The Place Promised in Our Early Days - Seattle Weekly

• Media Source:Seattle Weekly
• Reviewed By:Bill White
• Review Date:06/17/05
• Read the original review click here

In this alternate history of post-WWII Japan, the country has been divided between The Union and the United States. Three teenagers from the American side dream of building and flying a plane to the mysterious tower across the border. Several years later, as a terrorist attack on the tower is being planned to provoke a war, their childhood dream is fulfilled, and its full meaning revealed. Shinkai Makoto, who made the 30-minute 'Voices of a Distant Star' by himself on a laptop computer, has written and directed an anime that favors human emotions over robot battles. With a broad palette ranging from light and airy watercolors to monochromatic gloom, Makoto paints a coming-of-age fairy tale that combines Sleeping Beauty with quantum physics. The musical score by Tenmon uses sparse violin and piano to heighten the loss-of-innocence theme. Although not in a league with classics such as 'Castle in the Sky' and 'Grave of the Fireflies,' this tale of people who are afraid to wake up lest they lose their dreams is a cut above such recent anime disappointments as 'Howl's Moving Castle' and 'Steamboy.' (Bill White)

GRADE: B+

Posted on Friday, June 17, 2005 (Archive on Sunday, July 17, 2005)