Robot Carnival OST — PRESENCE III — Joe Hisaishi [@joehisaishiofficial9777] (Anime Soundtrack)

The "Presence" short story in Robot Carnival is about a self-described male feminist that builds a girl robot and in a fit of incel rage he beats it up and destroys it when the robot touches him. This might sound like a hilarious description, but the story is told in a very interesting way visually. Even though I have a hard time understanding the character's motivations, I couldn't help but be immersed by the presentation. It also happens to be the most memorable short in the anthology series, with "Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture" being a close second.
This musical motif plays throughout the whole story, but this third variation strikes the truest.
Visually this ended up being quite a simple assembly, but essentially this is what I just want to do, get a small loop and fuck around with typography. I did do something a bit unnecessary and silly, which is take the 1080p blu-ray animation and pass it through an AI upscale filter, which landed me with gigantic fucking images. But alas, it looks slightly better as it sharpens the lines a little bit with this particular ESRgan model. I'm still experimenting a bit with these upscale models, and it works well with these big closeup face shots, but kinda falls apart in most other cases.

Melody: JO HISAISHI
Arrangement: JO HISAISHI
Musical Performance: ROBOTS

Director / Scenario / Character Designer: Yasuomi Umetsu
Animation Production Assistance: Shinsuke Terasawa, Hideki Nimura
Backgrounds: Hikaru Yamakawa
Sound Effects: Kenji Mori

[HebertoLopez]

Sweet, sweet melancholy. Regrets haunting the mind of a dying old man. Mistakes made out of fear and incomprehension. He didn't accept her existence; he rejected her love. Now he yearns for her.

[majicweather]

This was my favorite short film from the robot carnival movie. It's funny how you describe the short, from a modern internet lense lol. The man wasn't an Incel, he had a wife who claiming the corporate ladder, while he was a blue collar worker, and he had a daughter.
He noticed his wife was less attentive at home, for example the soup was not as fresh as before, but he wasn't threatened by her success, but he was becoming lonely nonetheless.
His robot project was a hobby, and when the robot showed affection, he rejected it cuz it freaked him out. In what world does a robot need affection and love.
I kind of defend this film cuz it's one of my all time favorites, especially this short film Presence

[OtomoTenzi]

For those of who have always been feeling the same way as I did about 'Presence', this segment of the movie is very emotionally distressing and has stood out for me all these decades... The segment is just way too short to satisfy the audience's curiosity, and leaves ALOT of questions unanswered. If only I can become an animator some day, I swear that I will rewrite and remake an entire OVA based on this segment. Using the BEST influences from renown film-makers such as Michael Cimino and Wai Ka-Fai, I would tell the whole entire story (in painstaking detail) of how the creator finally ACCEPTS his female android's wish for love and affection. It would tell how they stay together and support each other both physically and emotionally, all the way until the very final end (with a surprise ending). That is something that even real-life couples cannot possibly do, especially in this sad and corrupted modern age gone MAD. Wish me luck, everyone! 😞

[Chronomaxs]

thank you so much for making this, , , this brings me back to my childhood when my older brother used to rent anime vhs from the only comic store in our city, he would pause a lot this movie to draw I remember he was so good. damn how time flies

[RyuHayabusa]

Been a fan of this segment from Robot Carnival for many years, in large part because of the music. Thanks for posting!

[shenloken]

The story of a lonely man who never knew the love of his mother and his wife having little time for him.
So in his spare time he creates his “ideal woman” but didn’t know how to react once she showed affection for him despite being a robot.
After destroying his creation he lived out the rest of his life in regret haunted by her.
The ending is left entirely to interpretation; but let’s just say when making his female robot, he literally put his soul into his work!

[MannyKunV]

the story, the music, the atmosphere etc, this gave me an existential crisis when i saw this a s kid. you're not suppose to have that kind of ideas when you're a kid. you're suppose to be watching cartoons, playing video games, card games, and sports, reading books for school.

[daseal]

This always gives me Resident Evil save room vibes.

[Spiegelgeist]

Awesome as always. Hope you and your loved ones are having and will continue to have a safe and happy 2022! :)

[lain]

вчера посмотрел этот шедевр. Я почти расплакался, лучше этой картины я пока не видел

[ParmShellwood]

This is the best short of the anthology [without detracting the others]

[ohgodwhy]

I think your description is quite obnoxious. Something someone far too young would describe it. Or as someone put it through an internet lenses, though the protagonist had a daughter so he's not an ((incel))

I think he declared himself a feminist at the behest of the women he choose to marry, and destroyed this robot of his when he felt he was too deep in it, he did so out of a selfish desire, and at the end of the day destroyed her when he felt distraught by where he conscious and will wanted of him.

Really intriguing, the scene at the end where his wife witnesses him and the robot walking off is really quite errie, really got me at the very end.

[beyond_the_tequila_rift]

This and magnetic rose are two of my favorite anime anthology movies!

[timothymattson]

I am obsessed with this story.

I feel that the man is part of an artificial society, created as a means of novelty for the status quo of the world. A Human version of an ant farm in other words.

The massive towers in the background appear to be ruins of a former world, but I feel that they're simply the dormant remains of a prior society that was overcome with a lack of humanity, brought on by technological progress that made being human obsolete.

I feel that the old guard still exists, but is desperate to be able to watch and thus pretend to experience the beauty of the former world.

I believe that his wife is the only human involved with the given setting. There's something very haunting about her appearance in the beginning, while she sits at the table. She seems very modern in her appearance, unlike the common demeanor of the early 1900's villagers. I believe that she is a caretaker of sorts, who ensures that the behaviors of her populace of androids are in compliance with the given setting.

What I found especially startling was the presence of that beacon outside of the man's home. It may appear to be a simple light pole, but that doesn't make very much sense to me. Why would a home located in the prairie need a city-grade light pole? Notice that when his creation appears, as if it was manifested by the memory that haunts him, it was beside that beacon.

Later, when she comes to take him away, they walk toward where the beacon is. His Wife, whom I believe has either actually aged or was replaced by an android to facilitate the story being told, sees him with the girl. The man disappears with the girl after they seem to walk past the beacon.

I believe that the woman had a story in mind, and that everything we see is part of her production. The dumpster that was full of discarded android parts actually contained the remains of individuals who had had their consciousness transferred to another carapace because the effects of aging were needed to continue the story.

When the man ages, it is a matter of his old parts being discarded and replaced.

I think that the story, as the woman wants it to be told, is meant to communicate the struggle of a man to create something that is within his control and that only exists to respond to his commands. The girl was granted consciousness as a means of testing him, and he was unable to accept that his creation was capable of behaving beyond his original intent.

That idea, of wanting a name. Wanting an identity. I'm reminded of the story of Galathea, who was a woman created by the artisan Pygmalion out of marble. She was a statue that was granted life, but she was also gifted with the ability to choose her fate. She chose to not fall in love with Pygmalion, as he intended, probably because he communicated that intention. The girl from this story showed that she could be an actual presence, infused with the spirit of a girl who could share the same desires as a living being.

The man was a robot as well, and he played his part without questioning the looming reminders of a forgotten world or the ever present evidence that he lives among artificial life.

[charlieb-d]

I remember a short film from a series called The Outher imits that posed the Killing a female robot, though the stories were different they impose an important question to the audience: (What would you do or how would you prefer to have the story ended?) The Outher limits film is not a anime it's an old film made in blak & white format. The story revolves about a person that was outcasted to an uninhabited planet as punishment for a crime, his friend that was an astronaut brought him to the planet and before leaving him there he told him that he smuggle a female robot to give him company so he won't b lonely. The robot was pretty basic it lacked oral communication mechanism and expressions but it saved him from becoming mad. Years passed & one day his friend returned to give him good news: the courts have absolved him from his crimes so he was there 2 bring him back to earth! he was ecstatic but there was a problem there was not enough room to bring the robot with them and a huge planet storm was happening above, 2 make matters worse that storm would last decades to dissipate so they needed 2 do a quick decision (leave the female robot behind) The absolved man didn't want 2 leave the female robot behind, he was too emotionally attached to her his argument was that it was thanks to the robot that he kept his sanity so he couldn't bear to abandon her so he tried to convince his friend to take her too but the urgency of the situation was dire so the astronaut shot the robot in order to make his friend snap out of it, the robot broke & stopped working and they left in a hurry posting the question about human emotions towards a machine. Its a bitter sweet story that leaves one side with a broken 💔 just like Presence.

[RabuHina]

is there a tutorial of this song? I'd like to learn this piece of music!

[LowellLucasJr.]

How i loved this gal and wanted to cry for her. All she wanted was love and purpose. 😢 To think this was Umetsu's early works before Kite and Mezzo. Easily one of my favorite animatirs and directors. Love this score by Hisashi too! ❤ Did wonders for Studio Ghibli... especially Princess Mononoke!❤

[ThePuklink]

7 months ago when I heard this song the first time, it touched me profoundly and I felt a special PRESENCE of something unknown to me.
2 Weeks ago we finally had our first baby child (a girl) after 5 years of trying and patience. I hope this video will stay here until she grow up to listen to it together and watch the movie.

[fishstopsignfishstopsign]

Dude this is so good, is it possible to post all versions?

[ivorytower]

It's not "incel rage", it's the natural reaction of every human when the toaster begin to speak out of nowhere and it request affection from his owner.