Magnetic Rose The
Corona, a deep space salvage freighter, is out on a mission when it encounters a distress signal and responds to it. They come upon a spaceship graveyard orbiting a giant space station. The crew's two engineers, Heintz and Miguel, enter it to get a closer look. Once inside, they discover an opulent European interior and several furnished rooms in varying states of decay, but find no signs of life. The men learn that the station belongs to a once-famous opera diva named Eva Friedel who disappeared after the murder of her fiancé, Carlo Rambaldi, a fellow singer. Continuing to search for the distress signal's source, the engineers split up, with each experiencing paranormal encounters, including strange noises and visions of Eva. Miguel enters the dilapidated underbelly of the station, and in a cavernous chamber, he finds a broken piano playing the distress signal. He begins to hallucinate and Eva suddenly runs up to kiss him. Heintz finds a theater stage and sees Eva, who stabs him when he approaches. Suddenly paralyzed, Heintz relives a memory of his wife and his daughter Emily. The illusion disappears when Eva takes his wife's form and tells him that he "will never leave". Heintz rushes to save Miguel, but Miguel disappears deeper into the cavern, having been seduced by Eva into thinking he is Carlo. Eva reveals to Heintz that she murdered the real Carlo for refusing to marry her and has since forced others to relive his likeness. She makes Heintz relive Emily's death, and entices Heintz to stay with his daughter's
doppelganger. Heintz resists and shoots the massive computer embedded in the ceiling of the cavern, causing the
AI hologram of Eva to malfunction. Meanwhile, the
Corona has been struggling against a powerful magnetic field coming from the station, pulling the ship towards it. In desperation, the crewmen Aoshima and Ivanov fire a powerful
energy cannon; gouging deep enough into the structure to reach the cavern and Heintz, moments before the ship is torn apart. Heintz is ejected into space along with the
space-suit-clad skeletons of Eva's past victims, as Eva hauntingly sings to a conjured audience. The
Corona is destroyed and becomes part of the rose-shaped structure around the station. The whereabouts of the real (and long-deceased) Eva are shown, and a representation of Eva is seen talking romantically with Miguel (now fully embracing his new identity as Carlo). Heintz is last seen drifting in space, still alive.
Stink Bomb Lab technician Nobuo Tanaka, battling the
flu, mistakes some experimental pills for medicine and swallows one. The pills were intended to help soldiers counter
biological weapons, but it reacts to a flu shot that he had received before the medicine, causing his body to produce vast amounts of a highly toxic gas. While taking a nap, the odor he emits kills everyone in the laboratory. Horrified, he reports the incident to headquarters, who instruct him to deliver the experimental drug to
Tokyo. Nobuo has become a living
weapon of mass destruction. Meanwhile, the odor he emits grows stronger to where it affects several miles of the surrounding area, killing every animal that breathes in the gas, though plants survive exposure to the unknown
chemical agent and appear to be strengthened by it. The toxic gas is so potent that neither
gas masks nor
NBC suits offer any protection against its effects. As Nobuo travels through
Yamanashi Prefecture, the deadly odor kills all animal life in its path, including all 200,000 residents of the city of
Kōfu. Nobuo continues his journey towards Tokyo, unaware of the deaths he is causing, but the rest of the country is in a complete panic. The head of the research company and the Japanese military deduce that Tanaka is causing the poisonous gas and order him to be killed. The
Japan Self Defense Forces try in vain to stop Nobuo with the use of artillery and missiles, but the chemicals interfere with the targeting systems of their weapons. The
U.S. military, who have been observing the situation to that point, invokes the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty to take over the operation to recover Nobuo, and calls in a
NASA unit with space suits to try and capture Nobuo alive. After Nobuo enters a tunnel, the Japanese army collapses part of the bridge and the tunnel behind him, trapping him with only one way out. They turn on wind generators in an attempt to stop the odor's advance. As the soldiers in space suits approach Nobuo, he becomes scared and more of his odor bursts out of him, disabling the lights and wind generators. After the cloud settles, the soldiers appear to have subdued Nobuo. One of the suit-wearing soldiers is escorted to the military headquarters in Tokyo and delivers the drug. The soldier opens their visor, revealing that it is actually Nobuo, who was placed inside the suit by one of the other soldiers, but is still unaware of his condition. He then fully opens his suit, killing everyone in the room.
Cannon Fodder In a walled city perpetually at war, everyone's livelihood depends upon maintaining and firing the enormous cannons that make up most of the city. Nearly every building in the city is equipped with cannons of varying size, able to fire huge artillery shells over the city walls. The story is animated into one
long take, conveying the daily life of a young schoolboy; his father, who works as a lowly cannon-loader; and his mother, a munitions factory worker. The city is surrounded by a crater-filled wasteland that is covered in clouds of smoke and dust produced by the cannon fire. Despite propaganda emphasizing the threat of the enemy, there is no visual confirmation that this is true, or even if there is an enemy at all. The boy's father is assigned to one of the city's largest cannons: an enormous red
railway gun that is personally fired by a lavishly dressed officer. The father is blamed for a safety mishap, and made to stand next to the cannon without safety gear while it is fired again. That night, the family is at home and hears a news report proclaiming the devastation unleashed on the enemy city. The boy then asks his father why they are fighting in the first place, only for his father to tell him that he will understand when he is older. As the boy gets into his bed, he imagines himself as the officer in charge of firing the railway gun. As he sleeps, a
civil defense siren sounds and a blue light sweeps across the window. ==Cast==