Forum - View topicKumo no Mukou, a.k.a. "Makoto Shinkai is a god"
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3791 Location: Montreal |
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Ever since I saw the gorgeous pilot/trailer for Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho I've been wanting to see it. Since it just came out on DVD (in Japan), I just had to go buy it today (I still can't believe I missed the theatrical release).
After watching it, I can only say... Oh My God! Perfect. Pure Joy. Just imagine Shinkai's previous work, Voices of a Distant Star, but with better animation, better art, and a longer (90 minutes) story that is more fleshed out but just as intimate and touching. With my beginner-level knowledge of Japanese, I had trouble following the plot about the looming war, the mysterious tower and the scientific experiments involving quantum parallel worlds. But the heart of the story transcends all languages. Even if I hadn't the slightest knowledge of Japanese, I would still be able to understand the story of these three friends that time and circumstances isolated from each other. By simply placing a character within a lavish landscape or cityscape, Shinkai tells us everything there is to tell about the meaning carried by that scene, with dialogue merely complementing the images. Makoto Sinkai has truly mastered the art of saying ten thousand words in one image. In a way I feel very much like I did when I saw Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress in 2001: this director amazed us with a jaw-dropping debut but is he a one-shot wonder or can he pull off something of that magnitude again? And I can answer with a resounding YES! this guy is the real thing. It brings tears to my eyes that there is a new generation of anime directors with such incredible talent. Please somebody get your ass on licensing this jewel, because I feel sorry for every second that US fans are denied the joy of seeing it. |
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Jadress
 Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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God, I saw that trailer so long ago and my friend and I have been dying to see it ever since. Glad to hear that it's as good as it looked! Guess I'll have to wait for it to get picked up or a fansub or something...
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I preordered the R3 release licensed by Proware, which will be shipped on March 9. Those who can read Chinese sub can consider.
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kamiboy
 Posts: 570 Location: CA |
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Is it sad, or touching in a different way?
-- FDA Warning: Taking this person too seriously has proven to cause cancer in clinical trials |
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Ken Hayashi
 Posts: 752 Location: Singapore |
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I've been meaning to get this for a long, long time. I know it's good. And I also know that the boot is available here in Singapore (I've seen it). I'm wondering if I should go buy it since ordering it through the post is just about impossible....
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Although it's near-perfect, the attention to details has various degrees. Some of them are noticeable only by the most hardcore fans (not about anime, but of a specific aspect depicted in the movie), while other parts are way too careless.
The good: 1. The attention paid on railroad facilities, which had appeared in every Makoto Shinkai's film, is truely masterpiece. spoiler[The way automatic doors bounced back a little during opening and closing, the two oxidized and tarnished iron plates above the joint of two cars, the smaller and bumpier 3' 6" narrow gauge (instead of 4' 8.5" standard gauge in Shinkansen, European, and US railroads), and finally, the flow of reflecting light on the ceiling and walls of a car.] This is not something observable by a casual Shinkansen rider who enjoys the speed and comfort of state-of-the-art bullet trains. Even provided with enough time and equipments, 'normal' people would not pay attention to those details. This is only observable by one who has decades-long experience on local diesel cars on distant branch lines and has those images etched in one's heart, in addition to the obsessive love to railed transportation. A railway otaku, to be exact. (And now you can tell what kind of hobby I have other than anime...) 2. The spoiler[shaking of the aircraft caused by high-speed, low-altitude flight is well done. Few people would have paid attention to this effect about the strain exerted by thicker air at sea level on this fragile plane.] The bad: 1. The voice actings of spoiler[two US officers] are simply horrible. Much worse than Donna Burke as Operator of the Lysithea in Voices of a Distant Star, they have typical "dub actor" feeling; their speeches have no emotion or spoiler['military style'] at all. 2. The sound effect of spoiler[Phalanx CIWS is very, very wrong. It has the sound of a single-barreled machine gun (or even a submachine gun), not a 20-mm Vulcan cannon capable to deliver 4000-6000 rounds per minute. Furthermore, it has 6 barrels instead of 4 in the movie.] The ugly: 1. "spoiler[APROACHING to Pararel world]"?!?! Paid so much attention on so many other things, yet you can't even spell the word correctly?! TWO misspellings and one grammatical error in a 4-words sentence! 2. spoiler[The US officer visiting the secret parallel universe research facility is only a Master Sergeant (E8). Yeah, right, an NCO as the liaison officer for the top secret facility.] 3. OMG! OMG! It's the spoiler[naval variant of YF-23 in combat! My favorite fighter plane of all time (project killed partly by Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, in favor of YF-22 for more traditional and reliable technologies)! ...Got its ass kicked by a MiG-29?! Bah. It's not impossible, but only if the Black Widow II pilot is a dumbass rookie.] |
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MrProphet
 Posts: 4 |
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Actually, you are bit wrong on the CIWS.
It's not a Phalanx, since it's obviously a Union ship. A Phalanx on a Union ship? LOL To me it looked like one of the AK-630 30 mm gatlings. It is six-barreled, by the way. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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The one you are talking about is spoiler[on the patrol boat attacking the fishing boat with Shirakawa and Okabe] (screencap). What I was talking about is the CIWS spoiler[during the firefight after Fujisawa took off with Sawatari] (screencap), for I've seen and heard a real Phalanx firing. Note the distinctive drum magazine at the bottom and the top cylinder with ladders on its side. The one on the Union patrol boat is definately NOT an AK-630 either. It's much more like a Goalkeeper without radars (search and illuminating), especially its distinctive large maintenance port cap on its right hand side and the tapering external support of its Gatling cannon. AK-630 has a tubular/cylindrical cannon (without external support) and a nostalgic (  ) gun turret design.
Although everything shows this fictional nation "Union" is Soviet/Russia, the producers might choose Goalkeeper instead of AK-630 to reduce the possibility of being accused by Russians, or simply because a Goalkeeper looks cooler than an AK-630. |
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MrProphet
Posts: 4 |
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Um, well, spoiler[the crewmen of that ship are speaking in pretty good Russian (although somewhat accented)], so I'd bet you a Sailor Stars LD against a DVD of Sin that their ship doesn't carry a spoiler[Dutch weapon system].
It'd be like saying that this, is a GSh-30 or Ak-130, because, yeah, it's kinda like a Vulcan, and so what if it's four-barreled and not Russian... it's a gatling, right? 8) See my point? Kinda meaningless to argue like that. 8) Oh, and this is 4-barreled, not 6-barreled, so it does look like a Phalanx to me. Can't vouch on the sound, though. Anyway, loved the film. Shinkai overcomplicated the story a bit with his take on spoiler[multiple-universe theory of quantum mechanics], but it was definitely worth it. The music is just amazing. Character designs are much better that Hoshi no Koe, since Shinkai apparently delegated some work. Overall, Hoshi no Koe is a leaner, tighter, more self-contained script with somewhat better pacing and storytelling, while Kumo no Mukou was a bit disoriented at times, but they are both pure genius. I loved it to death, but at times I just couldn't figure out whether Shinkai was shooting for greatness and a place in the annals of anime history, or whether he was trying to produce a good movie. It felt like he tried to stuff some much in it... well, it just didn't come out right in a couple of places. So, Shinkai definitely needs some growing up to do and a LOT of practice in terms of directing. But the amazing talent is definitely there. And I am not even talking about the visiuls... Haven't seen anything better since Howl's Moving Castle. 8) Last edited by MrProphet on Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:36 am; edited 1 time in total |
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MrProphet
Posts: 4 |
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sorry, incidental double-post 8(
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I can't get over the light. This is the sort of stuff that made me love Ridley Scott's early films.
Thunderstorms in the distance, with muted thunder, and lightning flickering in the clouds..... Sparkles on the water.... The light of spoiler[explosions from the aerial battle around the tower base], reflected in Fujisawa's eyes.... And that one absolutely breathtaking moment spoiler[when Fujisawa and Sawatari touch]... It's beautiful. - abunai |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Can't agree more. That is one of the most moving and touching moment in all anime I've watched. I was literally blown away. If there weren't those annoying stuff ("the bad" and "the ugly") I'd give it Masterpiece. We fans have waited it so long (almost three years), yet still many little details (such as the spelling) were blatantly ignored. Judging from the ED credits, it's no longer a mini project done by a tiny "studio" with less than five people. It has as many staff as most animated feature films. A bit disappointing, and making those aforementioned ignorance more inexcusable. |
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