Human Lost. Harlot Also Lost

 

Human Lost is a gorgeously animated feature-film from director Fuminori Kizaki. Full of technological fears, it’s reminiscent of the anime I watched as a wide-eyed nerd in the nineties. 

I’ll be totally honest, the anime I watch now it more on the cute side of things, magical girls and happily ever afters. Human Lost offers neither, but not everything is made for me, it’s one of life’s great injustices. That said, I found it incredibly difficult to follow, I felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of a story with little explanation. 

The film opens with someone committing suicide and transforming into a monster. Very cool. And then it just jumps to... a different time and different characters and the cool suicide monster thing doesn’t actually make sense until the very end. 

The gist of the plot, as far as I could understand, is that humans are now expected to live to 120 years or more and there are secret old people who set the standard, but why and how they serve this purpose remains a mystery to me. Peoples lives are also extended by GRMP: genetic manipulation, regeneration, nanomachines, and panaceas. If someone is disconnected from the network, however, the nanomachines go buck wild and turn the person into the aforementioned cool monster; a Lost. Then there are three “applicants,” who are somehow extremely special. One is probably evil, the second is a woman whose only purpose is to be a love interest, and the third is our protagonist. Our whiny, annoying, unlikable, sad boy protagonist. SHELL is the organization that oversees everything GRMP, and maybe they’re evil and should be brought down.

It’s a meditation on anxiety about an aging population and quality of life inequalities. And there’s a really cool motorcycle race. 

Visually, it’s absolutely gorgeous. If you’re extremely into anime it’s certainly worth a look just for the animation. I found the plot difficult to follow, like there was somehow too much information and not enough at the same time. Like I’d missed some crucial five minutes. Maybe it’s me. I remember thinking, “it’s so beautiful, and I’m so bored... is this what it’s like to be on a date with me?”

Horror Harlot sailing off