Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Fuhgeddaboudit.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 22, 2014

Amnesia has been used to good effect in such mystery films as Mirage and Mister Buddwing, two films where the lead character’s lack of memory leaves him relatively helpless and confused. Both of those films wisely placed the viewer squarely in the amnesiac’s point of view, slowly doling out the hidden truths of an injured memory. Part of what helped make both of those films work as well as they did was the fact that the amnesiac seemed to be surrounded by people who didn’t know who the amnesiac was. That made the plot proceedings an interesting blend of mystery and, ultimately, questioning about whether everyone surrounding the central character was as clueless as they insisted they were. There’s virtually none of that ingenuity at play in Amnesia, an ironically colorful but ultimately slightly drab anime that starts out intriguingly enough, with a young amnesiac woman trying to piece together who she is and what’s happening in her life. The problem here is the girl is surrounded not just by mere other humans who know what’s going on, she also is privy to visions of a supernatural spirit which has invaded her body and is in fact the ultimate source of her memory problems. All of this is divulged in just the first few minutes of the anime’s opening episode, which almost instantly sucks all the life out of what might have been a fascinating mystery at the center of the show. Instead, Amnesia coasts by on enigmatic visions that take a while to get explained, as well as a “boyfriend of the week” structure that only reveals the series’ otome visual novel source.

In a kind of anime version of Groundhog Day, the so-called Heroine of Amnesia keeps experiencing the same day, August 1, over and over, though unlike in the film with subtle (and some not so subtle) differences. One of the potentially confusing things about Amnesia right off the bat is how it starts in media res, actually on August 4, with the Heroine awakening from some kind of fainting spell with absolutely no memory of who she is (or was) and what she’s doing. Things are further exacerbated when what appears to be a hallucination—a floating spirit named Orion—actually turns out to be the manifestation of an otherworldly entity that has somehow “bumped into” the girl’s soul, thereby disrupting her memory.

Part of the problem with Amnesia is evident right off the bat: at least one, and potentially all, of the other characters other than the Heroine seem to know a good deal more than the central character herself, and yet they are almost willfully silent on filling in any details. This becomes an increasingly maddening situation as the story wends its way through various couplings that see the Heroine partnering up with one of her two childhood friends, Shin and Toma. Within the first couple of episodes, it also becomes clear that the Heroine’s future seems to be regularly threatened, and that a character named Ukyo seems to show up just as regularly to keep her out of danger. Ukyo also seems to be keeping a lot of secrets to himself.

Amnesia’s game play source elements show up in the anime in sometimes odd ways. In the original visual novel, the Heroine got to choose “routes” (different storylines) featuring different male characters, each of whom was branded with a card suit, Here, we’re offered repeated references to cards and suits with no satisfying explanation, other than one character’s card playing facility. The fact that the Heroine is decidedly passive—up and through the denouement—also robs this anime of much sense of drama or suspense. Things just kind of keep happening to her, albeit on the “same” day, but she’s relatively sanguine about the whole mess, all things considered.

There are some interesting elements at work in Amnesia, though, none more so than the really odd and kind of frightening character of Ukyo. It’s not really much of a spoiler to divulge that this character is indeed at the crux of what’s going on with the Heroine, but what’s different here is the presentation: Ukyo is bat guano crazy, to the point that he has two distinct personalities. It’s a little confusing when he starts lapsing into his schizophrenia, but it ultimately makes his character unusual and one of the more memorable in the series.

What tends not to work is the lethargic pace of the series and, after what seems like eons of exposition, a laundry list of revelations that is thrust upon the viewer in the final episode. Maybe the makers of Amnesia weren’t expecting binge watching, but anyone who sees the first and last episodes within a relatively close proximity of each other is going to note some logical inconsistencies in the storytelling, not the least of which is Orion’s two somewhat different explanations for his appearance in the Heroine’s life.

It’s hard to see how Amnesia might have worked better, at least insofar as it hewed to the path(s) delineated in the visual novel. The anime’s “answer” to the central question of why the various storylines are happening to the Heroine is in fact antithetical to the game’s. The Heroine isn’t choosing here, she’s having a series of realities foisted off on her. True romantics may accept the anime’s climactic revelations of love and sacrifice, but my hunch is some others may want to have their own memories wiped after having spent so long with these characters for such an underwhelming payoff.

Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Amnesia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. One of the series' strongest assets is its fun if not especially innovative character designs. Orion is the best of the bunch, with weird clothes and quasi-horns that emanate from his head, all of which pop quite nicely in this high definition presentation. The characters' eyes are also quite nicely animated, with planes of colors that intersect. The series' palette is rather varied, exploiting both bright primaries as well as more subtle pastels. Line detail is decently sharp and well defined.

Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Amnesia features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both the original Japanese language as well as an English dub. The two mixes are nearly identical with the exception of the voice actors. Amnesia isn't an especially "busy" show from a sonic perspective, so aside from some confounding chaos as the Heroine attempts to figure what's going on in any given new environment, there's not here other than nicely rendered dialogue and a rather agreeable score. Fidelity is excellent.

Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lost Diary Entries (1080p; 2:44)

Amnesia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As the Heroine lurches from story to story, some cynics may want to rename this series Quantum Stumble. There's actually the kernel of a rather interesting idea here, but the creative staff of the series in attempting to tie the show to the visual novel have probably done themselves a disservice by positing a Heroine who isn't in charge of her own destiny. This kind of reverse harem entry may appeal to those who like romantic arcs and a kind of Romeo and Juliet tragic underpinnings, but the sad fact is ultimately Amnesia just isn't that memorable. Fans of the series or those intrigued by the concept should be pleased with its high definition presentation.