“Memories Deluxe” / 「MEMORIES deluxe」, Original Japanese Home Video Promotional Poster 1996, B2 Size (51.5 × 72.8 cm) G300
This is an original Japanese B2 retail promotional poster produced for the premium home-video release of Memories / 「MEMORIES」 on 25 October 1996.
Created to advertise the three-disc CAV LaserDisc Deluxe Box and simultaneous VHS release, the poster features an extraordinary unified illustration by Katsuhiro Otomo, bringing together imagery from all three stories in the celebrated science-fiction anime anthology.
This is an original period retail display poster from the 1996 campaign. It is not the theatrical-release poster.
Film background
Memories is an ambitious animated anthology conceived and executive-produced by Katsuhiro Otomo, the internationally acclaimed manga artist and filmmaker behind Akira.
Originally released theatrically in Japan in late 1995, the film consists of three independent science-fiction stories, each directed in a radically different visual and narrative style.
The first episode is:
“Magnetic Rose” / 「彼女の想いで」
Directed by Kōji Morimoto, with a screenplay by Satoshi Kon adapted from Otomo’s short manga, the story follows the crew of a deep-space salvage vessel responding to a mysterious distress signal.
They enter a vast, abandoned station filled with decaying opera sets, holographic memories, and illusions connected to the tragic life of the celebrated singer Eva Friedel.
As the station manipulates their memories and desires, the distinction between physical reality and psychological fantasy begins to collapse.
The second episode is:
“Stink Bomb” / 「最臭兵器」
Directed by Tensai Okamura, this darkly comic story follows Nobuo Tanaka, an ordinary laboratory employee who accidentally consumes an experimental capsule.
Without understanding what has happened, Nobuo becomes the centre of an expanding biochemical catastrophe. His body produces a lethal cloud that destroys everything around him as he innocently attempts to deliver classified material to Tokyo.
The third episode is:
“Cannon Fodder” / 「大砲の街」
Written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, this visually distinctive episode depicts an entire industrial city organised around the daily firing of enormous cannons at an unseen enemy.
Every citizen contributes to the war machine. Children are educated to become artillery officers, adults labour in ammunition factories, and the city’s entire culture is built around endless bombardment.
The film combines science fiction, psychological horror, satire, war imagery, and technological spectacle. Its contrasting animation styles and exceptional creative team have made it one of the defining Japanese animated anthologies of the 1990s.
Home-video release
This poster advertises the Japanese home-video launch of:
MEMORIES deluxe
on:
10.25 ON SALE
The principal Japanese text beneath the title reads:
「劇場公開時の迫力そのままの、ノートリミング版
各監督監修のもと作成したD-2プロセスマスターを使用」
“An untrimmed presentation preserving the full impact of the theatrical release, using a D-2 process master created under the supervision of each director.”
The campaign therefore emphasised that the home-video edition retained the film’s original theatrical composition rather than cropping or reframing the image.
The principal premium release was a three-disc CAV LaserDisc box set, presented with Digital Stereo, Dolby Surround, and Vista-size imagery.
The advertised retail price was:
¥14,800 excluding tax
The box included additional collector material, including a special preview programme, still-frame visual content, and a colour booklet.
A VHS edition was released simultaneously for:
¥9,800 excluding tax
The poster was designed for display in Japanese video, LaserDisc, anime, and electronics retailers promoting these premium releases.
Poster design
The poster uses a deep black background and restrained white typography, allowing the central illustration to dominate the composition.
At the top appears:
KATSUHIRO OTOMO
presents
followed by the enormous white title:
MEMORIES
The small red word:
deluxe
is positioned immediately beneath it, identifying the premium nature of the release.
Below the technical Japanese text, the large release announcement reads:
10.25 ON SALE
The centre features a remarkable composite image connecting all three anthology segments through a single divided portrait.
The left portion represents “Cannon Fodder.”
A red-helmeted artillery worker raises his hand in salute. His heavy green uniform, weathered glove, and expression reflect the regimented industrial society of Otomo’s episode.
Behind him stretches the city of cannons, filled with enormous gun emplacements, towers, factories, and oppressive military architecture.
The central portion represents “Magnetic Rose.”
The elegant face of opera singer Eva Friedel occupies the heart of the image. Her carefully styled dark hair, red lips, jewellery, and composed expression evoke the glamour preserved within the abandoned space station.
Her beauty contrasts with the psychological horror and decay underlying the episode’s elaborate illusions.
The narrow division through her portrait creates the impression that she exists between different realities—part memory, part artificial reconstruction, and part haunting presence.
The right portion represents “Stink Bomb.”
Nobuo Tanaka appears in profile, holding the small red-and-white experimental capsule that begins the catastrophe.
His pale hand and the tiny pill are given extraordinary prominence, despite the enormous consequences that follow from such an apparently insignificant object.
Behind him appear modern research buildings and mountainous scenery associated with the laboratory environment from which the biological emergency begins.
The three segments overlap through geometric panels, transparent profiles, city fragments, machinery, and architectural backgrounds.
An arched form behind the characters resembles both a space helmet and a framing device, visually unifying stories that otherwise use substantially different animation styles.
Artist note
The promotional text prominently states:
「BOX内箱イラストは大友克洋描き下ろし」
“The illustration inside the box is a newly drawn work by Katsuhiro Otomo.”
The VHS promotion similarly identifies its jacket illustration as an original Otomo drawing.
This poster reproduces the specially created Katsuhiro Otomo artwork prepared for the 1996 home-media campaign, rather than simply reusing the principal theatrical poster.
Otomo’s composition successfully combines the rounded military caricature of Cannon Fodder, the refined realism of Magnetic Rose, and the clean contemporary anime styling of Stink Bomb.
The result demonstrates his ability to unite three radically different visual worlds within one carefully balanced image.
Design note
The minimalist black field and large white title give the poster a sophisticated appearance closer to a premium collector release than a conventional anime advertisement.
The sharply divided central image reflects the anthology format, while the overlapping faces and environments suggest shared themes of memory, technology, identity, militarism, and human vulnerability.
The clean graphic structure also allows the detailed illustration to remain readable despite incorporating imagery from all three films.
Its combination of original Otomo artwork, LaserDisc-era design, Japanese retail typography, and detailed technical specifications makes it a particularly compelling artefact from the height of the premium Japanese home-video market.
Release note
Memories was originally released theatrically in Japan in 1995.
This poster was printed for the film’s 25 October 1996 Japanese home-video release, advertising the premium LaserDisc Deluxe Box and simultaneous VHS edition.
It is a standard Japanese B2-size promotional poster, measuring approximately:
51.5 × 72.8 cm / 20.3 × 28.7 inches
It is an original 1996 Japanese retail promotional poster, not a later reproduction or commercial reprint.
Condition
Very Good+ to Excellent condition. A highly attractive example with strong colour, crisp illustrated detail, clear typography, and excellent overall display impact.
There are light signs of age and retail handling, including shallow surface creasing and waviness, minor edge and corner wear, and a few small surface marks visible under close examination.
The reverse shows light handling marks together with a tiny amount of adhesive residue near the upper edge, consistent with the poster having been displayed during its original retail campaign.
These signs do not significantly detract from the artwork. The deep black background remains strong, the colours are vivid, and the front presents extremely well.
Reference: G300.
Please review the photographs carefully, as they show the exact poster for sale.
This is an original 1996 Japanese home-video promotional poster.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
It is now 30 years old.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
