'Something Very Niche'

On Rintaro's 'Labyrinth Labyrinthos' (1987).

A still from Labyrinth Labyrinthos

Welcome! We’re here with a new edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. Today’s topic: the anime classic Labyrinth Labyrinthos (1987).

Things would’ve been different for anime without Rintaro, now 84. His impact is tough to overstate. Only a few directors in Japan rival it, and most of them owe their success at least partly to his success — including Hayao Miyazaki.

The start of Rintaro’s career coincided with the start of modern Japanese animation. He worked at Toei Doga and Mushi Production, and directed on Astro Boy (1963–1966). Then, in 1979, he oversaw his first anime movie: Galaxy Express 999. It became the biggest Japanese film of the year. Nothing was the same after it.

“Galaxy Express 999 was a massive hit,” Rintaro said.¹ Its popularity opened doors for him, and for the industry. His Harmagedon (1983) was another smash, and it brought Katsuhiro Otomo into the anime business — he was its character designer.

Like Rintaro explained:

After I got to know him, it turned out that he was a big film fan. He even made amateur [live-action] films with friends. ... But, even though he was just an amateur filmmaker, he had good cinematic taste. He was also very solid in terms of craftsmanship. … When I asked him if he would like to work as a director on Manie Manie, he immediately said yes.²

This Manie Manie (or Neo Tokyo, in America) was a new project from Madhouse. Rintaro was producing. The idea had come down from Haruki Kadokawa — a titan in Japanese publishing — to do a film based on the sci-fi stories of author Taku Mayumura.³ It turned into an anthology of shorts, with Otomo’s Order to Stop Construction in the mix.

Production was underway by 1984. Directing alongside Otomo were Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who did the segment Running Man, and Rintaro himself. His own contribution was Labyrinth Labyrinthos, a short that doubles as a frame story for the other two films. Its purpose was “bringing the threads together,” he said.

Rintaro’s part was meant to be small. Yet it kept growing into a full-fledged, 15-minute film of its own, placed at the start and end of Neo Tokyo. And the result is up there with Rintaro’s most intriguing work.

Stills from Labyrinth Labyrinthos — you can see it in full via the Internet Archive

A snippet of animation from Labyrinth Labyrinthos