There’s a lot going on in Takahide Hori’s Junk World, and it took me completely by surprise.
Having only signed up to two Scotland Loves Anime films this year, and knowing absolutely nothing about Junk World – a prequel to Junk Head which I’ve also never seen – I was nevertheless looking forward to some new, 2025 anime. When I found out it was stop-motion, I got pretty excited.
First, here’s the trailer so you can get a better idea of what we’re looking at here. It’s a bit off-the-chain, with probably everything you’d ever want from an anime; a protracted, time-spanning story filled with humour, surprises, S&M gear, plenty of random creatures, great characters, failing bureaucratic shenanigans, a character playing God and building up an entire civilisation with dubious techniques, bots, humanoid clones and even a few fart jokes.
Apparently Junk World – which takes place 1000+ years before the events of Junk Head – is meant to be the second of a planned trilogy. The amount of work that’s gone into the film itself – apparently by only a team six people – is really admirable.
When you bear that in mind (and I did, because it was included in a small intro before the film) whilst watching Junk World, it quickly becomes clear that what you’re watching is actually something really quite special.
Humans vs Mulligans
The film begins with a bit of an ominous setup, with a robot declaring itself as God to some random creatures, who appear quite rightly confused. Then we get into the crux of the story, where humans are in the midst of a 260-year ceasefire with a civilisation called ‘mulligans’ – a subservient workforce created by humans to basically be slaves.
The mulligans won their freedom, with them living underground whilst humans live on the surface. There’s still clearly a lot of unresolved beef though, with the mulligans having mutated, and there now being evil human-eating cultish mulligans who think they can evolve further with human meat. Oh, and by the way, the mulligans eat a lot better than humans do; apparently we just stick to some sort of sustenance brick – which looks dire.
The humans in this film are truly awful, and they named the race they created after an extra stroke in golf that’s only allowed after a poor shot. When watching it, you’re not actually on their side most of the time, which is interesting. The mulligans have evolved to live a long time, and learn a lot about themselves. Humans, it seems, have not.
Overall
Junk World is a bold, fun, engaging movie that’s structured into four acts, and each one complicates and adds to the story in ways you’re really not expecting, often with humour that catches you off guard and makes you laugh out loud. I think the added humour and the way the story is structured is quite forgiving, and any potential flaws are smoothed over the re-understood later on.
The animation is smooth, with some fantastic action sequences and moments where you really appreciate the visuals. However, whether you love stop-motion animation or not, it’s a simply really good watch, with a great narrative that keeps you completely captivated throughout.
I actually really want to rewatch this now with my husband, because I think it’s going to be a film he’ll absolutely love – especially if he goes into it with zero knowledge about the story (which I hope he does).
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