can still usually enjoy it." -Masaaki Yuasa (director) The art in this is so spaced out, to call it anime would be to really push the border of what anime is and can be. This free, wild form is both beautiful and also sometimes detrimental. There are some scenes that are not beautifully executed, they seem dull and boring, almost lifeless. Whereas others are beautiful, and some are quite hilarious. One of the best scenes involves God. However the best scene, is a love scene. It is worth it to watch the entire anime JUST for this one 3-4 minute scene. I cannot describe to you how beautiful this one scene was to me, you really need to see it for yourself.

Sound: The voice actors are magnificent, Niishi is especially great, he's energetic and sounds absolutely crazy half the time. The sound effects are also amazing and the background music incredible as well.

Character: To fully get the characters, to fully understand all the relations and dreams of each character this anime needs to be watched at least twice. Almost every character has a detailed story and aspirations. Niishi's dream of being a Manga artist leads to a cute little story. The characters at all time seem human, they seem pliable and three-dimensional. This aspect is so beautifully shown, it's one of the many highlights of this series.

I was never let-down during this entire movie. However I would not recommend it to everyone. If you don't have an open mind about what you believe anime is, then don't watch this. This anime is incredibly unique. To use the word "weird" would be an insult to this. I have never seen anything like this, it's an anime that really does a magnificent job at being a beautiful piece of art.

I like arty and pretentious anime as much as the anyone. I think Neon Genesis Evangelion, whose seemingly innocuous mecha beginnings give way to stream-of-consciousness psychoanalyzing, is a high-water mark. Confusing or confused, it's worth it. And I'm a huge fan of Satoshi Kon's work, all of which pushes the limits of anime. I enjoy the challenging stuff. So when I read several fairly glowing reviews of Mind Game, I was curious. But I'm not sure if we were all watching the same film. Yes, the art and animation are spectacular, shifting between contrasting styles with grace and ease. It's certainly a visual showcase. Yet noneof the reviews mention the aspects I'm going to talk about below; and I'm inclined to think that beyond the artwork, Mind Game is really just art-house by numbers. Fill in the dots between seemingly edgy elements, and you'll have a great piece of cinema. Or not.

Take the characters. Nishi is a wannabe Manga-artist. Fine. Myon wanted to be a swimmer until her breasts got in the way. Um, fine. The old man prepares gourmet dinners and talks to his friends, the dinosaurs. Whatever. And Yan wants to be a performance artist and likes nothing more that taping balloons to her chest, covering herself with paint, and throwing herself at canvas. While trapped inside a whale. Er… what?

This is all meant to be psychedelic and avant-garde, I suppose. Subtle it isn't. For example: Nishi tells Myon a story about space explorers for whom the only source of food on the planet they were stranded on was alien excrement. But then it turns out that the space explorers were actually on a cell in Myon's body, and they grew larger until being flushed out of her system. You can imagine the details, I'm sure. This charming tale has the inexplicable effect of seducing Myon; I can only suppose that her eyes were so clouded with love that saw in it the unrestrained imagination of her beau, and that the story was meant to have the same effect on the viewer. Personally, I just thought it was tasteless.

Duly seduced, Myon and Nishi have sex. Fortunately, there isn't any nudity, as their bodies dissolve into a kaleidoscope of lines, colours and images. Unfortunately, this sequence resembles nothing so much as a 1969 sketch by Monty Python: trains entering tunnels and then crashing, waves lashing against the shore, that sort of thing. Only in the sketch, we ultimately pan away to reveal an inept guy playing the film to his increasingly frustrated girlfriend. See, the Python sketch is a parody. Which says a lot for the sequence in Mind Game.

It's as if the whole thing is trying too hard to be different, to be absurd, to be psychedelic. Towards the end all four of the main cast pool their resources to escape, rowing as hard as they can through the water-filled stomach of the whale—until their boat is broken. With only the momentum to carry them forward, they use whatever comes their way as leverage to propel them forwards: bits of wood... fish... a fly... Onwards they run, as the whale swallows successively large objects: a ship, an airplane (which explodes behind them), an office block, which Nishi has to navigate his way through, leaping over tables and through windows…

Then finally we see a almost identical stream of images to those which opened the movie, only with slight differences; so whereas at the start Myon caught her foot in the door of an underground train, now she doesn't. This is art-house by numbers again: repeat the same four minutes of footage with minor changes and in so doing give 'meaning' to the changes. What it actually means is not actually the issue; the fact that it's meaningful is all that's important.

In the end, Mind Game is a hodgepodge of highbrow and lowbrow; of comments about breast size and toilet jokes combined with literary references and pseudo-symbolism. Perhaps it wants to exploit the contrast in a kind of cinematic magical realism; but in my view it fails completely. Nothing represents the film better than Yan's paint dancing: it wants to be art, but it's mired in vulgarity.

Bought, watched, and offered for sale on amazon marketplace before I'd even finished it.

__________

Poor; I wish I'd done something better with my time. Its merits are few and far between.

Drizzling rain being seen through the windscreen of a car; A guy running around with wearing a football shirt and a... is that a diaper? A girl gets her leg trapped in the door of a train and flounders around like a fish out of water. From the first random images of "Mind Game" that looks like it was drawn by a 6 year old, I can already tell that it's one of those titles that is no doubt hailed in the spirit of modern art as a mind blowing work of genius by some, and dismissed as more worthless than a pile of steaming dogturd on the pavement by others. If you're one of those people who will eagerly lap up anything that's different just because it's different, then this is one for you to watch. But if, like me, you only like originality when the resulting product is actually good, then I'd recommend you to steer well clear of "Mind Game". No one can deny that the style of "Mind Game" is quite unique, but I for one found it to be obnoxiously pretentious. If I wanted to admire some diabolical scrawl such as this, I can go and ogle at the "masterpieces" that my younger brother drew in school when he was about 10. Or maybe not, since those are probably better drawn than "Mind Game".

Underneath the crazy presentation lies a crazy adventure story. Just like the "FLCL" and "Dead Leaves", the crazy bits made me switch off totally, but brushing those issues aside, the rest of the movie (the little there is left) is strangely compelling, and I sometimes found myself totally drawn towards its powerful message of taking risks and living life to the full. The story itself has its moments of worth, and there is a surprising amount of character development. And undeniably, there are some moments of comedy genius (like the bit where the main guy tries to drive the car like James Bond) that had me helpless with laughter, but overall there's just too much crap mixed into this movie for my liking. The ending also sucks bad - if I understood it correctly, then it makes the rest of the movie even less worthwhile. In conclusion, "Mind Game" is certainly an interesting anime in parts, but I don't think those few parts of interest are enough to salvage this wreck of a movie.

To start, this will be my first review. However, I think this movie deserves it. At first, I was a little like, "Wow...wtf is this?" Moreover, I was baffled, but as you get more into it, you realize it is not something to overthink. Just sit back, laugh, be in awe, and enjoy. By far, one of the best animes I have seen. Story: The story could have gone a little deeper in with the characters and their past, but besides that, it gave you enough to keep up with, and you were not completely baffled by what was going on. All in all, it was prettygood.

Art: Now this is what I enjoyed. It was very abstract, very different. It makes you think twice about watching it when you FIRST start it because it is not anything like the usual animes, but if you tough it out for oh...10 minutes or so, you will realize it is quite funny and not so bad. It is different, but not an eyesore. It is drawn in very unusual ways which makes it a lot more interesting. If you have ever seen Yellow Submarine, the movie by The Beatles, I would say this is funky like that; but with a Japanese twist. It is good stuff.

Sound: It was not remarkable, but I did not think much about it, either. I honestly did not notice the sound effects as I usually only notice if it is terrible. I did notice that some of the sounds caught my attention as they were a bit strange. All in all, I would say the sound was not good or bad. It just was.

Character: The characters were awesome. They were all fascinating, and each one was drawn entirely different, which I thought was terrific. They keep your attention pretty well. Usually, I have my favorites and not so favorites, but I ended up liking all of them equally.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed it, to the max. I was on the phone with my friend, and we watched it together. We both ended up rating it a 10, and both loved it. It is something I think everyone should try to watch if they like anime. It is different, and if you have been watching the same usual action, romance, slice of life animes, etc. etc. animes, watching this will be a dramatic change... but a delightful one. I am pleased I watched this, and I wish I could find more movies like it. It was so out of place, and that may be why some people do not watch it because of the appearance. However, looks are deceiving in this scenario. It is honestly a fantastic movie. I think anyone would enjoy.

Overall: Different, abstract, funny, confusing, trippy, but it all boils down to...amazing. Absolutely great. Please give it a try if you bothered to read this. Haha. =]

(Originally Posted: 6/21/08; Grammar Corrected: 4/3/2019)

Whenever a film, animated or otherwise, strives for greatness, said film is always commendable for its pursuit, even if it does not succeed. Such is not the case, however, for Mind Game. This film aims at greatness and, if anything, overshoots it and lands right on masterpiece. Some viewers may be strongly reminded of another film, Tekkon Kinkreet, when watching Mind Game, and this is to be expected. Both films share production houses 4 degrees Celsius and Asmik-Ace, thus explaining similarities in some of the more realistic character designs. Another link, though not as obvious, is that with the extremely surreal experimental feature Cat Soup. MasaakiYuasa, one of the chief designers and animators for CS, here rises to the occasion as both screenwriter and director. In this manner, Mind Game shares some of Cat Soups mindboggleing energy and imagry, though it's here that the similarities end (as well as all this annoying name dropping). Where Cat Soup was dark and twisted, MG is excitingly free spirited and optomistic, though it's arguably just as convoluted.

The film centers around Nishi, a young and timid aspiring manga-kan, who reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, Myon, just as she's preparing to marry another man. Sudden turns-of-events following this reunion work to shake Nishi out of his complaciency, and turn him into the bold, free-spirited man he's always dreamed of being. Together with Myon and her sister, Nishi embarks on an adventure that will lead to the most unlikely of places, where he will learn what it truely means to live.

Mind Game's story is fairly simple, though very surprising all the same. There's a significant chang of pace about halfway thru, though the film never for a moment loses its ingenuity or excitement. The second act is in many ways a relaxing look at how to get the most out of life, accompanied by several stunning musical interludes. The in-your-face action of the films first act comes roaring back for the climax though, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it's one of the most exilirating scenes I've ever witnessed (and I was watching it on my ipod first time I saw it)! The ending is definatly for the open minded, as the resolution, and indeed everything that has happened up to that point, is suddenly thrown into question, with plot points rectifying and contradicting themselves in a beautiful, better-not-blink montage that is the film's finale. All together, this is exactly the kind of film I relish, though I'm afraid to say that it most likely is not for mainstream viewers (though if you found satisfaction through the likes of NGE (any of them), than Mind Game shouldn't be beyond your grasp. And even so, the sheer astetic value is enough for anyone to appreciate. Anyone who loves anime should see this film, and will either love it or at least feel justified in seeing it, for it is truly a film like no other.

Its been 3 year since I started watching Animes and it is the first time i has such a nostalgic feeling. Somewhere along the way, It just became part of my life. Mind game made me realise why I started watching anime. Only in anime can u laugh at a very intense chase scene. The awesomeness of Mind Game is not in this semi-autobiographical Story, But the way it is potrayed, can be potrayed only in anime. The Humorous animation style of the movie is one of the best i have seen with those realistic chunks taking it to a new height. After allit take a genius to create a masterpiece through inconsistency

Mindgame, I can say, has nothing to do with its name. You can sit back and relax while watching this. It doesn't make you struggle to understand, or it does not make you stop and watch like crazy as in the -monogatari series and call it art. When you watch this, you will understand that this piece was made without being worried about appreciation. There is no struggling to be sophisticated either. The story, as I said, flows with no restrictions. It suddenly takes you in, you feel like you are one of them, you do not find anything odd in this strange plot. The art isexcellent with the sound, character development is great, and I guarantee that you will enjoy this if you do not have any prejudices towards it.

I loved the god symbolism, pretty good.

Finally, it is quite amazing to witness how this anime describes life to you with tons of little views, tons of them. I don't want to give detail but you'll see, and understand.

9/10.

This is the first review I am ever writing, and my english should maybe be better for writing such thing, but I just have to say what i think about this movie! I will describe this movie in 3 words, and they are: Hilarious, colorful and odd! I havent seen anything like this before and it was very weird sometimes, but one thing is clear, you never get bored while watching this movie. I love the scene when God (Kami-sama) is arriving, he is changing faces and voices all the time and i loled my ass off when i saw him/her... X3 God was without any doubtthe best character in the whole movie! I did not like the end very much though, but i hope there will be a "Mind Game 2" very soon, it would make me happy ^_^ it reminded me very much about Pinocchio and Fantasia, but it was very unique at the same time... I promise, you will never find any movie like this even if you are looking for it your entire lifetime! A pure 10/10, but it deserved more. In other words, i loved it and will always do :3

Story 9.1/10 A collection of barely likeable characters made even more ugly by the capricious use of random animation techniques. An innappropriate use of Matsumoto Taiyou-esque designs in a flat, out-of-place world of disconnected and hardly appropriate thoughts. Like it's soundtrack; a jazzy, infuriated rush through a dreamland of improvised gamery. A voidless explosion of creativity, unbound by rational thought and sequence. Enacted and enjoyed on a whim. A dream. A game. A mental jongleur. In the end a frantic but successful grasp at the unrealistic. Like the parent on the carosel, the dick clasped between the legs, reality calmly waits at the sideline for the party tofinish and the cast to rap themselves up. And it does so in a gracious yet pumpingly real pinacle which makes us remember our lives as the dust on the breeze; and to forget the 'gravity' of our vices. We will continue in a beautiful rythm until... it's over.

So many metonyms and so much hidden meaning, though never cleverly enacted, produce a satisfying feeling. Perhaps it just makes us feel clever, even, at the same time as feeling completely irrelevant. Maybe that was it. Whatever it was, it's likeable whilst not really likeable at all.

It had what many in this genre don't which is a firm grasp on reality, and for that we have to thank it; for bringing us down a notch.

Animation 6/10

Sometimes inspiring, sometimes abnoxious. The worst parts of Trapeze and the best of Tekkon Kinkreet. Intense but lacklustre. Vivid but pathetic. But fitting.

Sound 9/10

Warm and colourful. Jazzy, sound, again fitting. Good voice actors and well mixed.

Characters 7/10

Shallow but representative.

Overall 8.9/10

An expression of relentless hope engulfed in a terrifying seran-wrap of understandable insanity.

It has issues. Myon is assaulted, rape is pretty much implied. This is fine. But then, Jii-san and Nishi had the gall to peek at her bathing just after, with zero reaction by Myon. This is appalling. Rape and sexual assault should never be included as subject matter without showing the terrible traumatic effect that results. It's shown to have no effect on Myon, this is disturbing. In addition, the portrayal of male sexuality at the cost of the women through constant peeping removes much of the appeal of this film. It does show a positive portrayal later, but this other behavior is intolerable. Like alot ofanime, you should acknowledge the decisions made to appeal to the predominantly male audience. And you should acknowledge the apathy and ignorance towards women as something that should not be perpetuated. After that, you can enjoy it alot.

Story: There are a couple parts that aren't really meant to be understood, but the story is entertaining and it causes both you and the characters to appreciate the vast possibilities we're given in life. 8/10 Art: The climactic scene of this movie probably has the strongest blend of amazing creativity, odd beauty, and intensity of anything I've ever seen! :D The rest of the movie also looks pretty cool visually, but it does take some getting used to. 9/10 Sound: The music is successful at calming you down, weirding you out, or building up excitement according to what each scene is going for. There are some unusual sound effectsbut they all fit fine with the movie.

8/10

Character: Most of them are interesting. The characters definitely aren't this movie's strong point but they still do manage to get the job done better than those in plenty of other anime.

6/10

Enjoyment: Very unique, charming, and memorable.

9/10

Overall:

8/10

as far as the story goes, the message seems to be to "live life to the fullest" a simple message, with a not so simple story line. the art is phenomenal. if your a fan of conventional art you may find it a bit difficult to adjust to this sort of "mixed-media-esque" style of anime art. it reminds me, to an extent of the animes like Kare Kano and Paranoia Agent which don't mind straying from the conventional anime drawings and feel free to try something new and fun the music works incredibly well with the entire anime! i would even go as far as putting iton the same level as samurai champloo and cowboy bebop

the chase scene, the escape scene, the adventure scenes... they are all highlighted by the music. it does a great job of exaggerating or emphasizing personalities, feelings, and intensity.

the characters are great, but could have used more development (based on english subs)

There were some parts of the plot which just completely went over my head due to bad/vague dialogues.

Only one scene comes to mind (towards the end), but other than that I really enjoyed it.

overall i loved the anime--i watched in twice in two days and it was just as enjoyable the second time.

it's a creative, artistic twist on a well established axiom, that is rarely depicted in anime.

Movie Review No.6 Mind Games is a very weird show about the “Game of Life”. Directed by Yuasa, Masaaki, the guy popularly known for using weird art style but one the few active directors in modern times that have amazing talents. This is anime is so crazy that the creators might have smoke weeds before they made it but that’s a joke. In reality this is how Yuasa make his shows which give the titles he made with novelty. Moving to the main review of the show. Art (8/10) (+) For starters the thing you will remember about Mind Games very clearly is the uncanny background and characterdesign. The anime don’t follow the traditional or the mainstream style most anime to date uses a lot. The unnatural atmosphere of the movie made a good advantage in portraying good cinematography and artistic expression towards the show. It really works well in the psychological and dementia themes. And because of the art style it is more easily to distinguish on when it’s trying to become funny and serious just by looking at the intensity of the colors and how the shape and imagery moves from one frame to another.

Music (6/10)(+)

For the music there isn’t much to say. The music did perfectly fine in the show’s atmosphere. It did a good job in setting up the mood but is the OST worth remembering? In my personal taste not really.

(Might have possible spoilers)

Characters (6/10) (+)(+)

For the Characters they are just all right. Personally I don’t see the characters really special or worth remembering. They are indeed flesh out enough for them to have some depth but because of small time and how the plot work out towards the end, all their struggles and conflict is put to waste deleting the possibility of progression. And why is the show didn’t have any progression towards the end you can always blame Kami-sama of the show for that.

Plot (7/10) (+)(+)

The message of Mind Games is pretty simple. Live your Life to the fullest and everything will be alright as long as you have a positive attitude and enthusiasm. It’s pretty amazing from the start and from the end this is what the story is trying to represent without using any long and pretentious dialogues. The characters here clearly do what they say. If they are going to live life in a crazy way they really going to do it with style. The Romance part here is pretty decent because the main character have a pay-off on his old childhood. But sadly the biggest drawback of the story is the finale.

(Warning this part has Spoilers)

On Personal Enjoyment I can say Mind Games is a good for watch show. This type of themes is really obscure you literally won’t find this anime every day and unless you deepen the search in the medium you won’t know the title even existed. In my last statement while the finale is a mess is because there is no actual ending everything got set to zero again and the last information you will get is that the story has no real ending meaning we are down the conclusion those everything that happen really matters or does Yuasa is just playing around in our minds like sort of a game?

If you think it critically the show is playing with our minds, our ideals, our believes and many more that conflicted in our lives. Having this kind of idea did mind games did what its supposed to do on its audience? Is everything just an illusion? Is God like to play with our primitive lives that always get repeated from every generation?

Mind Games is open to self-explanatory about the “Game of Life”. Everybody can draw their meaning according to the type of life they have.

Overall (6.5/10)…….Near to (7/10)

Mind Games is not appealing to everyone on its concept and others might get even confused. Mind Games is Highly recommended for people that is open minded to the theme concerning about the complexity of life while having a very bizarre atmosphere while drawing it.

Recommendation:

Another similar concept of Mind Games is “Tatami Galaxy” directed by the same director. Tatami Galaxy is improve version of Mind Games with deeper and comprise themes and a desirable conclusion. I highly recommend it if you are looking for obscure type of shows.

Well this is my first review & its my honor to write this for you. First let me state that I watched this under the influence of Psilocybin. That being said, I came into this movie not knowing what to expect. I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it but it began in a very eccentric manner. The artwork was so free & creative, the emotions in the art & characters voices took me by storm. It depicts every aspect of humanity, both good & bad. That is easily my favorite trait about this film, its relatable to real life. The plot was so original, it has very important lessonsthat one can take from this.

It gives you a general perspective on possibilities through certain actions & highlights

the fact that you & you alone are in control of your life. The cinematic feel it brings

along with it indubitably make this a masterpiece. I have tried my very best to write

this review without any spoilers & still give you an idea of what to expect, much love.

I hope you enjoy this film as much as I did.

(Review originally from Letterboxd) After three watches, I still feel like I haven't even breached the surface of what Mind Game has to offer. There's so much content to unpack in such a short time span that I don't think you can get a real amount of it without actually devoting some time to studying it. This is the kind of movie that you could design an entire college course around. The final montage, "This story has never ended," is one of the most narratively ambitious things ever put to film and I am not sure if something like it has ever been attempted before or since. Ithas been a really tough battle in my mind for which of Masaaki Yuasa's three films is his best. Right now, the unbridled energy and positivity in Night is Short, Walk on Girl takes the crown, but Lu Over the Wall and Mind Game are both fantastic in their own right and I am thinking that, in the end, Mind Game will probably be the one to prevail, just because this is a movie with such depth that you can't even see all the way to the bottom.

OK guys I'm gonna attempt the impossible and summarize/review Mind Game, the directorial debut of one Masaaki Yuasa (Ping Pong, Lu Over The Wall, Night Is Short, Walk On Girl). This movie is very far out there, very psychedelic, very experimental in nature. It employs various animation styles, CGI, and even real people's faces plastered onto animated bodies at times!? Yes the film is weird to say the least. I'd say the shifts in animation style are used at key moments to convey emotion, though. For example, in a scene where Nishi finally confesses his feelings to the woman of his dreams, a live actionface suddenly appears on his drawn body screaming, "You should marry me, not him!!!" I don't mean to sound like a broken record but I don't like Yuasa's low-detail animation style because it just looks UGLY at times. Then again, the art changes so much throughout the movie there's bound to be one style you'll like. The story is basically about this loser named Nishi who reunites with an old crush, fails to save said girl from gangsters, gets shot through the ass and the head with one bullet (wow, impressive), goes to the afterlife and meets God, decides he can't move on so he forces himself back to life, goes back and saves his woman and runs off on a wild adventure.

Masaaki Yuasa fans talk about how deep and philosophical his content is, and while the movie's story gets complicated (our characters live inside a whale at one point), the message was pretty simple. Live life to the fullest, without regrets. Don't be afraid to take a risk; the reason Nishi lost Myon is because he hesitated. I enjoyed this "seize the day" message the film provided, but I feel like Mind Game is mostly praised for its risk-taking art direction, since the plot and characters are nothing to write home about. Protagonist Nishi gets more sympathetic as the film goes along, but I remember hating him at the start. Nishi is such a coward that he cowers in a corner as gangsters literally rape (did I mention Mind Game gets pretty intense?) and beat the woman he claims to love. He doesn't try to stop them. Seriously dude!? I almost shut the film off then. Another thing that bothered me was that for a good chunk of the film Myon has her shirt ripped open exposing her breasts, but Nishi never offers his shirt to her or something else to cover up? The female lead Myon had a very cute character design, but her personality wasn't all that memorable and she was also a bit fanservice-y. You'll burst out laughing the first time you see how ridiculously big her breasts are! There's also this trite love triangle where Nishi is childhood friends with Myon and has loved her since they were kids but she's engaged to another dude, blah blah. I'm being hard on Yuasa here because I've seen him do better in Ride Your Wave, which had much better romance and a much more memorable female lead. Hinako from Ride Your Wave had so many more layers to her, and hell so did Yuho from Lu Over The Wall, as opposed to Mind Game's Myon, who is really just a big breasted/doe-eyed object of main dude's affections. This film also likes to just be weird for the sake of being weird at times, like when Myon's sister shows up wearing inflating water balloon breats and a penis, and starts dancing. Yes, this happens. I didn't love this film, I don't think it's "one of the best animated films ever made" like the box says, but I do think it's unique enough in presentation that you should give it a try for yourself. Oh man, Mind Game is so hard to rate...I'd give it a solid 7/10.

A prodigy of imagination, animation and visual inventiveness, the only 'but' I put it is that it lasts 100 minutes, I think that something so extreme for more than an hour ends quenching, as the film progresses I was forgeting all those details that have been seen, it innovates so much in the animation that I think a medium-length movie would have been better. The other flaw I see is that the story is not up to its extraordinary visual shape, it is a film of great artistic and visual maturity, but that sometimes falls into the typical nonsense of manga and anime world; Perhaps thebad thing is not the depth of the message, which it has it, but the way in which that message is told.

An interesting film, a breath of fresh air within the world of animation.

This is what happens when you take wild, untamed ambition and boundless imagination and toss them into a simmering cauldron for it just to boil over and into your goddamn eyes like a concentrated dose of animated LSD. Very much a kaleidoscopic head-fuck, Yuasa's MIND GAME is a film about seizing the moment and coming to terms with your own self, but it's also about the ceaseless mythos of human emotion and connection - lives on top of lives on top of lives. Decisions that shape us happen long before we're born, and the ones we make will mold others long after we're gone, ourstories neverending. Possibilites abound, and MIND GAME suggests that every one is a story worth living and that is so unabashedly optimistic I might just fucking break down and cry.