Saturday, August 09, 2008

Anime — Kaiba

In some posthuman future, memories are the stuff of trade, and identities can reside in thumb-drive. And in this future, a man wakes up with a hole through his torso and no memories at all.

This is his story, a pilgrimage from body to body, and world to world, to find who he once was.

For 2/3 of the twelve episodes, this anime built a giddy tower of mystery and deception -- not knowing who was really who or doing what at any time, as minds are forked, replicated, and re-embodied. And then it started to reveal what was really going on, until finally the whole plot turns out to hinge on some comparatively trite childhood trauma (arriving completely from left field), the plot disintegrating as the world around the characters does.

An interesting, if ultimately flawed production, from the same source as Kemonozume.

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