Robotto Kānibaru - Robot Carnival

The idea of a mechanistic universe goes way back in history and it was probably the success of Newtonian mechanics that made it a dominant one for a long period to follow. In the 20th century, which one may fairly describe as the period when everything previously thought to be certain has earned a question mark of varying size, this idea has also become questionable in an "absolute" sense. Indeed, it is the "absolute" itself that has lost its earlier role. The world has become relative and uncertain, even on the level of ideas... This is perhaps why the idea of a robot, a man made creation only as complicated as its creator can make him be, is a fascinating one. If they are capable of becoming something more than they were "determined" to be that would not be without reflection on the human race either. And they can indeed become more in the world of imagination at least, in which way the human being may express where it differs from the mechanistic sum of its parts. Indeed, it is the way how the human arises or is expected to arise in robots that makes them so interesting. On the other hand of course, the imprisonment of the individual in a machinelike larger entity, the society, represents the transformation in the opposite direction. Art, science and philosophy have many times attempted to express the underlying ideas, and the success of such popular hits like the Matrix trilogy shows that these questions no longer belong to art enthusiasts or thinkers of ontology only but that the general public have become more sensitive to them by the end of the millennium.

"Robotto Kānibaru" (1987) is a collection of nine animated films which have the robot as the common topic. I will only post two here. The first, directed by Mao Lamdo, "Cloud" is really nothing but a walk of transformation, of life, a walk which one begins as a robot and through the storms of life one becomes human. Without conversation, this feature is just what I find often so impossible to tell, that feeling, which is neither sad or happy, and yet it is both, as the waves of emotion balance between these two ends. The feeling of life going along, and us trying to follow naively wherever it goes...

The other feature is titled "Presense", and was directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. In this story we get to know the creator through the process of creation. Why do we create? How are we related to our creation? It can be very scary if our creation suddenly shows signs of free will and therefore those of independence, especially if we create out of need, if we create the other in a relation. What if the creation wants to become a partner? Are we not afraid of getting what we long for? We may just try to destroy then what we wanted to create in the first place... The difference between what we long for and what can be realised haunts the creator until the very end to become dissolved in the fulfilment of a dream, a fulfilment that can only be brought by the very fulfilment of life...