Forum - View topicREVIEW: Children Who Chase Lost Voices Blu-Ray
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Kougeru
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jymmy
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Very nice review, well-considered and researched.
While I'd hesitate to say this is Shinkai's least impressive work, it does seem flawed in a way his others don't. What I think it comes down to is scope: there was simply far more in Children than in the other works of his that I've seen. And what's interesting is that you can see what he was going for - more clearly than you can see what was actually achieved, even. The film's ideas were not quite fully-realised but there seemed to me to be just so much more in there. Rather than an assessment of objective quality, this provoked respect and admiration on my part (which, at least in theory, is the aim). O'erleaping ambition aside, this is probably my favourite Shikai work for the simple reason that I dig old-school style fantasy adventure anime more than I do poignant love stories, as well as complex stories more than simple ones, even if they go too far in the other direction. Plus, I was reminded of about half a dozen of my favourite excellent anime while watching, such as Eva, Nadia, Laputa and Mononoke. While the review his all the relevant points straight-on, and I agree with its assessment, my conclusion was that it ended up a personal favourite. |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1073 Location: Texas |
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This is my favorite Shinkai film so far. The previous ones I would only rate as being "fair-to-pretty good" but this one, for me, is Very Good, bordering on Great.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Yeah, Shinkai was definitely going hard for the Ghibli feel. I reckon he pulled it off well enough.
I generally agree with the review as well, including the grade, but I do not share his opinion about the ending. To me, the ending of 5cm/s was crap, a confusing ten minutes which leaned heavy on the symbolism but was light on emotional resolution. It felt lacking and just abruptly ended. So yeah, I contend that the ending of Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below was still better than the ending of 5cm/s, despite its own problems which Theron outlined in this review. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24141 |
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The ending of 5cm was fantastic. Anime has an over-abundance of stories where a boy and a girl character have a relatively insubstantial connection as children and yet this somehow binds them together by fate for the rest of their lives. 5cm is one of the few anime works that says, "eh, that's a bunch of happy horseshit." Now, I like a conventional, emotionally uplifting ending as much as the next sentimental slob, but I also don't mind when an artist decides to break from the pack and do something different and challenging for a change.
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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Out of all of Shinkai's work, this is probably the most weakest while 5 Centimeters Per Second is (imo) the best.
I think what was missing from Children Who Chase Lost Voices was focus. The film didn't touch upon themes and points often enough, they just travel around in a very beautiful world. Fun to watch but that's about it. I won't rate it a B+ but a B- or a C+ by his other work standards. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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I was sort of bothered by "full appreciation for the English dub almost entirely depends on whether or not one accepts Hilary Haag as Asuna." That's the second or third time I've seen this pop up on ANN. I think another time recently was in a review or shelf life for Heaven's Memo Pad.
Really, this could be said for any voice actress in anime today. I have a friend that despises the sound of Monica Rial's voice and tends to avoid dubs where she voices a major character. I myself don't really care for Caitlin Glass in most of her roles the past few years. It seems to unfairly single out one particular voice actress. I can understand that her younger sounding voice may not appeal to everyone, but I haven't read similar comments about other VAs with likewise distinctive voices, like Greg Ayres or Vig Mignogna. If it had only been in this one review, I probably wouldn't have had any issue with it, but two reviews in a very short period of time seems a little much. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18442 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I put it that way because her performance is the one that I feel differs the most from the original and thus could be the most controversial. Besides, I've never been terribly impressed with Hilary Haag when she does younger, softer roles, yet she keeps getting cast in them. I've always thought she does better with roles where she can infuse a bit more attitude and childish playfulness; see Nene Romanov in Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and Karinka in Steel Angel Kurumi for examples of what I consider her best work. |
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Reibooi
 Posts: 394 |
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The Miyazaki comparison is what really pulled me out of this movie. Shinkai has a style that I like alot but with this one it seemed either he wanted to try a Miyazaki like movie or was asked to do something along those lines. Even down to the character designs being more Ghibli like the movie just really doesn't feel like a Shinkai work.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it was wholesale trying to be a Ghibli movie or something. The themes Shinkai likes to tackle are still present throughout the movie but the focus he normally has isn't. It wouldn't surprise me if one was to show this to a more casual anime fan without telling them anything about and they might end up thinking it was a Ghibli movie. It's still a very good movie and all but as a Shinkai work I don't like it. It's in my opinion his weakest work by far. |
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jojothepunisher
 Posts: 799 |
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Now this review really turned me off......The endings for all of his other works were, although painful, emotionally realistic, and the main characters always grew up after their experiences. This was the only thing I liked about all of his films, but if Children doesn't have that then I don't think it is going to be worth watching no matter how good the animation is. I don't know how much his cooperation with other people affected his work, but this certainly ain't the same Shinkai that we all knew few years back.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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I find the comparisons to Miyazaki to be amusing - when O first saw a bit of Children Who Chase Lost Voices wasn't Miyazaki or Ghibli Studios in general but the Miyzaki knockoff Xam'd. So, for me, that'd make Children a Miyazaki knockoff by proxy. It's kind of insulting to Miyzaki to compare them directly.
Sadly, I merely ff through Children because it just wasn't interesting. It looked nice, I guess. It's typical of his work, narcoleptic visual fantasy/sci-fi/romance that's more irritating than cryptic.
Hmm? Was that it? I thought it was a shaggy dog ending based on the premise that the guy didn't turn around in time {Something along the lines of "Ha, better luck next time" because, you know, that's the way Fate works}. The idea that they were unconnectedly connected not by the Red String of Fate but by simple uncoincidence never occured to me. Uncoincidence: When narrative causality is built up by the author but then doesn't happen. How jaded or even masochistic do you have to be in order to enjoy being jerked around like that? The apathy felt in most of the audience when after 50 minutes of several romance stories nothing happens was absolutely intended by the creator? Now I really hate that movie... |
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Kazemon15
 Posts: 401 |
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I always thought the ending was a nice lesson learned and did have an emotional impacting message of spoiler[no matter what you do, you can not bring back the dead without severe consequences and that death is just something you need to learn to accept.]
I absolutely loved this movie. It was much darker than his other works. I personally hated 5cm/s myself. It was an hour of boring relationships that left no impact on me. I didn't even know what was going on most of the time in that movie. I don't know why people praise it so much. The ending of it was pointless and only left the meaningful message of spoiler[life sucks, move on.] |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3670 |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24141 |
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Shinkai's movies tend to be divisive; you either hate them or love them, there doesn't seem to be much in between. I like his stuff because his use of images, light, music and subject matter create a unique emotional reaction in me that I don't get from other film-makers (I don't include Children in this because it is different than his other works. I still enjoyed it very much, just for different reasons than I do for his earlier works). This unique emotional reaction is not an entirely comfortable one to experience: his works are suffused with a melancholic yearning/nostalgia that doesn't leave me dancing in the aisles, that's for sure. I totally understand why somebody wouldn't dig them. It's a specific type of experience and you either find it worthwhile or you don't. *shrug* |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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I don't remember it clearly, but I think that she chose to go, because she lacked a sense of belonging to a place where she lived, and wanted to find where she belongs. The mythical Agartha was nice.
Let's not forget about the most well-known 'enthusiast' of Agartha, a leading member of the Nazi Party, Heinrich Himmler, who organised an expedition in order to find it. I just thought that it's an interesting piece of information. |
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