Wind Named Amnesia
This sci-fi road journey is set in the near future (1999--six years  after the film was initially released). Human civilization has been devastated  by a mysterious wind that erased everyone's memories--even the basics of language and self-care that real amnesia doesn't affect. Their minds wiped  clean, the survivors haunt the ruined cities, scavenging for food. Wateru  ("traveler" in Japanese), whose mind was laboriously restored by a  survivor at a government research facility, wanders through America in a  jeep, trying to bring knowledge to people. In San Francisco, he meets Sophia, a mysterious woman with unexplained powers; she joins him on a journey  to New York that turns into a transcontinental escape from a murderous and  seemingly indestructible robot. Along the way, they encounter the members of a cult that worships an enormous wrecking machine, and two puppetlike  survivors in an fully mechanized city. Wateru struggles to fulfill his  mission to start people on the long journey back to civilization, but he  often has to rely on Sophia's extraordinary powers of communication.A Wind Called Amnesiais more thoughtful and less violent than most  anime features; unfortunately, it ends on a weak, unsatisfying note.  Rating: 16 and older for animated sex and some violence.--Charles Solomon