It’s Unstreamable! Where Jas Keimig and Chase Burns recommend movies and TV shows you can't watch on major streaming services in the United States. We post on Wednesdays unless we’re tired or busy 😊
CHASE: We’re continuing ANIME MONTH as we get ready for our Unstreamable screenings next week at Northwest Film Forum. We’re showing Rintaro’s Metropolis, and it’s really good, and rare, so reserve your seat ✨ 💺 ✨ then scroll down for this week’s picks, starting with the ‘90s revamp of the classic franchise Cutie Honey.
JAS: And I’m pondering aging and death with Roujin Z! Life, man!
Got a recommendation? Give us the scoop at unstreamablemovies@gmail.com.
Japan, 1994-1995, 25-minute episodes, Created by Go Nagai
If you’re a fan of magical girls like Sailor Moon, you should pay your respects to Honey, the star of manga artist Go Nagai’s foundational 1970s manga, Cutie Honey. An android schoolgirl who conjures a sword out of the air to fight off baddies, Honey (and her iconic transformation from normal girl to crime fighter, which requires her to lose her clothes temporarily) inspired generations of magical girl stories.
Cutie Honey is big business in Japan, even if younger generations may not be super familiar with the franchise. Its original anime ran in 1973-1974, concurrent with its manga publication, though the anime was tamer than the manga, especially in regards to nudity. Creator Go Nagai revamped the franchise in the '90s with New Cutie Honey, a series that courted adult viewers. It’s more explicit, with Honey’s boobs often playing a central character.
Of note: There’s lots of queercoding throughout New Cutie Honey, though mostly in negative ways with evil characters. (One villain is a naked lesbian who shoots diamonds out her crotch.) There are lots of outfit changes—in a single 25-minute episode, Honey can transform from a naked girlie to an S&M queen to a ballet diva to a warrior in gleaming white armor. It’s porny and crude and silly, but very much a product of its time.
For more Cutie Honey content, watch the franchise's 2004 live-action film, directed by Evangelion and Shin Godzilla director Hideaki Anno. (That same year, he also directed an anime series for it, called Re: Cutie Honey.) CHASE BURNS
Find it in the Animation Room in the Anime/Manga section.
Japan, 1991, 84 minutes, Dir. Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Y’all ever thought about death? Or, you know, the psychedelic experience of watching your mind and body decay under the stressors of time and environment? Well, Roujin Z is for you!
In Roujin Z’s vision of the 21st century, no one wants to care for the increasing elderly population. So an evil medical corporation developed a nuclear-powered machine that can meet all the needs of the elderly person it hosts — bathing, sleeping, entertaining, and medicating — but in a robotic and rather cruel fashion. The first human to get this care is Kijuro Takazawa (Hikojirou Matsumura), an octogenarian who has been all but abandoned by his family and is under the care of Haruko (Chisa Yokoyama), a young and optimistic nursing student. Of course the machine can’t provide the one thing Takazawa actually needs — human affection. And plans go wildly off course when his brain melds with the machine to contact Haruko for her help…
Though it came out towards the end of the 20th century, Roujin Z’s story feels eerily relevant to today as we look increasingly to technology to handle the care we should really be giving one another. I should also note that this film was written by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame with the late and forever GOAT’d Satoshi Kon serving as an animator and set designer (his first ever anime job!). JAS KEIMIG
Find it in the Animation Room in the Anime/Manga section.
Here’s Roger Ebert recommending the film in 1995. Taste!
Looking for more? Browse our big list of 350+ hard-to-find movies over on The Stranger.
*The fine print: Unstreamable means we couldn’t find it on Netflix, Hulu, Shudder, Disney+, or any of the other hundreds of streaming services available in the United States. We also couldn’t find it available for rent or purchase through platforms like Prime Video or iTunes. Yes, we know you can find many things online illegally, but we don’t consider user-generated videos, like unauthorized YouTube uploads, to be streamable.
