I'm writing this on August 30, 1998. Last viewing: 1 day ago

The second anime I've seen on IFC. An interesting premise: an odd race of observers decides to wipe out the memories of every human being on earth simultaneously. The hero: a boy who befriended a wheelchair-bound boy who kept his memories via a military experiment. This boy then uses the machinery to implant some skill-like memories so that he can speak and use items effectively. He also names him: Wataru (wanderer, roughly). This boy (Johnny) then dies, but gives Wataru a mission: to explore the world to see just what is Man's inherent nature, without the bounds of civilization. A neat premise.

But where does it go with it? A mysterious woman shows up who can speak, who seems to have psychic powers, who then evidences other amazing powers. Wataru either doesn't want to confront her about it because of what he suspects, or else she's using her powers on him too. Still, the lack of discussion about it seems out of place for a while, and then they finally do discuss it, though nothing really had brought it on.

Then there's the Guardian that's chasing them: way too smart, way too fast, and it manages to get a seemingly endless supply of fuel, electricity, and ammunition. Add to that the fact that chase scenes are shown on a satellite map in what seems like it's supposed to be real-time, but covering huge distances (Washington DC through Philadelphia to New York, in a few minutes), and you've got some continuity problems.

Finally, her thanks to him seems purely gratuitous. We don't really discover her motives, or anything important about her race. Wataru ends up pretty much the way he started, with a few new memories. Nothing felt jarringly out of place, but I was left wanting more. Still, the animation was quite beautiful over the whole range of scenery: open fields and broad beaches to blasted ruins of cities and construction machinery as demons. It was also smoothly flowing, not jerky like some animation can be.

All in all, respectable, but not one to go searching for.