Makoto Shinkai’s latest effort once again shines through with its fantastic animation and art direction, but perhaps for the first time, comparisons with a certain Studio Ghibli director start to make sense as Shinkai makes his first foray into the fantasy-adventure genre.
High school teenager Asuna Watase (voiced by Hisako Kanemoto), who spends her days listening to music through a crystal radio her father left her, encounters the mysterious Shun, who saves her from a monster attack. Shun claims to be from a faraway world called Agartha. When he is discovered dead a few days later, Asuna, together with her teacher Ryuuji Morisaki (Kazuhiko Inoue), encounters Shun’s twin brother, Shin (Miyu Irino voices the twins), and is soon swept into a journey to Agartha in an attempt to find some answers. It is soon revealed that Asuna might be more closely connected to the world of Agartha than she thinks…
Makoto Shinkai, director/writer/producer of films like Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimetres Per Second, is well-known for the gorgeous animation in his films and Children Who Chase Lost Voices certainly doesn’t disappoint. Shinkai and the production team from Comix Wave once again outdo themselves with the film’s awesome background art and great animation. Notable scenes include the rural Japanese mountain landscape where protagonist Asuna regularly spends her time in, a fight scene early on in the film, as well as the entrance to the “The Gate of Life and Death” in Agartha, Finis Terra.
Regular Shinkai collaborator, Tenmon, once again takes charge of the film’s music. While he does a decent job in setting the tone for the film, none of the tracks are particularly memorable (or at any rate, overwhelmed by the visual eye-candy that is the film).
For any successful anime film director, it is perhaps inevitable that they will eventually be compared with Studio Ghibli co-founder/director Hayao Miyazaki, who seems to be the standard for which anime film (or any sort of animated film, for that matter) directors should aspire to. With Shinkai’s first foray into the fantasy-adventure genre, it now becomes unavoidable. Whether purposefully or not, the film seems Ghibli-esque or at the very least, Ghibli-inspired. This is especially so when looking at the design for the world of Agartha and its creatures.
The world of Agartha might be Ghibli-inspired but the characters in the film are certainly something more unique to Shinkai. Shinkai’s films typically deal with romance, relationships and loss, and Children Who Chase is certainly no different. The motivations behind Morisaki-sensei’s obsession with the afterlife, as well as his desire to travel to Agartha is revealed early on in the film to be his desire to revive his dead wife. For Shin, it seems he is the typical “younger sibling trying to escape from older sibling(s) shadow”-type character. Considering this, the film’s Japanese title “Hoshi o Ou Kodomo”, which translates to Children Who Chase Stars, actually makes more sense considering the theme and feel of the movie (with stars in the film being representative of people’s lives).
Female lead Asuna unfortunately doesn’t seem to be able to establish herself as a lead character (not an assertive one at any rate), at times seemingly only playing the role of the typical damsel in distress (albeit one who is trying to get over her own experiences of losing someone dear to her, as per the theme of the movie). This is, perhaps unintentionally, one of the weaknesses of Shinkai’s films. The females in most of Shinkai’s films tend not to go beyond serving as plot devices or side characters.
While the film’s plot may be somewhat predictable, it is very well executed. Shinkai deftly weaves the emotions and motivations of the three lead characters into a moving story which explores the concepts of love, loss, grief and moving on from the loss. Those looking for a tearjerker won’t find one here though, as the film’s characters, especially Asuna, provide enough optimism into the film to prevent if from falling totally into kleenex-grabbing territory.
Despite the atypical characters and predictable plot, the gorgeous animation and beautiful background scenes more than make up for these weaknesses. This might not be Shinkai’s best film, but it certainly is the best looking one so far. Highly recommended for fans of the fantasy-adventure genre, and for fans of Studio Ghibli, this film is something to tide you over till the next Ghibli epic comes along (which at this point, looks to be Isao Takahata’s adaptation of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter).
Rating: 8.0/10
Note: I watched the movie at last month’s Comic Fiesta 2011 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here are the obligatory shots of the audience…
Tags: Anime, awesome animation, Ghibli-clone, Makoto Shinkai, Movie, Review
