sheila.marquardt - 2013-11-16 10:03:53

Genius Party is an anthology of seven short films, in order - Genius Party, Shanghai Dragon, Deathtic 4, Doorbell, Limit Cycle, Happy Machine and Baby Blue. I can immediately organize them by how good they were.

Great: Genius Party, Happy Machine, Baby Blue.
Good: Doorbell, Deathtic 4, Shanghai Dragon.
Shit: Limit Cycle.

All the great ones are must-see. They are really good, they have a meaning, they have characters, they are stylish, sad and they provoke feels. The problem with these short films is that explaining them will spoil everything endlessly, so I won't do that. They are not meant to be analyzed, they are meant to be watched and enjoyed. Simple and beautiful, just how I like it.

All the good ones are actually really good, but they can't really compare to the great ones. All are prettily done, have meaning and are really stylish. They just lacked heart.

And then there's the piece of shit floating in the honey barrel that bars me from giving this a straight-out 10/10. Limit Cycle. Feel free to omit this from your viewing experience. Why? Because there's no story, there are no characters, there's no feel and imagery. It is straight up bullshitting. All 19 minutes full of pseudo-philosophical blabber with repetitive animation. They could've shown it on screen, not made some monotone guy talk it out!

Overall, it would've been amazing, but who the hell was the guy who made the final cut and allowed Limit Cycle to be included?

From my own experience, I would say that the feel and thought of Tsumiki no Ie was quite similar to most of these films.