Genius Party

GENIUS PARTY is a collection of anime shorts by different directors from the renowned Studio 4°C, responsible for "Memories" (1995), "Animatrix" (1999), "Mind Game" (2004) and "Tekkonkinkreet" (2006).

The first part, labelled omnibus by their creator, GENIUS PARTY - 7 Impacts by 7 Directors, is a collection of 7 shorts, made its theatrical debut on July 13, 2007. The second omnibus comprising 5 shorts, GENIUS PARTY BEYOND, was released in 2008 and shown in Annecy in June 2009.

Plots
===GENIUS PARTY ===
 * Genius Party by Atsuko Fukushima 福島敦子 ("Manie Manie: Labyrinth Tales" art direction, original artist for "Akira")
 * Designated as the opening piece, this 5-minute segment shows a spindly-looking bird, seeming mashed together from broomsticks and torn canvas sheets, walking through a desert, devouring "eggs" that resemble stones with eyes. One egg produces a heart-shaped "spirit" that floats above its forehead. The bird ingests it — beginning a chain reaction that sets the desert alight and alive ...


 * Shanghai Dragon by Shoji Kawamori 河森正治 (director for "Macross" series)
 * Narrated entirely in Chinese, this short begins with a snot-nosed boy getting bullied in a village setting. When stick-shaped objects fall from the sky, the snot-nosed kid discovers that he, and only he, can use one to create whatever he imagines into reality, simply by drawing with it in the dirt. Then a pair of alien-like soldiers arrive to claim the stick ...


 * Deathtic 4 by Shinji Kimura 木村真二 ("Steamboy" and "Tekkonkinkreet" art direction)
 * A boy finds a live frog that has somehow entered this old Eastern-Europe-like world and risks falling into the clutches of the Life-Form Disposal Squad. He and his buddies decide to take it to the Uzu-Uzu Hole, where they can return it to the land of the living, and various strange, comedic adventures ensue ...


 * Doorbell by Yoji Fukuyama 福山庸治 (this is the manga artist's directorial debut )
 * A high-school student, Yu, returns home one day to find his mother, younger sister — and his own double. This doppelganger starts popping up everywhere and, Yu gives chase, trying to anticipate where it will pop up again ...


 * Limit Cycle by Hideki Futamura 二村秀樹 (priginal artist "Perfect Blue", director for "Jojo's Bizarre Adventures")
 * A young man finishes work at his computer screen in a high rise and, on leaving the building, sees a butterfly and starts to pursue it — until he runs into his doppelganger. A metaphysical journey begins as a series of random quotes narrated over random images and random numbers projected across the screen, quotes that are from 17th century French mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal's Pensées, and the numbers indicate the passage in the Pensées ..


 * Happy Machine by Masaaki Yuasa 湯浅政明 (director for "Mind Game", storyboard for "Crayon Shin-chan" series)
 * The story follows a baby in a journey though a fantasyland full of primal fears and discoveries. Mom, he discovers, is a machine, and Baby is soon abandoned to his own devices. Tears flow, but curiosity abounds, as Baby sets off to explore his world ...


 * Baby Blue by Shinichiro Watanabe 渡辺信一郎 (director for "Cowboy Bebop", "Samurai Champloo")
 * A boy that asks a girl if she wants to cut class with him, and they subsequently stole a hand grenade from an army camp. Thus began a journey of remembrance and discovery to relive a shared childhood memory, leading to the boy eventually revealing his real reason for asking the girl to skip class ...

===GENIUS PARTY BEYOND ===


 * GALA by Mahiro Maeda 前田真宏 (director for "Blue Submarine No. 6", "Animtarix" part 2, "Gankutsuou" )
 * It came out of the sky…huge and unknown, falling to the plains of heaven. Co-oni, amongst the panicking mob, stares in speechless anticipation. The silent, massive object begins to change. Co-oni and his cohorts grab their musical instruments and play, slowly awaking it. “Let the party begin!”


 * MOONDRIVE by Kazuto Nakazawa 中澤一登 (character designer for "Samurai Champloo" )
 * Four notorious villains of the moon colony: Zico, Yuki, Micchi and Pekepeke were led by the rumour of treasure from an old map they obtained from a watchmaker. A nonsensical animated comedy that feels like a wild goose chase from start to finish!


 *  "WANWA" THE DOGGY by  Shinya Ohira 大平晋也 (original artist for "Spirited Away", "Akira", "The Hakkenden")
 * A little boy is playing by the side of his hospitalized mother. Suddenly a ghastly demon appears and tears the boy from his mother. He awakens in a strange world. The boy chases after the dog, “Wanwa”, and the demon appears again! With the help of Wanwa, the boy outruns the demon and reaches a big tree ...


 * TOJIN KIT by Tatsuyuki Tanaka 田中達之 (original artist for "Akira", director for Utada Hikaru's "Fluximation")
 * A young girl lives in a post industrialized residential complex. Using a strange machine, she implants a mysterious creature called a “tou bug” into her doll, bringing it to life. Withdrawing into her dark room, the girl dwells on this forbidden game, but not for long. An investigator from the administration bureau and the Glassheads came calling and rampaged through her room. The girl grabs her doll and makes her escape …


 * DIMENSION BOMB by Koji Morimoto 森本晃司 (director for "Memories", "Animatrix")
 * Shin, a boy in a pupa, meets a girl named Kuu. The time he spends with this free-spirited one-off girl transforms him. A visual poetry running through one’s inner world, to finally get beyond the limits of reality, into a new dimension ...