Roujin-Z // MACHINE MADNESS (Animation Club)

Dir. Hiroyuki Kitakubo / 1991 / 80m

The final film in Animation Club's "MACHINE MADNESS" series!

All month long, Animation Club celebrates imaginative inventions gone wrong! From airships and doomsday devices lifted off the pages of Jules Verne, to faulty mechanized trousers, and sentient robot healthcare beds. Live action, stop motion, and old-school anime bring to life chaotic contraptions of all kinds, in all their absurd, destructive glory!

Mr. Takazawa, an elderly invalid who is cared for at his home by Haruko, a young nursing student, is chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare to test the Z-001, a computerized hospital bed with robotic features that allegedly displays more efficiency and skills than any human nurse, but Haruko mistrusts a machine unable to consider human feelings. Adapted from the manga created by Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA) Roujin-Z is a hidden gem for fans of hand-drawn early 90’s anime and bonkers hospice-mech action!

'ANIMATION CLUB' is an ongoing series that celebrates new and classic animated films from around the world! From studio titans to hidden indie gems; traditional 2D to stop-motion, 3D animation, experimental, and everything in-between!

Host or Publisher Stray Cat Film Center