Down Load: Namu Amida Butsu wa Ai no Uta

Do you know how annoying it is to have to search for an anime called ‘Down Load’ of all things (well there’s a subtitle but it’s a mouthful and the first part is much easier to remember)? Pretty darn hard. Was it worth the 10 minute hassle of having to track down the PC Engine video game this is based off (also called Down Load which just made things even more confusing), just so I could find a mention of this somewhere in article? Yes actually, I’d say it was. Down Load: Song in Loving Homage to Amida Buddha is an obscure and more orless completely forgotten one shot OVA very very loosely based off a side scrolling shooter for the PC Engine/Turbografx 16. I did play a bit of the game before writing this and it’s a perfectly average and unremarkable shoot ‘em up, one of dozens that plagued the system’s library. It’s only notable draw being some fairly impressive anime cutscenes for the time and the profanity laden engrish scattered throughout the game. But by the looks of it, the connection between the game and the anime is limited to sharing some basic concepts like the cyberpunk setting and both featuring a red motorcycle. It hardly matters anyway as the anime doesn’t have much of a story to begin with. Young monk/hacker/drunken pervert Shinnosuke “Sid” Murata ends up falling into a corporate conspiracy involving a deadly computer virus while out chasing some tail, so he teams up with a biker gang to stop it. That’s more or the less the gist of it, the plot is thin even for one-shot OVA standards. Characters are extremely undeveloped (though still entertaining to watch) and you could honestly fit the whole story into about 15-20 minutes, though here it’s stretched out to fit 47. But that wouldn’t be as fun would it? Down Load makes up for its borderline nonexistent plot and flimsy character development with pure style and charm. Despite its obscurity and somewhat rough look (not helped by it being stuck on VHS and Laserdisc), the OVA sports a stacked production team with acclaimed director Rintarō (Galaxy Express 999, Metropolis, X) helming the project and Yoshinori Kanada (Birth, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Akira) handling character designs and key animation, among a litany of other veterans of the industry providing their support (Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Takuo Noda and Yoshiyuki Soga to name a few). As such, Down Load is crammed full of energy and charm, from the neon colored and highly detailed backgrounds to the energetic squash and stretch animation that emphasises expressive and exaggerated movement. A character simply turning around and sitting down can be an incredibly eye catching moment thanks to this, which makes even the slower scenes featuring exposition or minimal dialogue feel vibrant and alive. That’s what you’re going to be watching Down Load for. Not the story, or the characters, but the animation. It’s basically a glorified showcase for everyone involved to flex their shit, including famed J-rock pioneer Hiroshi Kamayatsu who provides the blues/southern rock inspired soundtrack of all things. It works surprisingly well, given the clashing styles of the OST and the anime itself. But good animation doesn’t instantly make a good anime, and Down Load is unfortunately a little undercooked when it comes to some of the basics. BUT it is fun, and that’s clearly more what the team were aiming for instead of anything complex and thought provoking. And that’s okay. Not everything has to be Shakespeare. If you’re a fan of Kanada’s animation, then this is highly recommended as it has his fingerprints all over it. If you want a fun sci-fi anime to kill an hour on, then this will also suffice, though there are definitely more engaging and rewarding anime out there. Down Load is currently unlicensed and is out of print.

Fun little OVA based off of the two Download games from the TurboGrafx-16/ PC Engine console. 90s animation with 80s style illustration. Super cool music from the late Hiroshi Kamayatsu in a mostly bluesy style. Very fun ride if you're an animation head that really likes 80s colors, the greens and pinks kill me, with the fluid animation that came to be standard in most OVAs in 90s anime. Haven't played the games but it's better than most video game adaptations I've seen. Not much else to say, if you like anime pre 2000, give this OVA a try, it's just 50 minutes so not much to lose.

It’s a great study for animation students and something I’m definitely going to study myself when I get the time. The premise of a spam email that actually kills you sounds like dumb fun. But it loses me with the main character trying to assault his boss within the first five minutes and how much xenophobia is in the movie. I’m not even exaggerating, the big bad company is Chinese and everyone who works for it looks like they came out of a WWII propaganda poster. Even his love interest ends up being a “evil Chinese woman”. I’m not going to lie and say thatI didn’t enjoy the movie but it’s hard to ignore the glaring flaws. Honestly if you’re going to and enjoy the movie it’s important to also acknowledge how xenophobic it is. So yeah I see what you were going for but you lost me with the racism. D- go to the councilors office after class.

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