Masaaki Yuasa’s ‘Mind Game’: One of the most insane anime movies of all time
The cinematic art form of animation has the unique ability to be able to tell any visual story it pleases, with filmmakers moulding and sculpting idiosyncratic visions that push the boundaries of cinema itself. Whilst mainstream releases like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse have elevated the form, it is Japanese animation and anime in particular that has long been known for its spectacular visual style and innovative approach to colour, pace and framing.
Many such films have entered the Western mainstream, with the animations of Studio Ghibli earning legions of fans across America and Europe, yet others have stayed on the fringes, with the likes of Takeshi Koike’s frenetic Redline and Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game being seemingly unable to properly resonate with popular audiences. But, make no mistake, such films offer some of the most deranged visuals ever offered to cinephiles, with Yuasa’s film in particular attracting a cult following for this fact alone.
Based on Robin Nishi’s manga of the same name, the 2004 experimental anime was written and helmed by Yuasa in his directorial debut and uses a range of dynamic visual styles to create a frenetic mosaic of chaotic animation. Whilst the focus is more on style than substance, the film follows a young man with a crush on his childhood sweetheart who is killed and goes on a metaphysical exploration of self-discovery.
Intentionally setting itself apart from the perfect finish of a Ghibli flick or the clean glean of a Toho film, Mind Game feels like the eclectic visions of several different creatives, making for a wild ride that flitters between rough hand-drawn sketches to moments that incorporate live action. The result is something hypnotising and entirely psychedelic, containing enough creative juices to melt a stoner’s perception of reality.
As Yuasa said of the film in an interview with Japan Times, “Instead of telling it serious and straight, I went for a look that was a bit wild and patchy…I think that Japanese animation fans today don’t necessarily demand something that’s so polished. You can throw different styles at them, and they can still usually enjoy it”.
Taking three years to complete, Mind Game is a work of genuine artistry that required multiple animation disciplines to bring to life, including traditional cel animation, motion capture filmmaking and physical canvas oil paintings. As Eiko Tanaka, the founder of Studio 4°C and the company that backed the project, stated: “Of the 300 people who worked on the film, 250 were animators or worked on the film’s animation”.
Inspired not only by the field of animation but the broader world of art and culture too, taking narrative cues from Frank Capra’s iconic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life, Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road and the Bible tale of Jonah and the Whale, Yuasa’s film feels more like a celebration of storytelling itself, rather than a mere experiment in animation.
But don’t just believe us; the late great Satoshi Kon, director of 1997’s Perfect Blue and 2006’s Paprika, once called the film an “outstanding” achievement that was “full of pictorial allure”. If that’s not a glowing endorsement, then we don’t know what is.
