Imagine one of those extremely hot days where the horizon appears to be shimmering (this is pretty difficult when you’re Irish but I’m sure the rest of you can imagine one of those days quite easily). Everything you view from a certain distance off appears to be moving like water. The outline of a plane in the sky in the sky appears to be swimming, waving from side to side like a giant fish.
Interested now?
Crash course about this anime: Twilight Q is an OVA made in 1987. It consists two totally unrelated episodes made by entirely different people. The first is a rather forgettable piece about a time travelling camera. It starts well, a bit like those creepy asian horror movies you watch and then really wish you hadn’t, but then becomes a bit of a mess and leaves you wondering what on earth the whole point of it was. Maybe if you really liked House of Five Leaves then you could give it a shot, because it’s the same director, but honestly I’d say you should skip it. The second episode features the above sequence of a plane turning into a fish, in what has probably taken over FLCL as the strangest opening scene to an anime I have ever seen. The director is considerably more famous for this episode. Mamoru Oshii, who directed things like Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell.
Seeing as it’s only half an hour long, I can’t say a whole lot without spoiling stuff, but that fish turning into a plane should really be hook enough. It’s the sort of thing I was expecting when I went on my epic search for 80’s OVA’s. That slightly mind-boggling story-telling that leaves your head hurting just a little after watching. Mind you, Twilight Q wasn’t that difficult to understand. They pretty much spell everything out to you, but you start to piece the story together one step before everything that happens on screen. That’s also it’s only real flaw. The whole story is told via exposition. The guy literally reads the story off a page. But amazingly it still works and is a thoroughly fine way to spend half an hour.
22 Comments
wat o___o
so yeah, i’ll need to watch this.
oh wow, this was made the year i was born. *dies of old age*
All my commenters are older than me…
You don’t realise how weird that feels. It’s like teaching a class full of people older than you. You can’t shake the feeling that nobody is taking you seriously
Wait a second, just how old are you anyway?
I was born in 85, but I can’t remember which anime generation that makes me according to that one blog post…
Turned 20 a few days ago. While I’ve probably aged beyond a wippersnapper, I’m still younger than my commenters. Maybe the younger ones all keep quiet
S’ok Scampu~ I’m only 17!
Wow, you are younger than my little sister.
Huh.
Oh, and happy birthday. Mental birthday punches from Chicago.
Holy cow…
Off to bakabt I go!
*cough* nyaatorrents *cough*
“That slightly mind-boggling story-telling that leaves your head hurting just a little after watching.”
Interested in that type of show.
It’s not exactly that difficult to understand because they kinda explain everything out to you. But my head was wrapping around the plot before they explained it
So is this supposed to be a horror? Reminds me of Pet Shop of Horrors which is a couple of shorts but they don’t quite go as awesome as having airplane fish.
Nah, it’s not a horror. Not sure what I’d class it as. Sorta detective mystery but not really? idk
A plane turning into a fish?
Thats crazy!
… I’m definetly gonna take a look at it.
Woo, that’s the spirit! I should write a few more posts about old 80’s OVAs to get people to watch them. Although I have to find some that are worth reccomending first. Not many of them are that good…
80’s OVA’s, hmmm?
It’s actually a shame that I never watched much old anime. The only old I have seen are Ribon no Kishi, Majokko Megu-chan, he anime to invent the fanservice pasnties and The Rose of Versailles… really old anime. I have a pretty girly taste, but I like anime that are fun and not those sobbing-anime or moe-anime. If you find something, that is old, girly and fun to watch, I’m looking very forward to this posts.
It’s also pretty difficult to imagine if you’re a Londoner, but yes, I am interested. Hell yeah. But first, a question: wth happened to the people who were on that plane?!
At least London has days with clear skies every now and then. The only time you’ll see an plane in Ireland is when it’s still on the ground
Gotta love that experimental 80’s stuff.
Some of it anyway =P
A plane turning into a fish got me interested, then you said Mamuro Oshii so I immediately thought of Angel’s Egg. Yeah, he’s done experimental stuff like that, so it isn’t really out of left field.
Maybe this marks a new chapter when The Cart Driver delves into experimental art-house animation?
I’m a bit iffy on Oishii myself from what I’ve seen:
Ghost in the Shell was good but I felt that mainly came from the manga than what he did. When his touch is to include random 5 minute segments that just show cityscape with fantastic Kawai Kenji music, I start to doubt that he had much to do with the actual quality level of the movie.
The first Patlabor movie I didn’t have much of a reaction to. It was just sorta there. Had interesting characters but didn’t do anything with them. Maybe I need to watch the TV series first.
Jih Roh I drew a massive blank for. Did not get that movie at all.
Actually, I think this Twilight Q piece he did is the best I’ve seen