Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo

Alright. I hate this anime and here's why. This review will be spoiler free. Not that there's anything worth spoiling. Story 1/10 The story, if you can call it that, can be described as a sequence of random events that have little or sometimes nothing to do with each other. The start of the movie is slow, which I thought was for world building and helping to build up to something great, but it was just boring and preceded hot garbage. If you do decide to watch this show, I want you to count how many times you ask yourself how or why something happens and tell me the count because it is a horrifyingly high number. The "plot" was confusing, boring, and challenging to watch. Art 6/10 The art was fine. There were parts of the movie that were quite beautiful and there were a few parts that were laughably terrible. Music 5/10 I would rate the music lower, but there were some good tracks and moments where I enjoyed the music, and I would rate the music higher, but there were also bad tracks and multiple times where the music was straight up annoying. For example, the end theme was meme level bad. I'll leave the interpretation of that to your imagination. Characters 1/10 The characters in this anime are extremely boring. Mimi was the only character I liked, but I mean, it's hard to mess up the cute animal character. Trust me they managed to do so though anyway. There isn't much else to say cause there isn't much to them. Enjoyment 1/10 I didn't get a minute of enjoyment from this movie. The first half of the movie was spent hoping that it would get better, and the second half of the movie was spent waiting for it to be over and hoping they don't mess up anything else in the remainder of the movie. If you start feeling that way, don't get your hopes up. Every scene in this movie is a mistake. All this being said, I have to give this movie a 1/10. I have only given 3 1/10's in the 500+ anime I've seen, so I don't give them out lightly. The adventure is almost pointless. You'll see what I mean if you watch. The romance is terrible. It could be the worst part of the movie aside from its incomprehensibility. The fantasy was alright. Certainly not worth dealing with the rest of the movie, but there were some interesting creatures. Instead of getting lost in this anime's world and being mesmerized by the magic of the fantasy, I was questioning why the fantastical things were happening to my dismay. Now, am I saying this anime is for no one? Not at all. The theme of this anime is centred around life and death. I love themes centred around life and death, but this movie executes them very poorly. There are a lot of deaths and birthing metaphors shoehorned into the movie simply due to the theme of the movie. In conclusion, I can't say everyone will feel the same way about the movie, 2 of the guys I watched it with rather enjoyed it, but I certainly can't recommend it to anyone either.

I think this anime was really good. Yes, it seems to be a bit inspired by Studio Ghibli movies but it was also very different and I enjoyed it a lot. Ups: The art was very great, and it had some interesting characters. The story was a little confusing, but it kept me watching, wanting to find out more and how everything was connected. Downs: Some parts were left unexplained and some parts felt a bit rushed, like the ending. Also , some parts went a little too long without speech, and it sounded a little odd. Story:7 For reasons such as parts left unexplained and parts that were confusing. But the idea was good and I really didn't want to pause the movie or wait for it to load. Art:10 This artwork was amazing! It totally was part of what made me like the movie. Sound: 8 It had pretty good music and from the English Dub the voice acting was pretty good, but sometimes there were either pauses or the talking seemed rushed and it sounded unnatural. Character: 8 The characters were very interesting, not like your usual anime, but sometimes I couldn't tell who was supposed to be bad and who was supposed to be good, and I wanted to know more about some of the characters. Enjoyment: 9 I really liked this movie, I'd say overall it was very great, I recommend it to all fantasy lovers

This movie follows a young girl named Asuna Watase was forced to grow up very quickly to help out her mother after the loss of her father, she spends her days listening to music at her clubhouse from a crystal radio her father gave her. Little did she know this music was coming from another world called Agartha which is in history as the underworld. There are many people searching for this place for years and years because of riches this land has rumored in history things like eternal life and the ability to bring people back to life. So after the loss of Asuna friend Shun she ventures to the land of Agartha to bring back Shun by following his brother Shin along with her substitute teacher search who is a part of the Arch Angels a group of people in search of Agartha. His wish is to find this land to be able to bring his wife back from the dead. Through this movie you see the hardships they must face to make there dreams come true and you learn maybe there dreams aren't the same as what they once had.

Well, Shinkai train mania wasn't very prominent in this. I have watched Hoshi no Koe, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 centimeters per second, and this in row. And I felt this was probably the best. Story: 10 I really felt the plot was great. It was fast paced. I felt that 5 centimeters made more of an impression on me because of the slower development though. After watching this, I realized Shinkai just does not like happy endings. There's no "distance" in the movie though, unlike his other works. Art: 10 Shinkai lives up to his name. The animation was smooth, and the backgrounds were great. The light reflecting off the swords in battle, the realistic water, all felt great. I did felt that 5 centimeters had better art, although that's probably just because it relates to the real world more and had a chance to really show detail. The animation was probably the best among Shinkai's works. Sound: 10 Like this movie, I felt Tenmon was trying different elements as well. He departed from the usual piano scores, and a lot was based on more epic compositions. I don't know, maybe I didn't really like that, but it did fit the overall theme and setting of the film. I was kind of wavering between a 9 or a 10 for sound, but it was Tenmon so I gave it a 10. I hope that Shinkai-Tenmon partnership will be like Miyazaki-Hisaishi. Character: 9 I gave this a 9 because the characters felt a bit overused. Sure, the villain wasn't cliché, but we have seen this kind of development a few times before. Asuna probably took a wrong turn at the Ghibli Studios and walked into this movie. However overused, they are still likable characters with realistic motives. A few characters could have been expanded a bit more, like the Ikozu, why her father had a Clavis, the Amaurot elder, and so on. Enjoyment: 10 I suggest watching this at the highest possible resolution you can, because it is just that worth it. Overall: 10 I am now an avid fan of Shinkai. I hope he can keep up this level of quality in his works and really surpass Miyazaki. This is my first review by the way, so... yea.

I was kind of late to the party for this movie. But what the hell, I'm giving this movie a very different point of view as an enthusiast of American movies. Now with that said, I'm not totally oblivious of director Makoto Shinkai either. I have watched his previous 3 movies and have noticed a pattern among them, and compared to that pattern, this movie right here is a very different. A different movie requires a different viewpoint, right? Alright, let's jump into the story first... Story: If you haven't already, go read the story synopsis then come back here. The first arc of the movie is a slow introduction to the leading girl - Asuna - living in a rural town. It's relaxing enough for me to start hoping that this Shinkai guy would finally make a movie with an optimistic tone for once. Well, this being a Shinkai movie, it takes no time at all to tell you the girl's lost her daddy. That scene is subtle, which is neat, which piqued my interest immediately. The movie slows down again to show her life, then suddenly... MONSTER ATTACK!!! Yeah, the movie never explained why that monster was there, which is what I'll keep in mind when giving score to the story. Anyway, the girl is rescued by a some dude that seems like he is a brother of Haku from Spirited Away (you remember Haku, right? That River Spirit dude?). He's not actually Haku's brother, of course, but he's no less supernatural than that guy. The dude - named Shun - tells our leading girl that he's from Agartha, whatever the fuck that word means. Moving on, the 2 bond a bit before the dude Shun inexplicably disappears! No wait, I take that back, the movie does explain that later. Anyway, Asuna is now saaaaad because another intimate acquaintance has left her. Yeah this is a Shinkai movie, alright. From this point on, the movie gradually picked up its pace quite a bit. A new character is introduced, which is Asuna's new widower teacher. Yeah, he's a widower, the story will get into that plot later, but for this arc, he is the Captain Exposition for the oblivious Asuna. Basically, there is a myth involving resurrecting dead people if you travel to Agartha, which is deep, deep underground. And he is a widower, guess what he intends to do with that myth? Turns out Agartha is actually real when Shun's brother, his actual brother named Shin came to the surface to snatch the crystal he left behind. This new guy Shin also looks like Haku, btw, just sayin'. Now from the second arc, I will let you discover the movie yourselves, as it turns into a fantasy adventure movie. But without spoiling anything, I must say I am intrigued by the mythology of this fantasy world. And I bet you will too, once you see what Agartha actually looks like, what creatures live in it, you'll wish this movie is gonna spawn a grand franchise, which regrettably will never happen. There are these deity creatures called "Quetzal Coatl" (did I write their name right?) with a fascinating back-story about how they came to be in this world. Then there is the Itzou, some kind of shadow demons that maintain the balance in Agartha, vulnerable to sunlight and water (wait, they are like... vampires???) and keep the Surface Dwellers away. But most fascinating of all, a giant flying Ark! A freaking flying Ark! That thing should catch your eyes the moment it comes on-screen, and not only that, it's gonna play an important part in the last arc, which I won't spoil here. One thing I would like to praise Shinkai is his ability to build tension and keep it going. There are so many scenes in this movie, especially in the 2nd arc that I was on the edge of my seat worrying that this girl Asuna might not make it out alive. I mean goddamn, this is what an adventure movie should feel like, it's about putting your life on the brink of death and escaping through a hair's length. It's like watching The Adventure of Tintin, but with a vulnerable, defenseless protagonist. I mean, it feels breath-taking watching this girl and Shin escaping the Itzous by leaping across the colossal ruins in Agartha. There is another scene where Asuna is approached by those demons in their invisible forms, and it's so tense simply because it feels like an inescapable situation, almost like it was lifted straight out of a horror movie. Ah yes, horror, that's the genre you won't find much (if at all) in Western animation. And I'm surprising myself by praising Shinkai for these merits. Before watching this movie, I was worrying that he could turn out to be a one-note hack who is good at nothing but sappy romance and he's gonna wear himself out the longer he keeps making them, like the recent Clint Eastwood movies. Well, as this movie shows, this guy has much more tricks up his sleeves to be reckoned with. I expect this guy to show more range in the future. Hell, he could tackle as many genres as Danny Boyle did and I would be still pleased (you know Danny Boyle, right? That guy that did a zombie movie, a kiddie movie, a hard scifi movie, a sappy drama movie, an inspirational survival movie and they were all good?). The movie has to get away from the action scenes at some points to return to its slower, dramatic parts. You will soon notice a running theme through many of these drama scenes. I'm not gonna say it straight out what that theme is, but I will say that these scenes suggest their common morality in a very subtle way, unlike The Fountain (2005) - that movie pretty much hammered the message into your head. It's not heavy-handed, that's my point. The story also spends some length to flashback to Asuna's and the teacher's past. These scenes are quite touching, it may get you teared up a bit when you see how Morisaki (that's the teacher) became a widower. Now for the ending, it's appropriately climatic, and it's climatic without a lot of action goiing, the conflict between the characters is enough to carry the climax. And the solution to the climax, I love it. Knowing Shinkai, I was actually expecting it to go in a much sadder way. Without spoling too much, I will say this is actually a much happier ending than his previous movies. I walked out all of his 3 previous movie feeling sad, and was surprised by this ending. It's not totally optimistic, I mean, come on, a widower wants his waifu back, you know where this is going. But hey, considering Shinkai's track record, this is as optimistic as his movie can get. Quick note: There is notably less romance in this movie by Shinkai's standard, not that I'm complaining, 'cause he sure made up for that with so much more goodness. For a good story, I like to squeeze all its flaws into one paragraph to keep the tone of the review generally positive. Yes this movie has flaws, I'm not turning a blind eye to them just because the movie is so good already. First thing is the plot holes. Notice the plural word, I counted 3 plot holes and I'll make it short. #1: the monster appearance never got explained; #2: The town guards intend to drive the Surface Dwellers away (Asuna and Morisaki) but after fighting Shin, they stopped chasing those 2, as if forgetting their objectives; #3: During night time, the river tide in this movie is low, that’s backward from how river tide actually regulates. The second flaw is the whole half-baked Arch Angel black-ops sub plot, which thankfully didn't overstay its welcome to detract too much from the movie. That's pretty much it. This is an oddball in Shinkai's filmography, a lot of his signature elements took a back seat here, and that should be a warning to any of his fans not willing to adapt. Me? I love movie directors not because they can only do one thing right, I love them for doing MANY things right. And goddamn did this movie got so many things right that I tolerated its few flaws and even tolerated the fact that it was more optimistic than I expected (wait, is that a bad thing to begin with?). A rock solid 9/10 for the story should do the justice. Visual: Shinkai took a back seat for the ch…

Makoto Shinkai’s massive success for the past decade, which even he seems to be surprised by, has led to him being incessantly called “the new Miyazaki”. Why? Why would he be called that? The compliment is effectively a result of Western media being incapable of discriminating wildly distinct filmmaking styles and its tendency to just label any breakaway success in Japanese animation as a competition to find the next Miyazaki. This sort of cartoonishly oversimplified heuristic thinking reminds me of a particular gag from The Big Bang Theory. If you’re unfamiliar, TBBT features an Indian (dots, not feathers) character, Raj, who has a crippling fear of women, to the point that he literally becomes mute when in their presence. However, if he ingests alcohol, however little, he becomes very relaxed and able to speak freely. On one such occasion, when Raj is competing with another main character for the good graces of a woman they were both trying to seduce, he is troubled and at a disadvantage until he finds some alcohol. Once he has had a drink, he immediately starts to successfully flirt with the girl and develop great chemistry with her. To that, the guy he was in competition with bitterly remarks: “Do you believe him? Normally, around women, he has the personality of a boiled potato. Put one beer in him and he’s M. Night Charmalarmalan.” See, in spite of the show’s harsher critics, I’ve long defended it as not being the superficial mockery they purport it to be, and I’ve always been able to have a decent time with it and found it, dare I say, funny. It was this gag, however that changed things for me. It just hit me over this one joke. Why? Why is that funny? Why does that joke work? What do Raj and M. Night Shyamalan have in common to make that joke work? Is M. Night known for being a smooth talker? Is he known for being a ladies’ man? Is he known for being an alcoholic? No to all of the above? So, then the only connection is that they’re both Indian? That’s it? M. Night’s name was the only famous-enough Indian one you were reasonably sure your audience would recognize? That’s all there is to it? Yes. This dude is Indian and, uh, that guy is also Indian, so they’re like, uh, kind of the same, right? Sounds good enough to me. Run it! It's the same kind of cultural ignorance that Makoto Shinkai’s comparison to Hayao Miyazaki is borne of. They’re both Japanese and they both write and direct feature length animated films that make a lot of money. It comes down to nothing more than that. It’s as deep as a puddle. It would be the equivalent of calling every single Hollywood director who makes a moderately successful movie “the next Kubrick” or “the next Coppola”. That being said, to Shinkai’s credit, he’s seemingly always tried to distance himself from the Miyazaki comparison. It’s easy to find interviews in which he states that he not only is no Miyazaki, but that it’s foolish to try and copy him. He has stated in an interview that while Castle in the Sky was the first movie he paid to see at the cinema, and that he’s both a fan and admirer of Miyazaki-sensei, his style has always been pointedly different and not really comparable at all. Just in case we’re keeping track, he is indeed correct in saying that. Which then begs the question, why did he renege on all of that and make a Miyazaki rip-off? I mean, Children Who Chase Lost Voices is still arguably a Shinkai film at the end of the day, seeing as trains and shots of feet have made it into this movie, as well, but his signature identity is so faint, it’s nothing more than window dressing for an off-brand Miyazaki creation. The amount of direct references to Miyazaki’s work, both in the visuals and narrative, reaches an extent that greatly exceeds tribute and enters the realm of plagiarism, but with very little understanding of what to do with the elements it plagiarizes. We have Asuna, our archetypal Ghibli girl protagonist à la Chihiro, who we learn is generically kind, hardworking, curious, and adventurous, as all Ghibli girls are. That’s it. That’s her entire character description and development for the whole movie. She then meets, Shun, her classic mysterious and handsome Ghibli boy, à la Haku or Howl, whose entire point in the story is to be handsome and mysterious. We also learn she has a cute animal pet as a mascot à la Kiki’s Delivery Service, because of course she does. She also has a magic glowing rock à la Castle in the Sky. Then we have the dumb bad guys in uniform representing state violence à la Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Then we have the weirdly unnerving supernatural creatures à la Princess Mononoke. And then we have the aforementioned bad guys in uniforms senselessly destroying that which they do not understand and cannot value à la… basically all of the above. It’s virtually impossible to even enumerate all the little animations and facial expressions which are lifted straight from Ghibli films. However, just because you have access to all the same ingredients as Gordon Ramsey and all the same tools as Gordon Ramsey, son, that don’t make you Gordon Ramsey. The whole thing feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of Hayao-sensei’s work. Sure, Miyazaki films can be quite dark and violent for the standards of family entertainment, but they don’t exactly contain huge blood splatters from some dude chopping monsters in half with his sword, and the dudes with modern military gear and weaponry and helicopters clashed so badly with the film’s fantasy aesthetic, it just took me out of the experience entirely. To be clear, I believe the aesthetic clash was intended, but that does not obviate the calamitous effect it had. I may be harping on the Ghibli comparison a lot, but I feel it is incredibly misguided to wholesale copy the style of a man literally regarded as a god in the domain of animation. As an adult, I would posit that it’s entirely possible to have a decent time with the movie. For one thing, the background art and a lot of the visuals are breath-takingly beautiful, and for another, there’s really nothing offensively bad in it. I didn’t hate it. It just did not speak to me – at all. The closest thing I can liken it to is Tales of Earthsea. That movie was written and directed by Gorou Miyazaki, Hayao-sensei’s son. It is Ghibli’s worst rated film, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that consensus. It’s just as long and similarly slow, but Tales of Earthsea is a Ghibli film made by someone who understands the essence of Hayao-sensei’s work and decided to take it a different direction. Children Who Chase Lost Voices is a Ghibli film gone wrong made by someone who does not understand the essence of Hayao-sensei’s work, but attempts to imitate it anyway. All of that is to say that if you’re in the camp that hated Tales of Earthsea, you’ll hate this even more. Still, the film was a critical and commercial success, even if it doesn’t come up often when people talk about Shinkai-sensei’s work, so maybe you’ll see in it the same entertainment value that so many of his fans clearly did.

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo / Children Who Chase Lost Voice is more than just an adventure movie. If you are looking for more than an adventure and action movie, this movie is for you. The movie is full of profound messages about life, death. It is a path to self-discovery. The film goes much further than a simple adventure to a new land, it is more a film to analyze and understand strong concepts that we often ask ourselves and do not understand. Furthermore, history is full of color. Asuna's character is well developed throughout the story, in conjunction with the other characters. However, the movie has some flaws, is somewhat slow in terms of the development of the plot, or fails a bit in the main motif of some characters. Despite all this, this does not make it a bad or unpleasant movie at all. I recommend, it is something a little different

I’m a big fan of Makoto Shinkai’s work. When I first saw Voices of a Distant Star in the early 2000s, I was amazed by how beautiful and touching it was, especially when considering that Shinkai initially did everything other than the music and female voice acting himself. The Place Promised and 5 Centimeters then showed growth for Shinkai as a director and displayed what he could do with a higher budget and more fleshed out staff. Fast-forward about a decade and I was blown away by Your Name when I saw it during its US theater run and it immediately became my #1 favorite standalone anime movie. However, there were two big holes in my consumption of Shinkai’s work which I recently finally filled. The Garden of Words was a simple yet wonderful addition to Shinkai’s filmography, becoming my second favorite of his work. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about my feelings towards Children Who Chase Lost Voices. Before I watched Children Who Chase Lost Voices (Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo) I had pretty low expectations, but also had hope that it’d at least be a fun and pretty fantasy story. I’d heard many people describe this as being Shinkai’s attempt to create a Ghibli/Miyazaki-style movie and sadly that may have put an unfair bias in my head by the time I viewed it, especially since I’m kind of “over” my old love for Miyazaki’s work. But I did my best to go in with as open of a mind as I could and this movie still came out as my least favorite of Shinkai’s major works. Maybe even my least favorite of ALL of his works. I mean, at least his animated commercials are over quickly. But before I go too far here, let’s get into my category breakouts: -----Story - 4 out of 10----- What is there to say about the story? Well, I was rather bored throughout most of it. The setting is modern Japan maybe around the 1980s? There is also a fantasy world that is under the surface. A girl meets a boy from that world after encountering a fantastical beast and falls in love pretty quick. This eventually triggers a journey for her within the fantasy world below with her substitute teacher at her side. They meet some people and bad creatures along the way to reach a particular goal dealing with bringing the dead back to life. And that’s mostly it. It’s a rather basic story that is stretched out over a nearly 2-hour runtime and I could really feel it. The pacing of the story was mostly decent for what it was, but it didn’t have much momentum or feel like there was much meaning or feeling behind what was going on. Unlike Shinkai’s other work, I didn’t feel any personal weight behind the relationships between the characters or their feelings overall which is really odd. The theming and connection between scenes just felt off during the entire movie. There was also some integration with real-world history (such as Hitler) which felt very awkward. By the end I just didn’t care and there wasn’t any kind of payoff to tie everything together. I just couldn’t get into this. -----Art - 8 out of 10----- The main shining light of this movie. At least it was pretty overall. However, this is when the blatant similarities between this and Miyazaki films begins. The movie largely looks like it’s trying to emulate an older more classic style with its art and designs. I’ll get more into this in the “Characters” section, but most of the characters and creatures can be seen as nearly direct analogs to those in Miyazaki works. And while the art and animation is overall pretty, it honestly feels a little flat compared to Shinkai’s past work as well the works he seemed to have been inspired by. -----Sound - 5 out of 10----- For the most part, things just felt serviceable in the sound department. The voice acting was good overall and the music sounded alright. However, while the score sounded fine on its own, it also felt very intrusive at times. Whenever there was a big artistic shot of a landscape, a big epic booming yet generic-sounding section of the score would call out almost like a laugh track in a sitcom, like it was yelling at you saying, “Hey! This scenery is meant to be awe-inspiring! Be in awe!!” But unfortunately, it just didn’t have the desired effect with me. As mentioned in the “Art” section, while the visuals were pretty, they also felt a bit flat and I didn’t ever really feel that “awe” and the score seemed to try too hard to force the effect. While Tenmon’s music worked well for Shinkai’s previous movies, I felt like he was a bit over his head in scoring an epic tale and I’m kind of glad that Shinkai’s subsequent works used different people for the music. -----Characters - 5 out of 10----- In general the characters feel a bit empty. I rarely cared about them, although there were a few genuinely decent moments of emotional manipulation. But when it comes to the characters, this was the most obvious homage(?) to Miyazaki works. So here’s a quick rundown of characters from this movie as Miyazaki character analogs: Asuna was essentially a copy of Satsuki from Totoro with a touch of Nausicaa. Shun was business-casual Howl. Mimi was a total rip-off of Teto from Nausicaa. Pretty much all of the other creatures felt derivative in some way to things from Princess Mononoke. Shin was mostly a copy of Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. And Morisaki-sensei was pretty much a combination of Jigen and Zenigata from Lupin III. I could probably draw more comparisons, but there are a few Miyazaki films that I haven’t watched, probably the most relevant being Castle in the Sky (I tried to watch it once but fell asleep, sorry). But yeah, while the characters had a few nice moments, they were very few and far between and drawing comparisons to Miyazaki characters is probably the most fun thing about them. -----Enjoyment - 6 out of 10----- So my personal enjoyment score (what I put on my actual anime list) ended up being a 6. I was originally going to give it a 7, but after thinking about it for a bit, that felt far too generous. Hell, even a 6 here feels a little generous. Again, while the visuals were rather pretty in general and there were some good moments, I was mostly bored throughout the movie. I didn’t get much of an emotional connection to the story or the characters and I really felt the time that I stent watching this movie. I still have some appreciation for what Shinkai did here and the fact that he tried something very different from his usual stuff, but it didn’t really stick the landing. -----Overall - 5 out of 10 (Conclusion)----- That brings me to the final overall score of a resounding “Meh.” While this is an interesting piece of work at times and it is indeed pretty (I’m really milking that aspect of this film), it just doesn’t make for much of a cohesive or interesting story overall and doesn’t have strong enough characters to carry it either. Again, I still appreciate this for being a piece with which Shinkai is trying something different and I think it helped him grow as an artist, but as an isolated work there just isn’t much here to love. It is easily my least favorite of his films and I am glad that he went back to something simpler and to his strengths when he made The Garden of Words. Maybe someone who is a bigger fan of Miyazaki works can appreciate this more, or maybe they would dislike it just as much because they’d see it as derivative? But if you’re a fan of Shinkai’s other works, I’d personally say this can be one that you skip unless you’re a completionist.

It's really trying to be a Miyazaki film, and on some levels, totally accomplishes this, and on others, completely misses the mark. It's good and entertaining for a first time watch and I'd recommend it, but after the conclusion, you realize there was a LOT of unresolved plot points that you really wish would be resolved, especially a major one involving the overall fate of the magical world the story takes place in, which is left completely up in the air, as the main characters are completely unconcerned with this...which I suppose is fair, considering they went there for a purpose, and not every person would realistically become the hero. Rather our characters just have themselves a personal adventure and are done with it. The ending as well, while acceptable, leaves a bit wanting, as some details of it don't line up with what you would expect or hope for. All told still, I still was well enough entertained throughout and don't regret my time spent on it, and would recommend it to others.

So it has been quite sometime since I've did a review so bear with me ^^; Its as ofv now 12:29am as I'm typing this lol and I've just finished rewatching this amazing film a fifth time, let's get this done! If you are familiar with Shinkai Makoto's work, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo shares many elements common to his previous films. His tendency to use comparatively flat characters set in a stunningly rendered world; a story about the ephemeral connections between humans; and a gentle, non-invasive, soundtrack are all well represented here. The level of polish in this film seems evident of Shinkai's maturing talent as a story-teller in the medium of animation, and reminds me of some of the best works from Ghibli. In particular, I was encouraged that in comparison to his last two films (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Bashou and Byousoku 5 Centimeter), Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo does not rely on narration as a means of expressing the thoughts and feelings of his protagonists. As much as I enjoyed those films, it is difficult in the best of circumstances to properly translate feelings into one language. Their re-translation into english left me thinking that I was listening to particularly emo livejournal entries at times. The only place I felt this failed him was in establishing the depth of the relationship between Asuna and Morisaki. I won't be providing a synopsis. I am a firm believer that the story is far less important than how it is told. I will say that in contrast to what I expected, this is very much in the genre of adventure movies. The themes of love and loss are still present, but their emphasis in the film overall was far more subtle than I had anticipated. While I think that it made the film more entertaining than his previous works, I must admit that upon reaching the end of Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo I did not feel the emotional rawness that Shinkai's previous works have left me with, and I find that I miss it but overall I really recommend it!

I feel im being nice with this score 6, since this movie is boring. This is a ghibli wanna be, a ghibli withouth sustance movie. I can use this movie as an example on how nowdays anime care so much about aesthetics over plot, just cuz something is beautiful doesnt mean not to care about the writing . Art: 10/10 This is the only reason i continúe to watching this movie, is very beautiful, however its like i was watching a mash Up of a lot of ghibli movies, like howls and laputa , and the valley of the wind desings. Sound: 8/10 nothing special Characters 3/10 Something i love about ghibli movies IS the characters, they are so unique, they have goals, ambition, motivations, and more important, hayao love a female lead, a strong one, all her female character are so rich, so powerfull, this girl did nothing in the whole movie, she needed to be SAVED all the time by all the made lead, and thats so sad, as hayao himself mention, all her characters needs a companion, not a savior, they can save themselves.... This kid, Well she is a kid, but withouth the males she could have been killed several times. The only character with a goal was the teacher, but i didnt feel any conection for him. Story: 1/10 This is the worse part of this movie, feels like a bunch of movies at the same time but is slow and boring, i have to pause It 3 times to be able to end It , is so boring, anime shouldnt be like a burden. No plot, too much exposition, too much "let me explain" instead of showing, the pace is weird , so many questions , feel empty, a nice beautiful aesthetic movie withouth a reason Overal/ enjoyment: 6/10 The good score is for visual, i love them, and IS the only reason i keep watching, but no plot or nice characters to remember, wouldnt reccomend to Anyone, only if the person is mega bored and has nothing else to do with his time

Children Who Chase Lost Voices By: Makoto Shinkai March 29, 2019 Overall: 8.4 Plot: 7 Not looking at the genre of this story, never did I thought that it will show a very different one than what I'd expected it to be. It will catch the viewers attention and incite them to go further through the story. It was fascinating at first. The way every details of it falls and gives more impact on how the story goes, how every information makes their way to be known to their audience is interesting. What I find lacking is its capability to sustain the kind of concept it started. No matter how exciting a story was, the need to justify every bit of information that was shown to the viewer is very very important. The story takes place on a rural area focusing on a girl who has a hobby of searching for sounds on her self created equipment. One day, he met a guy who saved her life and that triggers her to start an adventure in a place known as Agartha. In real life, that place is said to be located in the deepest of earth and the only way to get there is through the North Pole, where there are civilization that is not known to us and a paradise can be experience. Well, not that I know if that is true. The concept of the story is interesting, the overall journey is thrilling. But yeah, the unanswered questions and loopholes will left you hanging. Characters: 8 Asuna is a brilliant student with a hobby of climbing up mountains everyday to pick up sounds on her equipment. She is an independent one, in terms of houseworks and studies. She does things by herself and got suddenly attached by someone who saved her life. Along the story, it show how rash she can be with her decisions and just go with the flow. Thus, perfectly matches the age of her character. The other character that came along with her in the journey has much more conviction and purpose. He has a reason and will to stand against anything that will cross their way, just to have that thing he wanted the most and that is what makes him the best character for me. The thing about the other characters are the explanation on why they've done something in the first place. The lack of information makes them senseless and made their appearance just a part of something insignificant. Sound and Animation: 10 The classical music at the start of the story is breathtaking. It was full of emotions and it feels like the scenario itself is inviting you on their world. It was so good to hear. With the voices of the characters matches their expressions, it was a great watch. Since this anime is an old one, the expectation on the animation is not too high. But the action scenes on it, the way it portrays the character, and the uniqueness of every other entities existing on the story is way too magnificent that you won't remember that this was created a long time ago. Enjoyment: 9 Watching science fiction is life. It is great to see things that have even a slight chance of existing. It is great to think that somewhere, a different entity, species, place that we don't know of exist. I love the genre of the story and how their adventure take them to places they believe exists and see that they are correct. Though there are some invalid actions and explanations, the whole adventure thing is cool and fun to watch. Ending: 8 How the story ended is way too unrealistic even if the genre of the story itself is science fiction. Stories don't have a happy ending just because they want to. There are things that does not add up and that makes the ending too fairytale like. The one thing that caught my attention is the climax of the story which is unexpected, due to the fact that it comes out from something common. It will intrigue the viewer since they will think that they know and already predicted how the twist goes but it will fail them, and that is where the uniqueness came from.

"Children who chase lost voices" is by far one of my favorite movies/animes, the lead role(Asuna) is one everyone can relate to, and though she seems like a bright and happy girl on the outside, she is however very lonely on the inside and is very often alone, i (personally) quite like this concept, and i think it is way better personal dilemma, rather than for an example, "A girl whom both parents died trying to protect her from the evil ones" or "A girl is abused at home by both her parents and has nowhere to go since she (By the way) also is bullied", and i (again) personally thinks that the makers of the anime, makes you feel the emotions that the characters are feeling at the given moment. I think that "Children who chase lost voices" is an anime that every anime lover should at least watch once.

Its a good movie, but not great. It has pacing issues, and wouldn't suffer from an extra half hour of footage. The only real problem that I have is that Asuna falls for Shun/Shin in almost no time, again its a pacing issue. Other than that, it was a great movie, not quite on par with Spirited Away, its close relative, but satisfying and entertaining nonetheless. Interesting plot, mythology, enemies, and a good feeling that this is exactly what I would do in Asuna's place, in that things are in motion way beyond her level of understanding and she is merely whisked along, doing what she believes to be right all the way. Overall, its two hours that is worth your time

How do you see Ghibli movies with a touch or Makoto Shinkai's artwork? Basically, this movie does that. With an art and animation of Makoto Shinkai we known of, and the fairy-tale-like story of Ghibli, this movie does its best with stunning visual and animation quality. Eventhough the story were not on the same level as Ghibli's, this movie does has a touching story and a linear story which simple to understand. Art: 10 Absolutely stunning visual quality. From the start until finish, you will be amazed by the quality of background and animation, and that lighting, so amazing. Sound: 9 The entire sound quality were top notch. Every moment on the movie accompanied by a great music scoring and sound detail is so brilliantly executed. Character: 8 The character of this movie, if I should dare to say, were average. There's no character which I find likable, even the main protagonist. Overall, I find this movie entertaining enough, especially that background and animation.Just don't put up too much hope this movie will be on the same level as Ghibli's work.

Makoto Shinkai is back! His prior work, 5 Centimetres per Second, was superb. It was moving, it had a moral story. I could relate to it. I absolutely loved it. And this new work is going to have the same effect on me! ...or so I thought. It certainly looked like Makoto Shinkai. It sounded like a Makoto Shinkai work. But it wasn't Makoto Shinkai. Let me explain. Art [10/10]: It can definitely be recognised from the art that it is a Makoto Shinkai film. The detailed depictions of the town and surroundings gave way to stunning vistas that reach far into the distance as I entered another world. The quality of the drawings was sustained throughout the film, and the art helped immerse me into the environment. If you like eye candy, you don't need to read any further in this review. Watch it now. Sound [10/10]: Tenmon's musical score once again complemented the art beautifully, blending in inconspicuously to further emphasize the mood of the world and the events that occur. The calm music gently moves to sharps and flats as intriguing and suspenseful aspects of the story were told. Silence was well used in appropriate places, and sound effects were used in varying degrees depending on the scene, to induce a sense of normality in the world as well as to raise suspense when it is needed. To enjoy the sound and art is enough reason to watch Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo. However, the character development and storyline would definitely leave you thinking "so... what now?" by the end of the film, detracting from the superb imagery that has become typical of Shinkai works. Story [3/10]: When watching the film, one can clearly distinguish the different direction that Shinkai took when creating the storyline; simply by recognising that the theme of 'distance' is missing. Instead of a story about separation, time, distance, this focuses on memory and 'saying goodbye'. And this deviation is one of the points where the problem stems from. Shinkai's expanding the genre of his anime by mixing other elements into it, and it's not working well. -Comparison with Ghibli A girl gets in touch with another world, one different from the one she knows. She has a cat. There's monsters that serve to preserve the nature of the world. Sounds like a blend of Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke. Hey look! Even the theme of human pollution of the environment is there! Sounds like Ghibli. OK. Ghibli storylines are good, so that's not the problem. But this film tries to mix all these different aspects and themes into two hours, and this dilutes the message. I can't say that this film is about environmental conservation, even though messages about that are in there. I can't say that this film is about farewells either, even though messages about that are in there. There's a lack of focus or central theme. This is coupled with the lack of immersive features to convey suspense, grief, or other emotions that can be found in many Ghibli films. Sound was well executed, but anime techniques like vectors, shadows, camera angles and shots proved to be reinforcing Shinkai's trademark visuals rather than reinforce the story. Therefore, we can deduce this doesn't qualify as a 'Ghibli film'. - Comparison with Shinkai So let us revert to the elements that made 5 Centimetres per Second so great. 5 Centimetres per Second focused on the lives of two people. We see their relationship develop then wither as the couple unsuccessfully tries to cling on emotionally to each other. Everything in the world was real and believable. The plot can actually occur in the real world, and this reality was essential in it becoming a "tear-jerker" film. We got to know the characters, and we got to see both sides of how they separate. Now apply this to Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo. Four central characters: Shun, Shin, Asuna, the Sensei. Asuna has met Shun for one day. There's no way they could be attached emotionally to one another. 10 minutes into the film we see a supernatural monster. This makes it not a 'Shinkai film'. The seemingly random mix of Ghibli and Shinkai elements is the film's demise. There's a lack of a complication in the film, which in return leads to no resolution. By the end of the film, I thought "so... what now?". And I don't think Shinkai or Asuna know either. Ask Asuna herself (quote from film): Asuna: "I'm also going!" Morisaka sensei: "Why?..." Asuna: "Well... I don't know" Well, if she doesn't know what she's doing in the film, then nor do I. The lack of direction in the plot shines through in the scenes: the story does not cover both sides of the attempts to speak to 'the dead' - we never see what Asuna says. And that's probably because, well, there's nothing to say. What is there to say to someone who you talked to for a day and will never meet again? However, Asuna's story is supposed to be the one we're following - since she is the first character introduced to us. The conclusion seems to be carelessly tacked on in order to finish the film. The plot of the film really doesn't allow the film to reach its full potential. Character [3/10]: The film is set up to be a classic Ghibli shoujo story - a young girl goes on an adventure, possibly to a different world, and gathers courage and friendship, changing along the way to reach a grand goal. So let us talk about Asuna (the shoujo) first. Asuna - Clearly, the Shinkai shoujo is supposed to be different from a Ghibli shoujo. In a Ghibli film, Shun's disappearance and Asuna's knowledge that she may see him again would be a catalyst for Asuna's determination, leading her on a grand adventure that helps her grow and realise her qualities - like a bildungsroman. However, Asuna clearly has no idea what she is doing - even after reaching another world. She even says so. Instead of holding leadership qualities, she follows her teacher until the end. She never grows. She never changes. She's dull and boring. Her reliance on others doesn't allow us to learn anything about her, and hence we're not attached to her in any way. Shun - He's heroic because he saves Asuna. And that's probably all we know about him, since he only appears for a few minutes at the start of the film, and for an even shorter timeframe at the end of the film. This is despite his status as one of the main characters in the plot. Shin - So he blindly follows orders from his village, he misses his brother, and he may be a bit attached to Asuna. But what are his qualities? We don't know. The film doesn't show us. It seems like he's just a plot device to get Asuna out of undesirable situations. Morisaki the teacher - conversely, we know about him the most. We have flashbacks of his backstory, we know where his motivation stems from, and we understand why he wants to achieve his goal no matter what the means. However, he's a minor character. He makes his introduction later in the film, when we have affixed the protagonist status onto Asuna and Shun. The storyboard design also followed Asuna instead of Morisaki in situations where they are separated. It seems like the film was originally centred on Morisaka, then bits were placed at the beginning and end, and editing done, in order to make the film fit into the stereotypical Ghibli 'shoujo' film. Conclusion: The film tries to blend elements of Ghibli, a successful animation studio, into the established Shinkai story. This in itself is not bad, but poor planning and execution leaves us with a seemingly half-hearted story without emotional impact, moral lessons or substantial themes. The art, however, is on par with if not exceeding Shinkai's other major works. The sound lets the world come alive. In short, it is still an enjoyable film, despite the lackluster plot and character development. Watch it for the art and the sound, but do not expect an engaging story.

WOW watched an anime movie after a long time! And just pointing out, the summary on the main page is not consistent in the contents and isnt convincing enough for attracting more viewers to see the moie.Okay some thoughts on the movie overall: Story [7/10]: The story starts with a girl named Asuna who meets a boy named Shun. He comes from a distant land named Agartha (actually the underworld as its refered to as in the story- though a very beautiful one). He saved Asuna from one of the creatures which had surfaced from that land. They quickly become friends. But soon he disappers (dies). After his disappearance Asuna come to learn about Agartha once again in her school during a lecture from a teacher. She investigates more by reading and also consults the teacher who mentioned about it in class.A series of quick events leads Asuna and the teacher to travel through Agartha. The rest of the story chronicles the experiences of Asuna and the teacher through the land and the purpose of their travel are revelaed. Its a fantasy story ofcourse so things outerworldly were expected. Just that the movie doesnt quiet elaborate on it smoothly. I mean there are gaps and sudden jumps so its a bit hard to sometimes digest why the characters are acting the way they are acting. But overall it wasnt as bad either. Concept of travel though underworld was interesting enough and could have been developed more. Maybe the manga will elaboarte more. Art [10/10]: I am giving this section a full 10 only for the breathtaking sceneries shown throughout the movie. The colours are soft and how to say maybe lucid. Yeah each landscape is like a masterpiece. The mountains, meadows, the skies in particular (I guess the director must really like looking at the sky- both daytime and night time) are just to grand and wonderful. The way the sunrays falling on the ground are pictured in every scene are too good. For the human figures- they were okay I guess. The way they were drawn reminded me of typical ghibli movie human figures. Creature of the underworld have been modelled mostly on different dinosaurs from what i could make out by watching. Other modern day animals were nicely drawn. Sound [7/10]: All voice actors have done excellent jobs and expressed emotions aptly. A bit disappointed in the music cause it was not too audible in the first place. Or maybe I have just missed it cause I was awestruck by the landscaping >.

So this girl sees these monsters and is saved by a boy from the underworld. And she goes there, and she is chased around by some freaks and… WHAT IS THE POINT IN ALL THIS? Disappointed! This is how I felt after I finished this film. Wanna know why? 1) The director Makoto Shinkai is quite famous for his tragic romantic tales. Voices of a Distant Star and 5cm per Second are amongst the few romances even an uncaring bastard like myself enjoyed. So it was reasonable to expect yet another film regarding a tragic romance. Because, duh, Shinkai never made anything else. And to my amazement he now did. And it wasn’t good. 2) The studio Studio Comix Wave is new but has made an impressive work so far. The thing is, with this film it feels like it is trying to rip-off Ghibli Studio instead of trying to find an identity or style of its own. I had to check three times to make sure this WASN’T a Ghibli production. I mean, IT IS SO ALIKE! In my mind there can be only one Ghibli and now I see someone trying to become its copycat? This is an outrage! Yes, pretty damn good visuals and soundtrack, but they all look and sound like a damn robbery from one of the most famous studios around. I couldn’t enjoy the overall film because of it. 3) The story You think the similarities to Ghibli stop only at the visuals? Heck no, the story itself was a mix of various Ghibli works. At the same time it is hardly as captivating as those films, with far less context, complexity, interesting situations, and plot. So not only it is an imitation, it is also a bad one. If you just sit back and think of the plot of the film you will immediately realize how linear, simple, and eventually forgettable it was. 4) The characters Not even one of the characters in the film is memorable or interesting. They all play their generic roles to the fullest yet none of them manage to stand out from their counterparts in a myriad other children fantasy stories. To the most part all you see is the heroine being chased around by monsters and being saved by a handsome fighter from a magical land. It couldn’t get any cornier. I saw fifty times more in the far similar premise of Escaflowne, where everyone there was far more complicating than he appeared to be at first. And in case you try to excuse it by saying this is a movie and not a series to demand drastic character development, then I will reply that in this case a movie should not be full of useless characters. Yet look at this, there is a whole school filled with children, a whole village filled with people, a WHOLE MAGICAL LAND FILLED WITH CREATURES and you get NOTHING out of them. They are just standing there, irrelevant to the main plot, and boring since they are not doing anything. 5) The motivation There is no clear goal for most of the movie. The characters are running around almost apathetically, without really caring or making us care about whatever they want to accomplish. And even when they accomplish it, it feels hollow and pointless, without nothing interesting for you to remember about. There is absolutely no emotional engagement with whatever is going on in it. 6) Plausibility Furthermore, the movie hardly tries to convince you of whatever happens. Monsters attack our world, the army attacks them with helicopters, and nobody in the surrounding areas besides the heroine takes notice of them. And then the movie ends and she returns and her mother has apparently popped in the story, and she keeps living her life like nothing matters. SO WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THAT? Although most viewers will probably just stare at the cool visuals and vote this a 9 or 10, I am a far harder to please man. I expect emotional engagement, development of the initial concept, some plot twist to be taken back for a few seconds, some characters who manage to escape their stereotype, something that doesn’t feel like a lesser rehash of older productions. Well I got none of the above in this one. It was hollow, boring, and made Makoto Shinkai to look like a failed Miyazaki wannabe when he always had his own style and identity. His specialty always was tragic romances, he was so good at it, he had no reason to stray off to something far more childish and stupid like this. Although he tried to pull of something similar here with the myth of Izanami and Izanagi, he failed completely to make it plausible and engaging. His previous works were all quite realistic to the most part, without silly magical powers to offer panacea to any problem encountered. But this? This is a stupid romantic fairy tale for little girls (yes, girls, not even boys) and one so generic that you will forget as soon as you watch the next generic fairy tale that comes along. Heck, watching a low-budget stupid Barbie 3D movie is more than enough to get over it! COMPLETELY DISAPPOINTED! GO BACK TO REALISTIC ROMANCES SHINKAI! LEAVE BEHIND THESE STUPID MAGICAL LANDS! And above all DON’T TRY TO GROW A BEARD AND ACT LIKE MIYAZAKI! BE YOURSELF!

I'm a big Shinkai fan and have thoroughly enjoyed several of his other works, but honestly if I'd not known this was directed by him I probably wouldn't have ever guessed it. For me this really lacked the heavy interpersonal focus and emotional impact that his other films like 5 Centimeters Per Second, The Garden of Words and Your Name had. This was, as usual for this director, visually lovely and very colorful, and it's a creative fantasy adventure, but overall I just wasn't all that entertained. The characters were not developed and I had no emotional attachment to them whatsoever, the voice performers were very average and only one song in the entire soundtrack stood out to me. I don't think this is a bad film, but I don't think it's anything special either, and for me this is the low point of my Shinkai watching experience. Worth a watch if you're a fan of the director or of the fantasy adventure genre, but meh... I couldn't possibly give it better than a 7.

I struggled with this one. I love Makoto Shinkai and his work, but I didn't really jive with this story. It was beautifully animated and the music fit it perfectly (I really loved the main theme「Hello, Good Bye, and Hello」). Like all Shinkai films, it makes you really appreciate how beautiful the artwork is, but at the same time, you wonder who hurt him in order to produce so many films with either lost or broken love in them. This film also made you think about life and death, as well as human morality. All in all, a good film, but just not one of my favourites.