Genius Party 6 – Happy Machine Review

Masaaki Yuasa’s Happy Machine reminded me right off the bat of Kaiba, which he worked on after this. The childish art and character designs are quite similar and the story is just as surreal.

To try to describe what happens in Happy Machine really doesn’t do it justice but basically it follows a toddler as he leaves home and explores the world. Except home is a giant, vaguely humanoid machine where his mother is just a screen in the floor and the outside world is an otherworldly landscape full of strange, frightening and cute creatures. There is no dialogue although the child does make a lot of baby sounds such as gurgling, crying, or laughing.

For the first few minutes I was certain I’d dislike this. The holographic mother was too weird and I thought it was going to be disturbing in the same way that some moments in Kaiba were disturbing (if you’ve seen Kaiba all I need to say is: blow up doll). Yet once the child got outside and started exploring I was quickly won over.

I have to admire Yuasa’s ability to convey his story entirely through movement, sound effects and background music. Since the world in Happy Machine is so creative and entirely different from our reality it was surprisingly easy to connect with the baby and see through his eyes. As he makes new discoveries so does the viewer and I really enjoyed that experience.

I’d be interested to hear what other people thought was the meaning of Happy Machine. My main impression is just that the world is an unusual, sometimes frightening place that is superior to any machine designed to make us happy. Wait… does that mean I should get off my computer and actually go outside?