Memories is a 1995 Japanese animated science fiction anthology film with Katsuhiro Otomo as executive producer, and based on three of his manga short stories. The film is composed of three shorts: Magnetic Rose (Japanese: 彼女の想いで, Hepburn: Kanojo no Omoide), directed by Studio 4°C co-founder Kōji Morimoto and written by Satoshi Kon; Stink Bomb (最臭兵器, Saishū-heiki), directed by Tensai Okamura and written by Otomo, and Cannon Fodder (大砲の街, Taihō no Machi), written and directed by Otomo himself. Originally released on home video in North America by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Discotek Media acquired the rights in 2020 along with Mill Creek Entertainment. Their 2021 Blu-ray release includes English subtitles and a new English dub produced by NYAV Post (for Magnetic Rose) and Sound Cadence Studios (for Stink Bomb and Cannon Fodder).
Plot
Magnetic Rose The Corona, a deep space salvage freighter, is out on a mission when it encounters a distress signal and responds to it. They come upon a spaceship graveyard orbiting a giant space station. The crew's two engineers, Heintz and Miguel, enter it to get a closer look. Once inside, they discover an opulent European interior and several furnished rooms in varying states of decay, but find no signs of life. The men learn that the station belongs to a once-famous opera diva named Eva Friedel who disappeared after the murder of her fiancé, Carlo Rambaldi, a fellow singer. Continuing to search for the distress signal's source, the engineers split up, with each experiencing paranormal encounters, including strange noises and visions of Eva. Miguel enters the dilapidated underbelly of the station, and in a cavernous chamber, he finds a broken piano playing the distress signal. He begins to hallucinate and Eva suddenly runs up to kiss him. Heintz finds a theater stage and sees Eva, who stabs him when he approaches. Suddenly paralyzed, Heintz relives a memory of his wife and his daughter Emily. The illusion disappears when Eva takes his wife's form and tells him that he "will never leave". Heintz rushes to save Miguel, but Miguel disappears deeper into the cavern, having been seduced by Eva into thinking he is Carlo. Eva reveals to Heintz that she murdered the real Carlo for refusing to marry her and has since forced others to relive his likeness. She makes Heintz relive Emily's death, and entices Heintz to stay with his daughter's doppelganger. Heintz resists and shoots the massive computer embedded in the ceiling of the cavern, causing the AI hologram of Eva to malfunction. Meanwhile, the Corona has been struggling against a powerful magnetic field coming from the station, pulling the ship towards it. In desperation, the crewmen Aoshima and Ivanov fire a powerful energy cannon; gouging deep enough into the structure to reach the cavern and Heintz, moments before the ship is torn apart. Heintz is ejected into space along with the space-suit-clad skeletons of Eva's past victims, as Eva hauntingly sings to a conjured audience. The Corona is destroyed and becomes part of the rose-shaped structure around the station. The whereabouts of the real (and long-deceased) Eva are shown, and a representation of Eva is seen talking romantically with Miguel (now fully embracing his new identity as Carlo). Heintz is last seen drifting in space, still alive.
Stink Bomb Lab technician Nobuo Tanaka, battling the flu, mistakes some experimental pills for medicine and swallows one. The pills were intended to help soldiers counter biological weapons, but it reacts to a flu shot that he had received before the medicine, causing his body to produce vast amounts of a highly toxic gas. While taking a nap, the odor he emits kills everyone in the laboratory. Horrified, he reports the incident to headquarters, who instruct him to deliver the experimental drug to Tokyo. Nobuo has become a living weapon of mass destruction. Meanwhile, the odor he emits grows stronger to where it affects several miles of the surrounding area, killing every animal that breathes in the gas, though plants survive exposure to the unknown chemical agent and appear to be strengthened by it. The toxic gas is so potent that neither gas masks nor NBC suits offer any protection against its effects. As Nobuo travels through Yamanashi Prefecture, the deadly odor kills all animal life in its path, including all 200,000 residents of the city of Kōfu. Nobuo continues his journey towards Tokyo, unaware of the deaths he is causing, but the rest of the country is in a complete panic. The head of the research company and the Japanese military deduce that Tanaka is causing the poisonous gas and order him to be killed. The Japan Self Defense Forces try in vain to stop Nobuo with the use of artillery and missiles, but the chemicals interfere with the targeting systems of their weapons. The U.S. military, who have been observing the situation to that point, invokes the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty to take over the operation to recover Nobuo, and calls in a NASA unit with space suits to try and capture Nobuo alive. After Nobuo enters a tunnel, the Japanese army collapses part of the bridge and the tunnel behind him, trapping him with only one way out. They turn on wind generators in an attempt to stop the odor's advance. As the soldiers in space suits approach Nobuo, he becomes scared and more of his odor bursts out of him, disabling the lights and wind generators. After the cloud settles, the soldiers appear to have subdued Nobuo. One of the suit-wearing soldiers is escorted to the military headquarters in Tokyo and delivers the drug. The soldier opens their visor, revealing that it is actually Nobuo, who was placed inside the suit by one of the other soldiers, but is still unaware of his condition. He then fully opens his suit, killing everyone in the room.
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