Mind Game

Alternate titles: Furi Kuri

GAINAX's recipe for this schizophrenic 6-episode OVA series includes giant robots protruding from limbs, a melancholy protagonist, a rock soundtrack by the Pillows, an alien girl that wields a guitar and rides a Vespa, and a story to complement the madness. Add poking fun of the anime industry, Japan, and GAINAX itself, to taste.

In present-day Japan, Toshihiko Momota is member of a secret warrior faction called the Kifuuken. The Kifuuken is dedicated to destroying Shokujinji - humans that turn into man-eating monsters when hunger takes them. However, to fate's chagrin, Momota meets and quickly falls for Yuka, a Shokujinji herself! Will their love be able to overcome Yuka's insatiable appetite for human flesh, or will the couple be destroyed by the bestial tendencies of humanity?

Alternate titles: Nekojiru-sou

Cat Soup is an extremely abstract, abnormal, and at times, disturbing adventure, from the director of Nadesico. This 30 minute OVA follows two kittens through what seems to be the underworld, as they search for one of their lost souls. Along the way, they encounter new (edible) friends, scary situations, and even the end of the world! Will these felines manage to return unscathed? Or more importantly, avoid becoming the main course for dinner? Confusion abounds in this quirky OVA.

In Japan, a team of scientists have created a medical breakthrough: a device that allows the wearer to enter the dreams of a patient, for the purpose of healing. The talented Paprika is a master at her profession, but complications have now appeared in the form of a “dream terrorist” – an unknown foe who inserts nightmares into the minds of those who use the device. The victims are swept up in a ghoulish parade of dolls, kitchen appliances, and musical animals, and are reduced to a vegetable state – or worse. Now, Paprika and the team of scientists must delve into the minds of those affected to figure out the source of the tampering before more people, including themselves, are damaged beyond repair.

In the rusty and run-down Treasure Town, young orphans in their respective gangs rule the roost and use the landscape as their playground. The violent Black and naïve White are two such orphans who are unafraid of fellow children and Yakuza alike; never have they found a foe who could best them in a battle – until now. A strange man and his even stranger (and seemingly indestructible) henchmen have plans to tear down Treasure Town and erect an amusement park in its place, and they’ll cut down anyone who stands in their way. Can Black and White save their home, and each other?

Welcome to a world in which memories can be transferred from body to body; old painful memories can be removed and replaced with new ones, and the poor sell their bodies to the rich to survive. Waking up one day, Kaiba finds himself in a strange place with no memories of his past and a mysterious hole in his chest; the only clue as to his identity is a locket with a picture of a girl hanging from his neck. Armed with this token, Kaiba must now travel across the galaxy to discover who he is and what the girl in the locket means to him; however, his journey will bring him into contact with many people whose lives have been tragically affected by the manipulation of memories. All too soon it becomes clear that something is very wrong with this world…

Follow interstellar bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black as they scour the galaxy for criminals with prices on their heads. Hoping to escape their past, they live on the spaceship Bebop, but it's a dangerous business and old enemies don't forget easily. Allies come from unlikely sources, however, as they find comrades in the beautiful swindler Faye Valentine, the genius child hacker Ed and the genetically engineered 'data dog' Ein. Will they be able to help each other though their respective struggles, or is their fate really inevitable?

In the streets of Tokyo, a new menace has surfaced: Shounen Bat, a young boy who wears golden roller skates and a baseball cap, and likes to whack people on the head with a golden baseball bat. These seemingly unconnected and random attacks soon become a police investigation... but after all is said and done, is there a pattern to this chaos?

Nishihara Toru is an everyday guy with an on-and-off girlfriend and a position working for a train buff. Things become complicated when a ghostly vehicle dubbed the X Train begins to ride the rails, destroying everything in its path. The catch? Somehow, it seems that Toru is connected with the X Train by a strange power, which draws the attention of some very dangerous and power hungry people who would wield it for their own...

Samurai Champloo is all about style, from the dj-style scratching scene changes to the hip-hop-inspired soundtrack to the eclectic character design. Mugen's fighting style is a funky meld of capoeira and limb-cutting, and Jin is the dramatic foil; he is all steel and old-school samurai style. What binds them together is the desire to test each other's abilities, and a promise to a girl named Fuu: to find the samurai that smells of sunflowers, who plays a pivotal role in her past. Together they travel through edo-era Japan, finding battle and comedy wherever they stop.

In a dark and dystopic future, the environment of Earth has been destroyed by its human inhabitants. The remainder of mankind live in a physical “gap” between what is known as the lower level, and the unknown sky above. In this dreary and mechanical existence, the melancholy Ura works to restore the memories of the past, as part of the Archive Excavation Department. Along with Riko, his sole companion, Ura will soon discover a mysterious remnant of the past which may prove that there is more to their existence than meets the eye...

Witness the true beginning of the Matrix: how men created the machines and how those machines stood up against their masters, and the effects of the great war that waged between them, which in the end led to the fall of mankind. Watch the ship Osiris and its efforts to warn the remaining humans of the imminent attack; follow a champion who happens to break free from the Matrix; explore the exploitation of a glitch in the overall system; observe the story of the Kid and how he was found by Neo; travel with an investigator who tracks the well-known hacker Trinity; and learn the secrets of the Matrix in other wondrous ways.