When Oshii Mamoru's highly successful animated adaption of GHOST IN THE SHELL premiered in Japanese theaters back in November 1995, it did so brushing shoulders with two other features—the MACROSS PLUS movie and Otomo Katsuhiro's MEMORIES. One year later, GHOST IN THE SHELL and MEMORIES were released as deluxe laserdisc box sets by Bandai Visual.
Given the expensive nature of these box sets, it is a good idea for buyers to know what they are getting for their hard-earned cash—hence this exhaustive review of the MEMORIES box (the GHOST IN THE SHELL box was covered in a previous issue).

The Movie

MEMORIES is not a single, feature-length movie, but rather a collection of three short-stories; "Magnetic Rose," "Stink Bomb," and "Cannon Fodder," directed by Morimoto Koji, Okamura Tensai and Otomo Katsuhiro, respectively.
The first one, "Magnetic Rose," is based on the manga short MEMORIES (a.k.a. HER MEMORIES) by Otomo, which can be found in the manga anthology of the same name. The other two are—to this reviewer's knowledge—not based on any original manga shorts, but are new stories made in the same offbeat spirit as the original MEMORIES manga shorts, very much similar to that of Jean "Moebius" Giraud's HEAVY METAL stories.
A full-fledged review of the movie itself is beyond the scope of this article, but it should at least be pointed out that MEMORIES is, in this reviewer's opinion, superior to Otomo's other movies—including AKIRA—in each, and every way. On an artistic level, then, this box set is certainly recommendable.

The Transfer
Laserdiscs from Bandai Visual tend to have great transfers, and the MEMORIES transfer does absolutely nothing to change this trend. The picture is very sharp and clear, the 1.85:1 letterboxing looks dead on, and color noise is hardly detectable (What little color noise is visible is likely attributable to the consumer-level LD player.) The entire movie is presented in CAV, spread out over five sides, and none of the side or platter breaks are ill-placed or annoying.

The Audio

MEMORIES's sound design is much like GHOST IN THE SHELL's sound design; effective, yet somewhat subtle, especially when compared to the more bombastic sound design found in many of the recent Hollywood movies. The surround sound is presented in regular Dolby Pro-Logic only—there are no alternative Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks included.
In addition, despite the lack of an English dub soundtrack, Japanese language-impaired people have no reason to fear this box set, as English close captioned subtitles are included.

The Extra Stuff

No box set would be complete without a few extra goodies to justify the high retail price. The MEMORIES box is no exception although the extras seem sparse compared to those found in the GHOST IN THE SHELL box. Unsurprisingly, the box contains a huge selection of still pictures, reference drawings, background drawings, color tests, and so on. Quite nice, but redundant for people who bought the MEMORY OF MEMORIES book.
In addition to the still picture archive, there is a thirty minute documentary about the movie, mainly consisting of interviews with the three directors, as well as a special preview version of the movie—presumably made to help secure financial support for the production of the actual theatrical release. A trailer with so-so picture quality and mono sound is also included.
The two sets of liner notes that are included are much like the laserdisc extras—well-designed, but sparse, and somewhat redundant, since they recycle some of the information found on the laserdisc (still pictures and interviews).

The Box

Even though the included extras are disappointing, the people responsible for this box redeem themselves with the design of the actual box itself. It is without a doubt the most beautifully designed box this reviewer has ever seen. The outer box is covered with black felt, with the movie's title printed in white. Inside it, there is another box, covered with illustrations that reflect the contents of all three short stories. Finally, inside the two boxes, there are three sleeves of thick cardboard—one for each laserdisc.
The whole thing comes off as looking very impressive, and indeed, the box attracted much attention from other customers when this reviewer first purchased it.

The Conclusion

Although this review of the MEMORIES box is not quite as glowing as the reviewer's previous one for the GHOST IN THE SHELL box—mainly because of the disappointing extras—this is still a box worth recommending, up to a point.
Fans of Otomo or MEMORIES itself will probably want to get this box. Everyone else should probably try to have a look at a friend's copy first, as shelling out almost ¥15000 for an unseen movie is probably not worth the risk. The box does add a little bit of glamour to any laserdisc collection, even if the purchaser does not actually like the movie itself.

MEMORIES (DELUXE BOX) © 1995 Mushroom/Memories Production Committee Bandai Visual BEAL-926 25 October 1996 145 minutes CAV (5 discs) ¥14800