The free video-on-demand streamer RetroCrush has just added two new titles to its anime section, but they probably aren’t ones you’ve heard of.
500000000 Years Button is at least unique. Released in 2022, the premise is that people are offered the chance to push a button that would send them into isolation for 500 million years, after which point they’d have their memories wiped and be given a cash prize. Remember that Cameron Diaz movie with a similar premise, only the button would kill somebody the presser didn’t know? Both buttons offer money, but the prize in this case is just $7,500. And no, that didn’t go much further in 1999, the year the manga this show is based on came out.
Who’d push it anyway? I have no idea (I guess there’s one way to find out and it’s free). But series creator Sota Sugahara left us a message:
“Hello, RetroCrush viewers!
I’m Sota Sugahara, the creator and director of 500,000,000 Years Button.
What am I?
What is this world?
Why are we alive?
If you have ever stayed up late thinking about questions like that, this anime may be for you.
It starts with one simple button.
But be careful — if you press it in your mind while watching, your brain might glitch a little, and a tiny paradigm shift may happen.
This is a strange little comedy we created together with a wonderful cast and staff, built on years of experimenting with CG animation, improvisation, and playful storytelling.
Please enjoy this anime about time, memory, existence, and the mysterious feeling of being alive.
Thank you so much for watching!”
The second new series is the first season of Hyakusho Kizoku – The Farmer’s Days, an autobiographical short-form anime based on the rural childhood of creator Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist, Daemons of the Shadow Realm). If you ever wondered how the FMA artist spent her formative years, here’s all the answers.
Hiromu Arakawa, before becoming a manga artist, spent seven years on her family’s Hokkaido farm, enduring a tough life with daily challenges. She worked year-round, tending to cows and crops, and facing local wildlife. Her experiences reflect the hard realities of Japanese farming, yet also highlight the admirable and humorous resilience of those who work the land.
In the outer notes of its press release. RetroCrush also noted that the original 1981 Urusei Yatsura TV Series is also now part of their library, and…why didn’t they make that the main subject? Chances are you actually know what that is, as opposed to something like 500000000 Years Button. But anyway, here’s the rest of the streamer’s schedule for anime acquirements through the rest of the summer.
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