Roujin ZWhy is it that every technological advance only seems to make life more complicated? Maybe I'm just getting old. Roujin Z is a sci-fi comedy anime about a student nurse named Haruko who takes care of an elderly and invalid man named Kijuro Takazawa. With the permission of his never seen family--and without his consent--Mr. Takazawa is made into the guinea pig for a medical experiment. He is the first recipient of the "Z-001", a sixth-generation nuclear-powered transformable, all-in-one medical super bed, designed to care for his every need; which means that Haruko's job is obsolete. But is a miracle of modern engineering enough to quell the needs of the ever rising number of infirm and elderly, or is a human touch what's really needed?
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Roujin Z was directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo, written by Katsuhiro Otomo (of Akira fame), and includes design work by Satoshi Kon; so the film's pedigree is already pretty great. Released in 1991, Roujin Z represented a somewhat unorthodox entry into this "golden age" of anime. Most anime released around this time was advertised as being filled with "extreme" action and content, with mature stories that were "definitely not for kids". This stemmed from an attempt to differentiate anime from "kiddie cartoons", but Roujin Z is neither of these, and it is the better for it. Similar to Kon's Tokyo Godfathers, Roujin Z is grounded in reality, which makes the very idea of a transforming bed going on a rampage all the more outlandish and hysterical. Mr. Takazawa has little dialogue, largely consisting of crying out for help or food. But in the most telling of flashbacks, he dreams of a time when he was able to visit Kamakura Beach with his wife, Haru, who passed on long ago. The bed is sophisticated even beyond the estimations of its creators. The bed is sold to investors as the future of elderly care by an aggressive representative of the Ministry of Public Welfare named Takashi Terada, and was developed by a sneaky computer engineer named Yoshihiko Hasegawa. These two essentially do whatever is necessary to see their agendas fulfilled. Take when Haruko and her classmates sneak into the military hospital and attempt to liberate Mr. Takazawa. Despite being late at night, both Terada and Hasegawa show up right away and do everything to get rid of the kids with a minimum of fuss...unsuccessfully. Terada starts with charm and flattery, but when Haruko tries to disengage Mr. Takazawa from the cables inserted into his body, Terada outright strikes her, saying that the machinery is hardwired into him, and that trying to detach it would be fatal. So all of a sudden this bed feels less like a support unit than something right out of The Matrix. Despite appearing to be merely a prisoner of the machine, it responds to Mr. Takazawa's unspoken desires and impulses, first standing upright then racing down the street like a motorcycle back to his home, with its crammed streets and alleyways. So what seems like a technological burden at first becomes nothing short of a superpower for the elderly Takazawa as he becomes ever more in tune with the bed...and the artificial intelligence that manages it.
Roujin Z is not subtle in establishing the government and the military as unfeeling, uncaring jerks, who only want to exploit the elderly to further their own schemes, not caring who gets hurt in the process. Terada is an antagonist who may very well have joined the government to see the elderly get the best care they can, but fell prey to the kind of governmental posturing and bureaucracy that led to him losing sight of his vision, focusing more on cutting edge technology at their expense. He often repeats the line, "no one messes with the Ministry of Public Welfare", but all it took was a young nurse to upend his plans. That the rogue hospital bed blasts through buildings, causing damage and destruction on a kaiju-level scale is ironic; how is it that property damage is in the "public welfare". Hasegawa is, however, unrepentantly sleazy, and this is deftly observed in a slight moment when he pushes past an elderly man in a wheelchair, nearly knocking him and his nurse over. Hardly fitting behavior for someone ostensibly looking out for the elderly. But Haruko, on the other hand, has a heart of gold, and despite threats of arrest and violence, she still rushes headlong into danger to rescue Mr. Takazawa. She even manages to recruit an elderly group of men at the hospital to hack into the machine, so that she can talk with Mr. Takazawa and see if he's alright. Subsequently, they manage to coax the unit's A.I. to develop a personality modeled after Mr. Takazawa's late wife. And just like a loving spouse, she (it?) takes care of Mr. Takazawa, and does her utmost to honor his wish to see Kamakura Beach, if only for one last time. Their ride to the ocean is punctuated by escalating attempts to stop the machine's advance, from police in riot gear using bulldozers (to no effect, other than to enhance the bed's frame--it absorbs one of them) to a duel between the Z-001 and its military counterpart, which is the most "anime" thing in Roujin Z. Yet despite any cynical subtext about the government or military, Roujin Z is still a light-hearted, fun comedy. Mr. Takazawa may be exploited by those who have appropriated his person for this experiment, but there is something silly and even sweet about the bed's A.I. taking on the personality of Haru, and fighting off everything thrown at them just to satisfy a longing for a brief moment of nostalgia. Both Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon would later contribute to the anime film Memories, and "memories" are what drives Mr. Takazawa in his final days...in addition to a sentient, nuclear-powered mecha bed.
Recommended for: Fans of a charming and delightful sci-fi comedy that nevertheless deals with important themes like how we care for our elders and the burden of technological advancement. Roujin Z is an altogether innocent animated feature that is enjoyable by virtually any audience with almost no objectionable content, but that doesn't mean that it should be pigeonholed into being a movie intended only for kids.
Roujin Z is not subtle in establishing the government and the military as unfeeling, uncaring jerks, who only want to exploit the elderly to further their own schemes, not caring who gets hurt in the process. Terada is an antagonist who may very well have joined the government to see the elderly get the best care they can, but fell prey to the kind of governmental posturing and bureaucracy that led to him losing sight of his vision, focusing more on cutting edge technology at their expense. He often repeats the line, "no one messes with the Ministry of Public Welfare", but all it took was a young nurse to upend his plans. That the rogue hospital bed blasts through buildings, causing damage and destruction on a kaiju-level scale is ironic; how is it that property damage is in the "public welfare". Hasegawa is, however, unrepentantly sleazy, and this is deftly observed in a slight moment when he pushes past an elderly man in a wheelchair, nearly knocking him and his nurse over. Hardly fitting behavior for someone ostensibly looking out for the elderly. But Haruko, on the other hand, has a heart of gold, and despite threats of arrest and violence, she still rushes headlong into danger to rescue Mr. Takazawa. She even manages to recruit an elderly group of men at the hospital to hack into the machine, so that she can talk with Mr. Takazawa and see if he's alright. Subsequently, they manage to coax the unit's A.I. to develop a personality modeled after Mr. Takazawa's late wife. And just like a loving spouse, she (it?) takes care of Mr. Takazawa, and does her utmost to honor his wish to see Kamakura Beach, if only for one last time. Their ride to the ocean is punctuated by escalating attempts to stop the machine's advance, from police in riot gear using bulldozers (to no effect, other than to enhance the bed's frame--it absorbs one of them) to a duel between the Z-001 and its military counterpart, which is the most "anime" thing in Roujin Z. Yet despite any cynical subtext about the government or military, Roujin Z is still a light-hearted, fun comedy. Mr. Takazawa may be exploited by those who have appropriated his person for this experiment, but there is something silly and even sweet about the bed's A.I. taking on the personality of Haru, and fighting off everything thrown at them just to satisfy a longing for a brief moment of nostalgia. Both Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon would later contribute to the anime film Memories, and "memories" are what drives Mr. Takazawa in his final days...in addition to a sentient, nuclear-powered mecha bed.
Recommended for: Fans of a charming and delightful sci-fi comedy that nevertheless deals with important themes like how we care for our elders and the burden of technological advancement. Roujin Z is an altogether innocent animated feature that is enjoyable by virtually any audience with almost no objectionable content, but that doesn't mean that it should be pigeonholed into being a movie intended only for kids.