God Is Dead
A hapless drifter falls for a big-boobed girl and, during a botched robbery, meets an absurdly undignified end - shot in the ass. This bizarre opener sets the stage for the surreal anime Mind Game. After his untimely demise, NEET Nishi encounters God, who grants him a second chance at life. Seizing this opportunity, Nishi embarks on a madcap escape alongside a failed swimmer and her tomboyish sister, fleeing gangsters, exaggerated cartoon figures, and ugly Frenchmen. Somewhere along the way, the narrative takes a turn into the absurd: A space crew feeds on alien excrement while grappling with the revelation that their salvation lies in the most peculiar of places: A vagina.
The ensemble finds themselves in a whale, where they encounter an old man and embark on a search for life’s meaning - one unbound by the constraints of logic or convention. Attempting to encapsulate Mind Game in a tidy summary is a futile endeavor. How do I capture its fever-dream narrative and eye-popping visuals? Take Nishi, a nice loser with ambitions, who reconnects with his cute childhood crush Myon at a restaurant. A confrontation with yakuza escalates into chaos, culminating in Nishi’s death as he tries to protect Myon. But death is merely a doorway, in a surreal limbo, Nishi defies fate, impresses God, and hurtles back to life with unrelenting determination.
Mind Game’s breakneck pace, sharp cuts, and kaleidoscopic visuals burst forth in an explosion of pure creativity. The film’s audacity left me curled on the floor in a fetal position. If Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and The Rocky Horror Picture Show once pushed the boundaries of my imagination, Robin Nishi and Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game shattered them entirely, leading me on a breathtaking odyssey through the vast landscapes of human emotion. A colorful masterpiece best approached with an open mind, and perhaps a hard drink in hand, it’s not for the completely sober. But for everyone else, it’s pure, unadulterated joy. Nishi, God, and yes, even big boobs forever.