Anime The Place Promised in Our Early Days

[Dagger]

[url=http://www.advfilms.com/titles/placepromised/][u]Official site[/u][/url]

Makoto Shinkai received a lot of acclaim for his debut OVA, [b]Voices of a Distant Star[/b]. Granted, many people became interested in it simply because it was all but a one-man production (which is rare, if not totally unheard of, in the world of anime). But Voices turned out to be a moving and memorable piece in its own right.

[b]The Place Promised in Our Early Days[/b] (original title: Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho) is Shinkai's first full-length theatrical film. This time he put together a small team to help him animate it, and as a result it looks far more polished and complete than Voices. For example, Voices had startlingly beautiful backgrounds, but the backgrounds in Place Promised are nothing short of ravishing. When watching some scenes, you can really see why people call Shinkai extravagent things like "the next Miyazaki" and so forth. (For the record, I don't think that's an especially valid comparison, except insofar as it shows how highly they regard Shinkai's work; what I've seen from him feels markedly unlike what I've seen from Miyazaki.)

The first time I watched Place Promised, I was a bit disappointed. But I decided to give it another go later, and I'm very glad I did. Normally I'm skeptical of claims that certain anime come across a lot better on bigger screens--but this is just not the kind of movie you want to watch on your computer, if you can help it.

It's a love-and-war story (not terribly unlike Voices of a Distant Star) somewhere in the realm of 90 minutes long. The story requires some careful watching to figure out--and I'm not sure I have it pinned down yet, haha--but overall it does make a fair amount of sense. Kind of funny how I could go from feeling let down by and/or disliking it to really enjoying it... but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess. Given how much interest Voices of a Distant Star attracted, I'm curious about what fans here think of Place Promised.

(I ran a search but couldn't find any pre-existing threads related to the film. Let me know if you come across one, I guess.)

~Dagger~

[Meggido]

I actually saw this about 6 months ago but the fan sub gave it a slightly different name. The thing is I could never remember the name even though I thoroughly enjoyed the anime.

[Shinmaru]

Just watched this today and definitely have to respond to the thread -- "ravishing" is such an apt word for this movie. Going in, I knew watching it was going to be a beautiful experience, but my god! I had to pause my DVD and rewind in multiple places because the gorgeousness of the visuals distracted me from the story (in a good way). Soooooooo glad I have a good TV with which to appreciate this beautifully animated story; crisp visuals ftw. Man, the things this movie does with color and light, Jesus, it is turning me into a babbling idiot is what it's doing. (Not that this is a stretch for me.)

As for the story, I liked it just fine. It's a bit heavy at times, but I understood it well enough once the movie finished. (Reading up on it a bit did clear up some details, however.) I was definitely more into the love story between [spoiler]Sayuri and Hiroki[/spoiler], which is par for the course with me. I am [i]such[/i] a predictable sap. Seriously, though, [spoiler]Sayuri realizing she would lose all her memories with Hiroki upon waking up nearly had the tears a flowin' for me.[/spoiler] I was so crushed. :(

Random: I thought the obvious North/South Korea parallels were sort of interesting.

So, yes, good times all around. If [b]5 Centimeters Per Second[/b] looks even better than this, then I am going to have to bite the bullet and propose to Makoto Shinkai (yes, even though I am pretty sure he is already married). There will be no way around it.

[Dagger]

[quote name='Shinmaru']
So, yes, good times all around. If [b]5 Centimeters Per Second[/b] looks even better than this, then I am going to have to bite the bullet and propose to Makoto Shinkai (yes, even though I am pretty sure he is already married). There will be no way around it.[/QUOTE]
I'll bake the wedding cake. ;)

~Dagger~