[Anime Classics]

Release Info

Released in 1991. Production and animation by APPP.

Plot Summary

In the 1980s, nine up-and-coming Japanese animators were each given the chance to create a short animated work with “robots” as the general theme. Unlike the numerous other robot-themed anime of the era, these were to be created without giving any consideration to commercial viability, merchandise sales, or what any of the other animators would be doing. The result is what is commonly referred to as “anime's Fantasia”: an incredibly high-quality anthology collection of visually disparate stories ranging in tone from the surreal to the absurd. Universally understandable due to the near-complete lack of spoken dialogue, and now given a high-definition restoration, this masterpiece remains just as captivating over 30 years later.

My Thoughts

This movie's a great classic. It's effectively an animation festival style compilation of short films, offering a wide variety of tones and styles. Some stories are sad, some are exciting, some are bizarre and highly artistic. I fondly remember Robot Carnival because it premiered on the Sci-fi channel in the mid-90s. Anime was new to me at the time, so this movie left quite an impression and hyped me up to pursue more anime. Any fan of retro anime should watch this.

Buy From Amazon

You can buy this movie from Amazon. It goes for around $20-40 (US).

Official Streaming

In the United States, Robot Carnival is available for digital purchase on Prime Video. You need to rent it or buy it to watch.

Watch on Prime Video

The Prime Video app is available on every set-top box (Apple TV, Roku, Fire sticks, etc.).

Download

Robot Carnival can be watched or downloaded from Archive.org (Internet Archive), or downloaded via torrents from Nyaa. These sites are the best, safest, and most dependable resources to get anime for free.

Watch on Archive.org

Notes

• To cast the videos to your TV using AirPlay or Chromecast, press the button. This button becomes available when you start playing the video.
• The playable video is English dubbed. If you want Japanese language with subtitles, you need to download Robot Carnival from Nyaa.
• Archive.org tends to be slow. Downloading Robot Carnival from Nyaa is better. Additionally, Nyaa most likley offers a higher quality video, or even a Blu-ray quality video.

Download from Nyaa

Notes

• If you don't know what torrents are, YouTube has tutorials. Be mindful that torrent downloads aren't instant. Depending on your Internet speed and number of seeds, it could take up to 24 hours for an anime to download.
• If you need a torrent client, these are the best (they're all free).
• The majority of video downloads from Nyaa are in “MKV” format, and less commonly in “AVI”. If you need a good video player to play these formats, VLC Media Player is the best (and it's free). It's available on every OS, including iOS and Android.

Is the MKV too big?

If you download a large Blu-ray quality MKV from Nyaa, it is possible that your computer or phone/tablet isn't fast enough to play it at full speed. In this case, you can use HandBrake. It's a free video converter; use it to shrink down the video. If you need help using HandBrake, YouTube has tutorials. Another option is to use Plex (mentioned below) because it automatically downsamples large videos when it streams them to your TV.

Playing on your TV

The easiest way to play MKV and AVI videos on your TV is with Plex. It streams movies from your computer to your TV through your Wi-Fi. It's a free app. Install it on your Windows or Mac, then install it on your set-top box (Apple TV, Roku, Fire sticks, etc.). Just note that Plex will only detect these movies in an Other Videos library because the “Movies” library doesn't detect rare/obscure anime classics. If you need help, YouTube has tutorials.