This unlocked bonus episode is a conceptual outtake from our second season. After we agreed to focus on Satoshi Kon's filmography for season two we then had to draw lines about exactly what qualified for that discussion. We settled on covering just the projects that Kon directed at the expense of the projects that he merely wrote. The last item that we cut was "Magnetic Rose", a short film written by Kon and directed by Koji Morimoto included in the anthology film Memories.
Now ubiquitous on streaming services, Memories was concieved by Katsuhiro Otomo as the follow-up to his ubiquitous debut, Akira. This episode only covers "Magnetic Rose," the first and most well-regarded of its three segments.
"Magnetic Rose" features some elements that would appear in Kon's directorial work, but it is also clearly distinct from the rest of his filmography for reasons that we enumerate in the episode. We also talk about "Solaris", "Alien", the A24 grief movie phenomenon, the pros and cons of anthologies, and more!