O Lugar Prometido em Nossa Juventude

Makoto Shinkai is unique in his directing style in that he often places more focus on a character's inner thoughts rather than his or her dialogue and interacting with the environment. While this style has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, Shinkai uses it to his advantage to often show a emotion driven story. Such as is here in "The Place Promised in our Early Days." It is not a good as some of his other efforts, but it is still worth the watch nonetheless. The story is about three friends living in a alternate reality Japan. Japan has been split in have by America who controls the south and "the Union" controlling the north. There is a tower that goes beyond the clouds and the three friends make a promise to go fly up to it using a plane that they salvage and start to repair. One day, one of the friends disappear and story follows the other two friends and how they cope and ultimately try to find and help her. Like I said, the setting is in a alternate history and there are some science fiction influences in the world. However, it does not detract from the highlight which is he story. The first part of the story involves the three friends enjoying their summer. It is so genuine in terms of emotion and the bright lighting and beautiful drawn environments really brings the story to life. The character animations is not the best and the voice acting is OK at best, but the environments themselves are so beautiful that you'll easily forgive the previous complaints. Shinkai excels at portraying emotions of lost and isolation, especially when it involves old friends and lost lovers. It is no exception here. The main character is the most developed here as we hear his inner thoughts the most and his desire to see his lost friend again is interesting. As much as I like this movie, it is hard not to compare it to another Makoto Shinkai film, "5cm per Second." The reason I like that film better is because there was nothing that distracted the main story. It was clear and to the point with nothing distracting. Same can't be said for this movie. There is a lot of background here involving politics and a weird dream/ parallel universe science that gets convoluted and messy and at times, it can get distracting. That being said, if you want a movie with genuine emotion, this is not a bad watch. In a age where anime tends to focus less on story and more and cutesy hi jinks and everyday nonsense of high school students who can't get a girl, "The Place Promised in our Early Years" is a refreshing, emotional, and occasionally beautiful film that won't leave and tears in your eyes, but might leave you staring at the screen even after the credits start rolling.

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.

While a popular anime, I find that the title (The Place Promised in Our Early Days) is more interesting than the slow, plodding script. Many will find this film unmoving and uneventful.

The animation is so-so. In only one scene (a mountain background with mist) was I impressed; otherwise it's very typical. I'm honestly surprised by the number of reviews stating this is "beautiful". It's really simply not that impressive animation-wise. I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

The characters are largely undeveloped. The plot line is simple and mono-directional, without much in the way of suspense, surprise or emotional impact. There are no highs or lows, no real climax to the film, and the ending is weak.

I am a fan of anime and very much enjoy artistic anime. I don't need giant robot battles in order to enjoy a film-- and enjoy many aspects of the drama genre where story is as important as the animation itself. But this work struck me as mediocre in all aspects. I do appreciate that some may enjoy the (very)subdued romantic aspect, but I found it as undeveloped and uneventful as the rest of the work.

As would be expected I give it 5 stars. Neither impressive nor bad... just a slow-moving story, weak plot line and so-so animation.

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

Approaching this from the perspective of a sci-fi enthusiast, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, despite the complexity of its theories on divergent realities and their harmonic coexistence with dreams, there was a far simpler coming-of-age story that centered on a childhood promise. The score is haunting. The visuals and animation are stunning and the characters are charmingly awkward. Although there are some action sequences and a pint of blood thrown in for measure, the film's pace is decidedly that of a romantic reflection on loneliness and bittersweet affection. In the end, the story telling is adequate, but viewers who were eager to be exposed to fantastic alternate universes will be disappointed.