Voyage vers Agartha

"Your Name" ended up being one of my favorite movies of last year, and one of my favorite anime of all time, so I went into this film with relatively high expectations, and as a result, I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong; this movie has a lot of things going for it. I loved the melancholic, almost lazy piano music that plays for the majority of the film- it creates a magical atmosphere that works wonders with the animation style and overall arc of the story. The way that characters and creatures are designed is memorable, and sometimes it's even a little bit frightening and bizarre, but that totally worked for me. The landscapes are beautiful and sometimes strange (though we never quite reach the level of artistic mastery that came with "Your Name"). There were some parts where I really felt for the characters, and then there were other times when I was quite bored.

Since Hoshi no koe I've been a big fan of Makoto Shinkai and I always find his movies so beautiful that make him the only anime producer who is comparable with Miyazaki Hayao. For his latest work "Children who chase voice from deep below", the story settings and the characters are quite different from his previous works. The idea is likely inspired by the many old myths like the story of Orpheus, who traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Gods. Yet "Children who chase voice from deep below" keeps on the track with Shinkai's previous works in discussing loneliness of human beings, but unlike "5 centimetres per second", with hope and love this time.

The music, once again, is perfect and the scenes are delicate and tender. When watching this you find yourself immersed in a dream-like situation where the sky and the trees and the world are of the beauty that far beyond your imagination. Shinkai created perfect environments, the moving wind and the colourful insects, every single detail in every single scene is fantastic. The plot line is a romantic imagination. It portrays a journey of finding hope and love after the every loss throughout our life. It's a reflection of life with fantasy elements. To recover from immense sorrow and stand up again and look forward to the future. I love the message the movie brought to me. However, the story does have flaws. The pace of some parts is too slow while of some parts is too fast. It can be explained by looking at the length of the movie, which is of the longest in Shinkai's works. And obviously, he still has to look for better ways to deal with a "long" movie. Besides it is a pity that Shinkai abandons his talent on talking about modern city life but tries to give a tribute to Miyazaki Hayao by duplicating many elements in Ghibli's anime movies. I have this impression because while watching I thought of Miyazaki Hayao's works like "Princess Mononoke" and "Laputa" in several occasions, yet not as good as those works. A good try with rooms for improvement. After all,however, I still love this film. It reminds me of the beauty in our life. I am particularly touched while on the edge of death the girl Asuna recounts every person in her life she is loved by and says, "After all it was only because of my loneliness." It moves me so much that how our every day will be if we treasure the people still beside us instead of looking for someone or something that is so abstract and beyond our reach. If you love Shinkai, go watch it. It is, definitely, a touching piece for all of us.

Blending elements of fantasy, sci-fi & romance into an ambitious coming-of-age tale, Children Who Chase Lost Voices truly astonishes on a technical scale but it's also marred in the storytelling department, for its structure is a mess and the plot is overlong. And the longer it goes, the more tedious it becomes. An extravagant effort from Makoto Shinkai that unfortunately isn't as rewarding as expected.

A coming of age story dealing with Asuka, she is the protagonist of this story, who spends her days alone listening to the mysterious music emitted by an old crystal radio, a gift that her absent father gave her as a memento before he died. Attacked by a monstrous creature, rescued by a mysterious boy named Shun and hunted by a relentless enemy,. Asuna will be immersed in an ancient mystery that could be the secret of life itself. It leads the young heroine deep into a hidden world, to a legendary country with several surprises. A journey to say goodbye !. A girl who does not yet realise her loss, and a boy from a foreign land searching for his place !. A man who refuses to accept his loss !. Each with their own feelings in their hearts, they set out on a journey into the depths of the world !.

The beauty of the settings, the characters, maarvellous drawings and the fantasy elements leave no doubt as to why the director has been labeled as the new Hayao Miyazaki. This wonderful film is plenty of fantasy , adventures, drama, spectacular combats and with ecological message . The picture is narrated with sensibility and sense of wonder and quite entertaining. The film has all the necessary elements to be a success among anime fans. It is a story of great fantasy involving young love and a mysterious music with a courageous protagonist who enters a beautiful world full of colorful settings and strange creatures, clearly influenced by Hayao Miyazaki's classic 'Princess Mononoke'. There's also a deep critical about nature exploiting and disasters and rampage caused by the encroaching human civilization. With an impressive quality of colors and animation, this is one of the best anime of 2011. A fantastic journey to a parallel world, Shinkai directs this fable that connects the most earthly part of nature with the most mystical part.

It is inevitable to compare the style of the film with that of Hayao Miyazaki and his Ghibli studio, of which Shinkai confesses to having always admired it. In addition, the music composed by Tenmen, a friend and regular collaborator of the director, stands out. The motion picture was professional and stunningly directed by Makoto Shinkai After spending a year in London, Makoto returned to Japan with renewed energy to undertake a new film project that would follow in the footsteps of his previous ones. Focusing on the loss of loved relatives, he also explored the ways in which we can overcome this loss. Unlike in other works, in which Shinkai himself created a novel version, here he opted for two different adaptations in the form of Manga: ¨Journey to Agartha: Children who chase lost voiced from deep below¨ by Tomoko Mitani and ¨Journey to Agartha: Children who come from deep below¨ by Asahi Hidaka. The film was nominated for the award for best animated design at the Asia Pacific 2011, as well as the Golden Raven at the Brussels Fantasy Festival that same year. Hoshi o Ou Kodomo(2011) rating: 7.5/10. Better than average.

Every culture has a story about the Underworld, where the souls of the dead reside and where, sometimes, the living can find their way in hopes of bringing a loved one back to life. In "Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below," Agartha is the name of that Underworld, and when young Asuna (voiced by Hisako Kanemoto) finds herself interacting with a boy from Agartha, Shun (voiced by Miyu Irino), her whole world is changed. Shun saves her from a frightening creature, but then he himself is killed. In the meantime, the substitute teacher taking over for the regular teacher of Asuna's class, Mr. Morisaki (voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue), is all-too-familiar with stories from and about Agartha, and he is determined to get there in order to bring his wife, dead 10 years, back to the world of the living. But the balance of all the worlds depends on such things not happening, and there are many forces arrayed against Mr. Morisaki and young Asuna who has willingly joined him in his quest, for she hopes to find a living Shun. Instead she finds Shun's younger brother, Shin (also voiced by Miyu Irino), whose loyalties and desires are not perhaps favourable to Asuna....

Anime is Japan's version of "cartoons," although they tend to be much more complex and beautiful than Hanna-Barbera ever thought of, and this is one very beautiful piece of work. The images are exquisite and the colours are wonderful, the underworld of Agartha is just as real as the everyday world Asuna initially inhabits. And the storyline, essentially a meditation on letting go of the past while still being free to mourn lost loved ones, is much more resonant for adults than for kids. The writer and director, Makoto Shinkai, has been compared with the great anime master, Hayao Miyazaki, and while those are mighty shoes indeed to fill, Shinkai's work has the same kind of gentleness and beauty; he is surely a talent to watch for in the coming years. A beautiful film, and well worth seeking out.