Post by Honeyman on Oct 18, 2005 18:07:53 GMT
This is a film I saw a couple of weeks ago that a friend lent me. It's by a fellow called Makoto Shinkai who did the 30-minute OVA called Voices of a Distant Star and is renouned for creating it almost entirely on his own. Anyway, how did his next effort fair under the critical scope?
To begin with, the story centres around 2 schoolboys called Hiroki and Takuya who are quite adept with building machinery and are trying to make a flying machine in order to get to a huge tower that can be seen from where they live. Japan has been divided into 2 with the tower on the northern side of the border and the boys living on the other side. Nobody really knows why the tower is there or its purpose and this is the reason why the boys want to go there. A female classmate of their's called Sayuri becomes interested in their situation and as a result learns of the machine they are intending to make.
After the introduction the story then flashes to 3 years later with the 2 boys in high school and Sayuri having been in a coma for the last 3 years. Nobody knows the reasons why but it could be that Sayuri's coma and the tower are linked.
If I say anymore this review will becomke too spoiler-ish so I'll prevent myself. anyway, as a film TPPIOED does a good job of acheiving what it sets out to do. The story is an interesting one and like Voices of a Distant Star the director deals with the feelings of his characters and this helps to flesh them out and seem more human the more you watch. There were occasions whenthe story became a bit slow but they were brief and at around 100 minutes I think it's fair to say that I have seen examples were slow pacing has been much worse.
The characters wont stand out in the way that, say, Gankutsuou's did but they're likeable (which I think always helps when watching anime) and as stated before they have suficient growth by the film's end. The animation is amazing to say it is all digital and though more staffed than Voices of a Distant Star is still produced by a small group of people. The music is mostly piano pieces that help to accentuate the differnet moods through the film and where as it wont win any prizes for originality they certainly to their job well.
One aspect I liked about the film is like Satoshi Kon's work (Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent) there is a sufficient feeling closure whilst there also being a satisfactory feeling of 'Life Goes On' too. If anybody likes their anime with endings that are as good as an anime's introduction then you will be pleased with this film.
The DVD is only out on Region 1 at the moment and can be found on various online DVD retailers and at City Cyber Anime (link at bottom of main forum page.) There are some cool extras such as interviews with the main voice actors and the director himself, plus some production sketches and storyboard/finished version comparisons (I think.) The DVD format certainly helps this film to look amazing as not in a long time digital animation looked so perfect and right!
Anyway, overall I gave The Place Promised In Our Early Days
8/10
