It started as a sociological experiment. 6 different people were brainwashed to think that they were a
family and then put in arbitrary situations to see how they would react. However, when a taping of the
families conducts is sold in a desperate attempt to make a little capital it instantly becomes a
success. Now the family is a first rated show and their every move is broadcasted around the world
without them knowing it. But when a clogged toilet sets off a chain of events that ultimately frees
the family from the room they are confined in the broadcasters, not willing to lose their source of
income, set out to hunt down and recapture every member of the Eternal family.
(Source: Anime News Network)
~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/zXQcGQV.png)~~~ You came to _Eikyuu Kazoku / Eternal Family_ because you're on a __Kōji Morimoto__ kick. There’s no other explanation. Maybe you started with that [_Dirty Pair: Project Eden_ opening](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dirty+pair+project+eden+op), or maybe it was [that sweet Ken Ishii music video](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ken+ishii+extra). But at this point, you've already seen [_Beyond_](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+animatrix+beyond) and the excellent collab with Yōko Kanno and Masaaki Yuasa, [_Noiseman: Sound Insect_](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=noiseman+sound+insect) and now you're digging deeper. _Digital Juice_? _Genius Party_? _[0range](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=koji+morimoto+0range&iax=images&ia=images)_? (Yes, you should own _0range_.) What's this? Morimoto directed a 53-episode TV series that can somehow be binged-watched in a half-hour sitting? How can that be? My “I read this somewhere over a decade ago” information suggests that _Eternal Family_ was a series of TV spots that NHK slotted between programs. Like the infamous [out-of-order broadcast of _Suzumiya Haruhi_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya#Anime) that set the internet of ‘09 ablaze, one can’t hope to recreate the true _Eternal Family_ viewing experience, whatever it actually was, so a marathon that nauseatingly starts & stops every 30 seconds is all we’ll ever have. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/NGul0zr.png)~~~ The premise resembles but predates _The Truman Show_ by a year; the parasocial qualities of “reality” television presaged our present V-Tuber dystopia and everyone back then seemed to sense the impending doom. In Morimoto’s familiar dystopic futureworld, the titular “Eternal Family” is a reality TV show that casts, with sci-fi brainwashing, a bunch of deranged dropouts as a “normal” Japanese family whose domestic antics are broadcast 24/7 through the state’s propaganda apparatus. One day, this social experiment escapes from the TV set into the wider world of “Hodgepodge City” where all manner of super fans, government goons and other unscrupulous characters go on the hunt for our hapless, violence-prone television stars. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/jmSn3zj.png)~~~ In practice, it’s a series of cartoon comedy vignettes with the recognizable postmodern cyberpunk stylings of Studio 4°C figureheads like Morimoto, [Tatsuyuki Tanaka](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tatsuyuki+tanaka+cannabis+works&t=hy&va=g&iax=images&ia=images) and others in that aesthetic wheelhouse. It’s borderline insufferable but hits something of a stride when the Family is set loose upon the city and the imaginative borders expand slightly beyond baseline potty humor. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/aA4ekdU.png)~~~ It takes a real desire to seek out _Eternal Family._ Morimoto’s many shorts, music videos, [freelance "sakuga" moments](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sharon+apple+concert) and other projects all give us desperate devotees little glimpses into his inner cyberworld; a world which was sadly never realized into a magnum-opus-like feature film or full-length TV series. There is no culmination into a grand conclusion — no payoff nor catharsis — for this review and Morimoto's legacy. The man is already in his 60s and I’ve stopped expecting anything beyond the hodgepodge of works that form a city we can skirt the borders of but never truly explore. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/vBK15pk.png)~~~ - [Comment on this review](https://anilist.co/activity/270080797)