The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

Genres

Cast

Miki Yamamoto

Chen Gonglong (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Kenyu Horiuchi

Crane Shumer (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Kenji Utsumi

Sai (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Yoshimasa Kawata

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Kiyohito Yoshikai

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Yoriko Nagata

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Noriko Obata

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Ayumi Nagao

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Rei Shimoda

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Naoko Sugiura

Additional Voices (Shanghai Dragon segment) (voice)

Taro Yabe

Blåse / Rått (Deathtic 4 segment) (voice)

Tomomitsu Yamaguchi

Ashe / Påse (Deathtic 4 segment) (voice)