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| not bad for a 22 min ova 7/10 |
| That was great! I loved it! |
| A very nice short ova. Could have been a bit longer but then maybe it would have been boring, so im fine with the lenght. The premise was very nice epecially when you like such futur industrialized world settings like in the metropolis anime or in BLAME!. The movie had a nice message, but since this topic was so one sided it kinda looked a bit naive ( it was only: industrialisation is bad and nature is good, i really would have liked arguments for the industrialisation). So overall i gave it a 6/10 so no masterpiece. a nice thing to watch and a bit to think about and definitly the best work of Yoshiura Yasuhiro, since his other works where rather bad. I mean look at Eve no Jikan which is just an illogical slice of life bullshit and Sakasama no Patema suffered on flat and unintersting storytelling and boring and clichee characters |
Lockensocke said: The movie had a nice message, but since this topic was so one sided it kinda looked a bit naive ( it was only: industrialisation is bad and nature is good, i really would have liked arguments for the industrialisation). I would like to argue that the main message was something a bit different. Last month I wrote quite a large analysis of Pale Cocoon and its more hidden meanings/messages, which you can find here: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1231741 |
| Sorry but the themes in this have been done to death and this didn't really stand out from the crowd. |
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| Unfortunately, I cannot find much to like about Pale Cocoon. I found it interesting at first, but it just went nowhere. I really wanted to like it, but it fell flat. I have given it a score of 3/10, and at the time of this post, it's the lowest rating I have given anything on my list. |
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| I'd like to see twelve-episode series, about how the survivors from the moon are trying to get back on earth or sth similar 🌛 |
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| Its fun seeing similar themes and connections with all of Yoshiura's works. |
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| Didn't like it, probably because I wouldn't have gotten the message if it wasn't for some of the posts here. Meh. |
Anime List | Manga List | Blog  |
| I don't get it and didn't like it either it was boring 1/10 |
CnonOct 3, 2015 12:29 PM
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| This sure was a snoozefest... |
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| It was okay. But it has one flaw: the revelation was way to obvious. |
| You're a louse, Roger Smith. - R. Dorothy Wayneright This is my fight! No Senpai, this is our fight! - Kojou Akatsuki & Yukina Himeragi  |
| Just rewatched this after about a year of seeing it the first time, and I think a lot of people are missing the empathy for the characters. Riko is distraught because her world sucks, and recovering the records rubs it in. Yet Ura is intrigued by it, he loves finding out this info in hopes of discovering that world for himself. The music video inspires Ura to search for that answer himself after seeing the world in the vid and hearing some lyrics in the song describing the earth from the moon. "What was she looking at?" Their conversation about Riko's grandmother imply that they were born underground/in that facility and never saw the outside. They were unaware that they are not on Earth. They think the surface is in ruin. Ura then climbs into the closed elevator that leads to the surface and heads up. There he finds he's on the "Pale Cocoon" built around the moon. Where he later will see the BLUE Earth and the SUNLIGHT. That's important because Riko then sees the video interview with Yoko, where she clearly confirms they are on the moon and describes the Earth as being RUST COLORED and says "someday, the mother star will wake up from her long sleep, for dawn to come again". Ura didn't need to hear that speech because he had never given up hope himself, he believed that Earth was there, and we then see that it was. Mother Earth had revived itself. I think that, "looking for hope when there is none", is a more important message than, "overpopulation is a problem and pollution is bad". This is farther reinforced by the sadness we feel for Riko as it is clear she had given up, when there is a reason to be hopeful that she may never know. (depending on if Ura makes it back to tell or not) |
Honoka is my Hero! Click Me! |
| That was actually pretty good. Pretty short tho. 7/10 |
DatRandomDudeFeb 17, 2016 9:12 PM
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| That was a very interesting OVA. I had to watch it twice to fully grasp it though. |
| Rely on nothing under heaven |
| Amazing. And it felt way longer than it was. 10/10 |
| After watching Sakasama no Patema and then this... Wow... just wow. This guy was trying to make a film like this since forever. |
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| what a waste of time. but the song was good |
MichaelJacksonNov 17, 2017 8:16 PM
| :v |
| I'm pretty sad because it's somthing i want to like... The concept was pretty intresting, but that's where it ends this was nothing more then a concept. |
Effulgence said: Hi Effulgence, I just saw your comment. I'm sorry that you didn't seem to enjoy this anime. I know it's been two months since you've watched this, but I wanted to let you know that this anime is much more than just a concept. It's a very beautiful and powerful film that manages to - in just twenty minutes - brilliantly deliver a thought provoking and truly potent message. If you have time and want to take a second look at this anime, please try giving this a read.I'm pretty sad because it's somthing i want to like... The concept was pretty intresting, but that's where it ends this was nothing more then a concept. Pale Cocoon - Hidden Meanings and In-Depth Analysis I hope this can help you appreciate, and maybe even come to like this short film. |
philipawalkerMar 27, 2018 4:28 AM
| Didn't get its true meaning, but it was good though. All I saw was this Ura guy obsessed with the excavation of the archives of the past earth to study the modern world. He went up only to find out that humans exiled to the moon, after finding out earth was unlivable. Didn't see a message there. 6/10. |
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove  |
| Eh, didn't really get anything from this. A bit of a waste of time. |
| So at the surface, Pale Cocoon is a story about humans, undergoing overpopulation and environmental degredation, were forced to migrate to space in colonies. After many centuries, the only things left of human civilizations are scattered archives, of which are left in the forms of text, images, and videos. Physical artifacts weren't really shown, leaving digital remains as the only visible proof that humanity even had a past. A number of interesting questions come from this short film: what records of today would be worthwhile to preserve as representations of the present? Realistically speaking, what forms of records and what subjects would be most likely to survive centuries later? Through the interpretations of future generations, how would they come to understand our current state of being? And, how would this interpretation coincide and differ from our own self-interpretation? This is made evident by the particularly difficult to decipher pair of relics, which ended up being a music video and a video diary of the singer. Imagine if a music video of the present was one of the few artifacts remaining of the present, and its contents would be representative of what life in the early 21st century might have been like. In thinking about archiving and researching the past, I've never thought of it as running away from a present reality. As it were, the fear of the present would cause a person to retreat to the past. However, in this particular case, nostalgia for the past would, in relative terms, be our present. I've seen a number of shows and films show nostalgia for some rustic past, set in forests and small towns, far away from civilization. However, Pale Cocoon instead shows nostalgia for a period around and someways ahead of our own. Perhaps due to the degradation of Earth though, it may have caused difficulty in preserving history, leaving just relics to try and decipher. Pale Cocoon shows a futuristic world of an indeterminate location, living far beneath an apparent surface akin to undersea creatures. There is some metaphor work going on, where the shell of a cocoon could be likened to the remnants of humanity living in those dark depths. It's interesting to note that archival work requires climbing up an absurdly tall staircase. An argument could be made of that staircase being representative of researchers attempting to stay close to the surface - the closest they can get to breaking through that cocoon shell. They're unable to do so however, and even should they ascend, there's only darkness above. As a result, some people end up quitting, or they end up stuck somewhere in the middle of their climb. For our main character, he continued to ascend until he fell, much like that woman's grandmother. But, in doing so, both were able to glimpse at the sky, if just for a moment. Enlightenment? A sense of fulfillment? Stubbornness to return to the olden days? I'm not sure what might have driven them to reach for the surface, but hopefully they were able to find what they wanted. Also, that ending was kind of confusing, as how the main character was thrusted into the sky. I might have to revisit the film at some point to figure that out, among other details. |
| Great OVA! The first time i watched it i didn't get anything from it, but after searching about it and finding an analysis, things cleared up a lot and it was an enjoyable second watch. |
| If only it was more than 1 episode |
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| I had a hard time understanding the visuals, but that song clicked perfectly. Look into chouchouholic if you want a similar vibe. |
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| "He who increaseth knowledge also increaseth sorrow." That was quite dreary. "Pale Cocoon" is a fitting title for the bleak prison that is the wreckage of post-history. The deterioration of the archives emphasizes the notion that those who remain want to forget the world that was lost. In contrast, Ura's lone curiosity is the sole yearning to make what's gone still remain as a memory. 6.5/10. I'll have to reflect on this a bit more as it provided an abundance of fascinating insights within 20 minutes. |
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| Your experience will determine your opinion... Maybe not a popular opinion, but as people age they will see the "trees for the forest". This is great story telling. |
| Stay Young and Watch Anime......el psy congroo |
| Pretty interesting, and I liked how this story mapped out. I had originally envisioned whatever that video message was something more horror focused, I was caught quite off-guard when it turned out to be a music video. The music video itself was pretty interesting, and I'm grateful that the song lyrics where translated, because with those and the final shot of the music video, I had figured out that they were actually on the Moon (my exact thoughts were "Wait a second, are they on the Moon?"). It was pretty gratifying have me theory proven wait, and ending with the blue Earth (as opposed to the rusted Earth they left) was a great, somewhat hopeful ending (the Earth returning to colour, things are probably still awful for our MCs following this; and if every human evacuated to the Moon, it's a further damning of our influence), especially with it how heavily it contrasts with the more monochromatic colour palette of the rest of the film. It was impressive how good this OVA could look with it's limited colour palette but that stair case with those white snow like things falling down, you know the area where Riko lied down in honour of her grandmother I guess, the scenes there always looked really great. Speaking of the characters, they were about as good as they probably could be. There's enough detail in there life to give them a bit of fleshing out, like Riko's grandmother or the fact that Ura & Riko clearly had some kind of relationship, but they felt more like a way to express a human's capacity to focus on the past. The fact that besides Ura pretty much everyone leaves the department with no interesting in just discovering how badly humans messed up makes sense, especially when there's no presumable solution to return to such green pastures as they believe themselves to be on Earth (and it's not sure there's any chance to return). Ura himself seems more obsessed with the preservation, with finding any remaining remnant of the world long by past. philipawalker's post added in the context for me that he sacrifices his relationship with Riko in this pursuit, and considering despite be the revelation it's possible a meaningless discovery since there might not be anything they can do, it definitely sells the point to to not take things for granted rather than live for the present. His post was pretty helpful for solidifying my own thoughts on the piece. The OST was easily my favourite part of this, and not just the music video song though I did quite like that too, but the backing tracks were excellent throughout. As for any problems, there really wasn't anything for me to emotionally attach to, and I didn't really like the shaky camera direction for several scenes. 7/10. |
| Strong proto-Patema x Bureau of Proto Society vibes in this one. The bleak color palette really contributed to the overall mood of the short. The "overpopulation -> environmental destruction" troupe is quite overused though. The attention to detail was nice though. From what I understand, the archive systems are solar powered? P.S. The ending was literally foreshadowed in the first second of the OVA :D |
St0rmbladeJun 2, 2021 3:46 PM
deg said: wow so the government of the future are hiding the fact that all of them are living on the moon now since earth become to unhabitable due to overpollution brought by overpopulation but look what the main character saw in the end the earth is habitable again it seems, the earth has natural healing features if humans does not exist heh lol moral of the story overpopulation will kill all of humanity one day XD i know this is a super long time ago you posted this but i wanted to tell you it's malthusian nonsense. that said the movie was pretty well done, tragic, ironic. dude's not getting down from that busted elevator so he's kinda screwed but hey he kept saying he wanted to know, and now he does. Yoko figured it out too i think and it's tragic for her in a different way. i hope they had some return ships and that's where people went but i doubt it. maybe there's people on earth, maybe not. not really the point i guess. |
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| After reading the great analysis, I can appreciate this anime better for what it is, now that I understand it, but I still think it was somewhat mediocre for being unclear. Off the start, I thought they were robots from how lifeless and apathetic they seemed. I also never sensed or realized they were a couple (exes). The ending was baffling for not understanding the point. Afterwards, now, it feels a little lackluster for not hinting at anything of the couple since... In hindsight, that's kinda the point of the story. Man, obsesses over the past, finds the answer of humans now living in the Moon, looking out on Earth, wishing to go back, contrast to how in the past they aspired to reach the skies or whatever ... ultimately to kinda lose his girlfriend to his obsession. Except, I don't think he's stuck there. Maybe he could float back down. Assuming he does, then he can meet up with her again, but then what... we'll never know. Which just leaves this whole experience underwhelmed. There's no clarity at all what they'll do now, and most of it wasn't clear on the surface before I read the analysis. Regardless, as much as the intent is there, I don't think it's clear enough that they were or are a couple who possibly lost each other again by his fault- which I think is bad. 4/10. Interesting third work from the Time of Eve creator though. 3 years before that. Now all that's left to watch from him is the series/movie Patema Inverted. ... I guess Time of Eve is still probably his best work. |
waalex11Mar 25, 2023 11:24 PM
| The visuals and music in this film are mesmerising. Tenebrous interiors with a few lights generously speckled around for clarity give most of the scenes here a beautiful lumine look to them, and there wasn't a single track I didn't love either. Plot was a bit confusing towards the end, but makes more sense when you realise they're on the moon. Maybe the mix of abstraction and concrete plot progression is something I'm not used to, who knows. |
  ｲ乇刀乇乃尺ﾑ乇 ╔⏤═⏤╝   ╚⏤═⏤╗☽ Shaded Horizon ☾ |
| Beautiful existentialist masterpiece. It reminds me of ideas that I have had. Very 2000s. |
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