La Tour au-delà des nuages

Mind-bending sci-fi is a staple of Japanese animation, and many of them are complex in a way that makes them difficult to grasp immediately. This one, though, I really don't think the director has any idea how to tell a story. The film is just never coherent. Not only is its science fiction premise (which deals with alternate universes) never clear, nor its world comprehensibly established, but it's terrible at establishing characters and their relationships to each other. All of the characters are quite thin and clichéd. The artwork is nice(the animation is a bit choppy, though), and the music is pretty (but also occasionally too sappy), but this is an annoying mess of a film.

The director and writer of The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a certain Makoto Shinkai who is otherwise famous for movies like 5 cm Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. He has been hailed as one of the greatest anime directors or even the greatest, up there with legends like Hayao Myazaki. Since I saw his other two movies first and absolutely adore them, it is needless to say that my expectations for this movie were sky high. Simply put, I was not let down. Unlike the other two movies under the same direction, The Place Promised in Our Early Days has a very definite plot with clear dips, rises and climaxes. All in all, it is an exciting story that puts you in the center of a divided Japan with different powers controlling both sides. The plot might seem dry and overused on paper, but it is quite intriguing once you actually see it in action. Also driving the storytelling forward is this movie's sci-fi twist on parallel universes and how certain people react with them. Again, this movie certainly brings around one of the uniquer feeling tales around, even if it doesn't sound it. Anyone who has seen another Makoto Shinkai movie however will be able to tell you though, that it is not the story that makes his movies special, but the characters and the emotion that few movies come close to matching. Although it is still a huge distant beyond any other movie in this respect, the power behind to emotions is probably the weakest of all three movies. Don't get me wrong; you will still find the characters and their relations hauntingly and irresistibly real, but you aren't AS horrified when a character's life suddenly changes for the worse. Still, the feelings of loneliness, desperation, or exuberance, all of which Shinkai is famous for, are still found in their distinct, amazing way. Since this was the second of the three movies, it also seems as though it is a technical middle-step between the OK animation of Voices of a Distant Star, and the truly breath-taking visual found in 5 cm Per Second. The animation will not disappoint you, and there are some truly clever tricks that are used that make it look truly wonderful, but they won't stand out among the best in the industry. The music might just do that however with its beautiful, violin-heavy soundtrack that creates a great ambiance for whatever scene is currently playing. Also, the fact that the violin is featured in the soundtrack is of relevance to the plot, and makes both the character progression and the music appear that much sweeter.

Although I have criticized this movie a lot, for every thing it did wrong, it did a million things right. This still stands with the truly great anime movies out there and is a great watch for any fan of sci-fi influenced plots that will bring a surprisingly personal tone to the story.

This is an anime movie done by a relative newcomer to films: Makoto Shinkai, whose only previous directorial work was a half-hour short called "Voices of a Distant Star," in which he did all the animation himself on one laptop (even for Japan, a nation of workaholics, that was unheard of). It made him so famous that they gave him a full studio to work with for his next project, and when Makoto Shinkai doesn't have the constraints that a solo project would bring, look out.

The style of the film and its sci-fi and fantasy themes is equal parts steampunk and cyberpunk, with the film taking place in an alternate timeline of post-war Japan, only a few years from now. The main differences are the division between the North and South sides of Japan, and the research into parallel universes that has sprung up, resulting in the construction of a massive tower in Ezo (Hokkaido), which understandably captures the imagination and curiosity of the surrounding world.

Though the film is ostensibly a science fiction work, the plot involving a tower and alternate realities and so on plays second fiddle to the romantic drama, about three high school kids torn apart by war. The emotions blend with the fantasy elemts in a way that is handled with incredible elegance, care and sensitivity, and Makoto Shinkai's trademark poetic touch.

But what is more impressive is how the film shows that drama can be achieved through implausible situations. You see, too many directors think that in order to make a film "dramatic" and "touching," it must be about REALISTIC people in a REALISTIC setting having REALISTIC problems with REALISTIC resolutions, but Makoto Shinkai realizes a way around that, and uses a science fiction element not as a platform for action sequences, but rather as a way to achieve a kind of drama that you really couldn't get in a film that takes place in the "real world."

The film is aware that the sci-fi is playing second fiddle to the character drama, and doesn't waste any more time than it needs to trying to explain the film's bizarre sciences or justify the contrivances, rather leaving it up to the viewer to interpret and decipher what the fantasies of the film mean or symbolize. In other words, Shinkai wisely avoids the deathtrap of "Movie Science," and instead allows the audience to take things as they come and explain them ourselves.

The part about two teenagers building a plane that could get past a government-built radar system does seem a bit incredible, but this film does reflect on the incompetence of governments and how easy it is to get past them, so the required suspension of disbelief isn't really that big (I wish I found it hard to believe that a couple of teenagers could get past a bureaucratic governmental system in this day and age at all).

Also, the brief violence and "thrilling" assault on the tower are treated with perfect sincerity. The brief fight scenes are breathtaking in their realism and how they show that when someone gets punched, they get hurt. There are no legendary martial arts techniques or complex laser-rifle technology here, this film is about how people feel about each other and what they do when they are in trouble.

The ending is slightly abrupt and somewhat open-ended (although it is happy), but that is a theme in many anime. A lot is left up to the audience's interpretation and imagination, and the film only answers the questions that really matter.

Makoto Shinkai came back. And this time he is not alone.

'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is a pure and beautiful piece of work. This has probably the most beautiful visuals of all animations that I've seen ('Please Save My Earth' and some others are also beautiful but they all have different characteristics, I must say). Pictures themselves are beautiful, and it is no wonder how people call him the 'magician of light'.

My overall impression of this anime is that it's like a poet but with Sci-Fi to match with it. 'Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no koe)' was quite boring for me honestly. But with a similar structure and image, 'The Place...' seems to deliver much better what Makoto Shinkai wanted to deliver, even though its story is slightly loose here and there.

I do think, however, that it is 'too' consistent throughout - from Makoto Shinkai's authentic poetic and solitary, pure atmosphere to its story/drama, visuals (e.g. lighting), music etc (I must say that sound aspects outside music is not very well done but let's put that aside), pretty much everything. This strengthens the sense of purity this anime represents, but I really think it would be better to have more 'bandwidth' to it, so it can have more dynamics and life in it. It is great how Makoto Shinkai pulled it off gracefully knitted altogether, though. I'd say that 'The Place...' stands on its very own ground, really. I think it is something that's quite different to all the rest, and don't really think it's appropriate to judge this by typical standards.

To hold it together for a much longer period of time, and to do it well, he has effectively implied editing (if I could say that) and careful laying out of the story. But the biggest difference I witnessed from 'The Place...' was how Makoto Shinkai has casted much more characters than before - though characters lack in variety as well. This enriches the story as well as adding complexity and depth to it so you don't get bored out easily.

But after all, it is superb how well Makoto Shinkai has put the whole thing together so well. I was very fascinated and captured while I was watching it - which didn't happen for quite some time. I think this is one piece of work that overwhelms viewers by its beauty and sense of purity.

P.S. Although I can understand how some animatings are not up to the feature animation quality, I personally think it'd be better for Makoto Shinkai to get somebody good to retouch on his characters' faces.

I gave 4 stars just for the art and the music, but I really got bored a lot watching this, the story makes no sense, it's all so dreamy, so epic, the author wants you to deeply feel all this emotions but to me the result it's an hollow movie with hollow character. I've never fallen asleep watching something, but with this I barely succeeded to end it. I definitively suggest not to watch it, there are so many other beautiful anime to see out there. One thing I've enjoyed is the artwork, the landscapes are really intense and make you dream, but also there sometimes there is too much over production, too many light effects, it seems like a punch in the eye. And I hate when authors use science fiction in this way, by throwing here and there some gibberish theory and then making a mess with a convoluted plot, so that people at the end can say that it leave you with the freedom to interpret it, I find this technique over abused lately, and by the way I've never seen using it so badly like in this case