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REVIEW: The Place Promised in Our Early Days DVD

It is the best animated movie released in America through the first seven months of 2005, and since it has had a (very) limited theatrical release it is more deserving of a nomination for 2005’s Academy Award for Best Animated Film than Howl’s Moving Castle.

for some reason they can’t seem to animate Sayuri right. She looks very awkward and unnatural in a couple of scenes where she is shown running, and a couple of other brief shots where she is talking to the boys look very jerky.

What does The Union expect to gain from what it’s doing with its tower, for instance? And wouldn’t the sleeping Sayuri be held under much tighter security and surveillance given how important she supposedly is?

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What does The Union expect to gain from what it’s doing with its tower, for instance? And wouldn’t the sleeping Sayuri be held under much tighter security and surveillance given how important she supposedly is?

Having seen this when it first came out, these points are covered.

The Tower is an unknown quantity. Since the Union is the enemy, no one on the Japanese side knows what will happen when the tower is activated nor what the Union expect to happen.

As for Sayuri - Her link to the tower is only identified later in the story. When the Link is confirmed, the Military prepare to transfer her to a secure site.

Hope this clears these points up^_^

JBV^_^

It just seems to exist for the sake of doing something really weird and cool rather than for any practical reason.

Like the scene where spoiler[Takuya pulls a gun on Hiroki and complains about childish dreams, but willingly helps him anyway?]

Wow, you sound jaded, AuraShadow. Besides having some of your facts about VODS wrong (and the Theory of Relativity has nothing to do with this, since travel by space warps are involved), I think you're entirely missing the point of both. These are stories about people making heartfelt connections across great boundaries, not about sensible behavior.

You also grossly underestimate the sometimes-annoying ability of humans to emotionally hold on to things long after their times have past. Read newspaper advice columns sometimes; people who pine for lost loves even decades after the relationship ended, and those who have trouble letting go of relationships despite years of separation, aren't all that unusual. In VODS, Noboru did try to move on after not hearing from Mikako for more than a year, but when her message did finally come, and he realized that she hadn't given up on him but had instead just run into time lag issues, it clearly brought back a powerful flood of emotions. That he would commit himself to waiting more than eight years for her next message isn't so unbelievable.

As for Mikako, do keep in mind that only a short time has passed for her in between messages, so her feelings are as fresh and strong as ever. It's also well-documented that people deeply in love often don't think rationally about what's best for themselves or for their loved ones; it doesn't surprise me at all that recent scientific studies have shown that fresh, intense love can affect the brain in much the same way as highly addictive drugs.

If, after considering this, you decide that VODS and Place Promised aren't your cup of tea, that's fine; there's a lot of other anime out there. I think you'll find, though, that my comments in the review about VODS being "much-beloved" aren't an exaggeration, and there is a reason for that. Both of these titles strike to the heart of many a viewer.

Key wrote:

Wow, you sound jaded, AuraShadow. Besides having some of your facts about VODS wrong (and the Theory of Relativity has nothing to do with this, since travel by space warps are involved), I think you're entirely missing the point of both. These are stories about people making heartfelt connections across great boundaries, not about sensible behavior.

I'm refering to the basic theory that time moves slower in space than it does on earth, thus he grows older as she stays the same.

Which happened. The guy was a lot older than the girl was by the time she got back, IIRC.

And besides, not all romances have to "make sense." Take one of the quintessential romances of literature, Romeo and Juliet. If you want to nitpick sense, that romance makes no sense. Just how stupid do people have to be in order to make the asinine mistakes that they did?

But that's not the point. The point is, their romance (even though they had only briefly been introduced!) was so strong and so clinching that it transgressed all "sense" and into pure desire and love.

Authors have said time and time again that love is reckless, and people do stupid things for love, and jump through a million hoops for love. There's plenty of great romances (and real cases IRL) where people can meet for but a few minutes and devote the next few years of their life to meeting up with that person again.

Okay, so maybe Shinkai's characters are reckless and dumb, but does that matter? His stories revolves around not so much romance between kids, but of unbroken promises and vows stronger than can be broken by wars, time, and logic. People can "move on" anytime they want, but when they stick fast to a promise that they made without knowing at all if the other person will ever reciprocate-- that's fascinating, and that's moving, and that's what makes a boring love story multidimensional and riveting.

As for not making scientific sense, shoot, it's anime. When has anime ever made scientific sense? People jumping onto rooftops in one bound? Giant robots without a stable center of balance driven by unseen fuel sources defying all sorts of laws? Magical girls?! Hell, anime has never made sense, and for that matter, with the exception of Asimov and Heinlein, science fiction has never made sense. (And you mentioned Fushigi Yuugi. How in the hell does that make logical sense?)

Shinkai's stories are more than just scientific logic and schoolyard romances. His stories are about people who are so dedicated to their promises and their dreams that they're willing to throw their lives to the wind, do senseless things, and be illogical. That's something that makes his stories unique, and that's what makes Voices of a Distant Star and A Place Promised so much more than helter-skelter romances between two illogical twerps.

Having these 2 people that just won't let, especialy if they're in a situation where they know they won't see each other in at least a desent amount of time.

You can still be in love with someone, but not seeing them for years is no excuse to close yourself off and be depressed ( Kawaii-radio.net is playing "The Rose" by Sowelu right now, toally romance song as I write this lol) Life is too short to make is sad because of your attachment to ONE person. Wasting it waiting for someone isn't devotion, it's stupidity.

I never once said that animes had to make scientific sense, but the characters having a brain would be nice.

AND I'M A 16 YR OLD GIRL! I'm supposed to like this stuff based on my gender!

Why makes characters, who REFUSE TO LET THINGS GO!? Stupidest Ideal I have EVER heard of.

Life is too short to make is sad because of your attachment to ONE person.