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Fleeting thrills, occasional chills, definite cringes. That's what I would succinctly wrap up Hell Girl as. The main crux of the issue is this; Hell Girl is a morally and intellectually lazy at best, disingenuous at worst, show, that manages to stay partially afloat with a couple good lead characters and some occasionally deviously twisted stories.

Let me get out of the way that the art, voice acting, and sounds are all wonderful. Distinct and atmospheric, they often times accentuate the best parts of the show.

However, Hell Girl suffers perhaps most greatly from being very formulaic and repetitive. Most episodes boil down thusly: we have, ... "Persona A" and "Person B."

Person A is wronged by person B.

Person A gets Hell Girl and her cronies to kill and send Person B to hell immediately.

Person A, as a result of this, goes to hell when he/she dies.

The first half of this show is setup just like that; episodic in nature, new stories each time. At first, this manages to be a fairly convincing and exciting setup, because the stories seem fresh and relatable. After a while though, the show wears out its welcome. The structure gets too repetitive, the people, too unsympathetic, the stories, too hard to swallow.

Firstly, I am not entirely sure what this show is trying to say, if anything. For Hell Girl to take on such a serious and close topic to many people (afterlife), it damn well better to a good job of broaching the subject. I don't think it really does. Most characters in the show are comfortable with the idea of not only sending another person to hell for eternity, but going themselves. This is tough to swallow, especially when, as is the case in Episode 10, there isn't much wrongdoing between the two people involved!

Is this a show a twisted look at karma? Do wrong, and you'll have wrong done to you? If so, it's over the top. Sure, some of these characters are cruel, but an eternity in hell? That's harsh! And what does it say about the character who sends them to hell? They're being even more cruel if you ask me!

So, maybe the whole show is about trying to get us viewers to think on the old Gandhi quote "an eye for the eye makes the whole world blind." Well, that doesn't work either, because just about every character is perfectly willing to not only trade an eye for an eye, but enjoy it too. Not only that, they usually get a huge short term benefit! Blind my ass!

And what about Ai (Hell Girl) and her gang? They swoop along to enact revenge by torturing their victim in their final moments, before killing them and sending them to hell. We never really learn anything about them until the very end of the show. It's too bad, because it makes them out to be much worse villains than I think the show creators intend.

A lot of the conflicts in each episode could also be healed with some communication and time. Physical abuse is one thing, and certainly bad, but a lot of the conflicts in the shows are monetary in nature, which, while potentially crippling, is not permanent for a lot of these people considering how young they are. If Person A thought about their predicament for a few days, they probably wouldn't be so quick to pull the proverbial trigger. Unless the show is trying to completely slam immediate emotions for being irrational or some such, in which case, whoopdee do. Not particularly riveting nor well displayed.

And that's the problem with this show. I don't know what it's trying to do. Maybe it's not trying to say anything, which seems really bad, especially considering the nature of what the show deals with; revenge, death, afterlife. Not stuff to be scoffed at, in this case. If you're going to present a show with people lining up left and right to send a rival to hell forever and themselves too, you better have a pretty good thematic core. There isn't any here. It feels almost like some dude just wants to piss all over people and take revenge on people through an anime he is creating. Haha, enjoy hell, characters!

Maybe I am reading too much into this. Maybe I need to look at this simply and try to enjoy it. In that case, it fares a little better. When the show finally gets some continuity going, we are introduced to Hajime, a disheveled, freelance journalist who learns of Hell Girl and seeks to stop her. He is a wonderful character; flawed but likeable, morally strong but conflicted. His struggle with his young daughter, who begins to feel sympathy for the people choosing to send their enemy to hell, becomes a well-done, central conflict. Their bonding and relationship is an excellent display of subtleties that the rest of the show seems to lack.

Certain episodes are generally thrilling. Others are generally boring. It's indicative of the show as a whole having an inconsistent pace. Some episodes are allowed to naturally develop, showing a gradual buildup of a characters wrongdoings. Others take 20 minutes to set up a scenario, then instantly drop a bunch of cruelty on a character in a matter of seconds.

Still, some of the stores are cynically enjoyable, certifiably twisted in a thrilling manner. It's just too bad that the show falls short elsewhere, and can never get a consistent level of thrills going. It's a watchable show, but also, ultimately, a forgettable one.

5/10

To this day, I still don't see what people see in Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Other than some pretty neat fight scenes and stylistic action, this is a shell of a movie, and one that any kid with a penchant for action could have written.

In one sense, it leaves writing a review for this film very hard to write, because the flaws of Advent Children are so basic and readily apparent. This is a movie completely lacking in the major attributes that can make or break (as they do in this case) any film. There is a laughable storyline, no character development whatsoever, and a ... bunch of Final Fantasy VII characters make cameos simply for the sake of being there and getting squeals of delight from their fans.

I'll be the first to tell you that I love Final Fantasy VII, the game. I even like the universe it takes place in. But when a feature length film has much less story that a 1997 Playstation 1 video game, we have problems.

The story is just a vessel to get Sephiroth and the good-guy gang back in. There's a plot involving trying to cure "Geostigma," some strange affliction affecting children, but it all takes a back seat to the fight scenes. The actual development of the plot is terribly rushed; we're whisked from one fight to the next, with all new characters, with little to go on. Before you know it, the whole gang is back together, good and bad, Genova makes an appearance, and there's a big bad summon and final fight.

On that note, it is very hard to watch this movie if you have not played FF VII. Essentially no background time is given to any of the characters; combined with the way in which they sort of pop-up at any given time (like Barret and Yuffie at the end), and you have a recipe for confusion and lack of interest if you don't have prior knowledge of them.

It's too bad, because some of the nods are nice. Cell phones ring out with the level up theme from Final Fantasy. One Winged Angel makes a nice musical appearance. The animation is great, and the opening motorbike fight scene oozes cool. The voice acting is quite good. It's nice seeing voices lent to our favorite Final Fantasy characters, and they all seem to fit.

Sadly, though, it doesn't fill the void of a rushed, barebones plot and lazy character cameos. My suggestion; turn off your brain before you watch this, and try to just enjoy the fight scenes, because there isn't really anything else to go on.

2/10

The 2004 remake of the Appleseed story is a watchable affair, but one that seemingly increases the flaws of the original 1988 release while also detracting from its strengths.

Appleseed once again benefits from a strong female lead, one not afraid to kickass, and one not sexualized. Deunan is picked up by members of E.S.W.A.T, an elite special ops unit, and is immediately entrusted with a lot of the most vital secret of Utopia, an attempted, get this, utopian human city. This city is home to a population made up half of human, and half of Bioroids, genetically manufactured being with suppressed emotional states, designed ... to keep the peace.

However, unlike the 1988 version, which set up a largely morally ambiguous conflict, this 2004 version is much more black and white, and it's of detriment to the film. The human uprising perpetrated by the army is one less of legitimate grievances, considering the role humans have in government is substantial this time, and more of a direct power grab. Deunan and her allies stand in the way of the bad guys, as they try to maintain a level of stability in Utopia.

Here's the problem with Appelseed 2004; it attempts to layer on even more subplots than the original, without really explaining any of them. There is quite a lot going on here; a council of elders overseeing the city hand in hand with a giant computer, a quasi-double-triple-cross by Deunan's partner in arms, Briareos. A familial twist with Deunan, and some cruelties committed against her by the very people she is now up against. It all comes too fast and too often, and each plot development is rarely explored nor has its significance justified.

This film also suffers from some pretty cheesy, elementary moralizing speeches, that attempt to convey relevance and importance but essentially end up very pedestrian. The exposition in this film leaves a lot left to be desired, because it rarely focuses on what you want to know, instead delivering heavy-handed explanations of things the viewer probably has already realized.

The Deunan and Briareos relationship is sorely underutilized. Former lovers, Briareos is now mostly machine on the outside due to injuries sustained in battle, but still retains his personality and "humanity." While it would have been cliché, exploring whether or not Deunan's romantic interest could exist with a man that looks more machine now could have been fairly compelling. Sadly, it's never really explored.

All of this combined with plot twists that are predictable, and a very typical - especially to sci-fi - main villain, leaves you feeling like this movie is wasted potential. Still, the main protagonists are solid enough characters to stand on their own, Deunan and Athena the prime minister, in particular. And when the script is not handing them some cheesy speeches, it manages to convey their desperation and struggle well.

The 3D animation is also solid if unspectacular, much like the voice acting and soundtrack. It all helps to lend to my belief that the film as a whole is solid, if unspectacular. The Appleseed universe is a very compelling one, and there's a lot of good moral conflict to explore. Sadly, this film does not really do that.

5/10

When Blood+ came out back in 2005, it was one of the seasons most anticipated releases. The original work, Blood: The Last Vampire, screamed for a longer storyline that showed some development. And while Blood+ was to take place in a separate universe, if it managed to construct a decent story around the beautiful aesthetics of the film, then we would have had a definite winner. Sadly, Blood+ is, to put it bluntly, a bit of a mess.

Blood+ starts off decent enough. Saya, our protagonist, is revealed to be the only one capable of killing the human killing, blood sucking chiropterans. Early on, a ... bit os a standard "mysterious past" is established, although over the course of 50 episodes, it's never explained as well as it probably should have banned. Those hoping for a one woman show, like Blood: The Last Vampire, may also find it interesting that Blood+ sort of becomes a band of travelers movie with Saya's close friends, Riku and Kai, and her guardian of sort, the mysterious cello playing Hagi.

One of the biggest problems of this show is that so many of its elements are very, very conventional. Saya is an amnesia sufferer who has "forgotten" about her past as a bloody killer. The American military is interfering in the role of vampires, which would have made for a decent little conspiracy story, if predictable, if it was fully explored. We are also treated to a bevy of corny "live your life for today" speeches from the likes of Saya's friends. It's all very standard fare.

This wouldn't have been too bad, and would have been saved in part by the decently exciting action, if the series wasn't so arbitrary. New rules and twists are introduced haphazardly to the plot at seemingly unfit times. The Schiff, who are basically manufactured vampires, are tossed into the mix lazily, and their new set of rules and characters pops up and then is sort of left behind as the series progresses. This is how a lot of the second half of the show works. As Saya pursues Diva, the head honcho of the bad guys, all kinds of unexplored sub-plots are layered on; besides the aforementioned Schiff, we have some conflict between Diva's guardians (they're the bad guy equivalent of Hagi, basically), and political dealings with the American military, but they all feel terribly unimportant and underdeveloped, because the show ends up basically becoming one long, protracted chase scene, with Saya desperately trying to locate Diva and defeat her once and for all. This is extended by a relentless number of fight scenes that begin to lose their importance as we realize they are basically just delaying the final showdown.

The show becomes simultaneously bogged down by the unneeded subplots, as well as too narrow-minded in how it chooses to be "mysterious" about all the characters and backgrounds. No, a show needn't spell out everything for the viewer, but we're never really given much to go on, if anything, from Saya, Hagi, and Diva and her cronies. Even as one of the antagonists essentially falls in love with Saya, it all feels very rushed and heavy-handed. While the pacing manages to keep the show watchable, it becomes so repetitive and predictable that it fails to stand out.

The ending itself is something pretty much any viewer will be able to see from a mile away (and it has to do with another weird arbitrary rule that seems to be heaped on just to attempt to make it sad). Because of this, the emotional punch it is supposed to provide is more like an emotional feather dusting.

There are some positives, the animation is good, even if it lacks the dark appeal of The Last Vampire. The various world locations we get to see manage to help keep things varied. Kai becomes an interesting character with a soft-side to go along with his rambunctious one, that we can really empathize with. The action is generally pretty exciting at first. But the show just wears out its welcome with the arbitrary introduction of new ideas and characters that are often abandoned simply to fit the plot. It makes you wonder why they were needed in the first place.

Ultimately, this all leaves Blood+ as a watchable, but simplistic and by-the-numbers vampire flick.

3/10

Blood: The Last Vampire feels more like an extended one off episode of an anime, as opposed to a feature film. It's short running time (48 mins) basically ensures that there is not a lot of time for character development and plot development.

Blood: The Last Vampire is particularly noteworthy for two things; being an anime filmed almost entirely in English, and being completely digitally animated, a groundbreaking new way to animate when this came out in 2000. It even lead James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame, to say "The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital ... animation."

Essentially, Blood: The Last Vampire boils down to two things; action and animation. As alluded to earlier, the plot in this movie is razor thin and merely exists as a means to get one character into another fight scene. You almost have to view this as a prologue of sorts to a larger story, one that does continue in other mediums like manga and video games.

Lucky for us, as a short, strictly action based movie, Blood: The Last Vampire manages to be compelling largely because of the aesthetics and animation. The movie is set in the American Yokota Air Base in 1966, amidst nervousness over a war in Vietnam. Our protagonist is Saya, a vampire-human hybrid os sorts tasked with killing Chiropterans, bat-like vampires that feed off of human blood. Quite literally, that is the entire plot. Even the number of characters with significant roles is kept to a bare minimum, outside of David, a member of Red Shield organization he and Saya work for, and a school teacher who gets to see all the carnage of the fights before her eyes, we really don't get to know anyone. Even Saya and David have precious little information about them revealed.

But the film is really a sight to behold. The digital animation allows complex movements to be animated much better than traditional cel animation. Camera tricks usually reserved for live action films are used here, and everything has a fluidness and crispness that makes the action scenes extremely enjoyable to watch. The world itself we're thrust into is darkly gorgeous, too, full of grey and brown and muted lighting, the 60s setting combined with the darkness gives off an air of dystopian-esque retrofitting, even though it is not strictly a dystopian movie.

And so, for a little under an hour, we are treated to a bevy of gruesome action scenes that work to impress us visually as well as impose a sense of dread. They do that admirably. Even though we don't get to know Saya and David all that well, we still find ourselves cheering for them in their struggle, the knowledge that these Chiropterans are bad imparted to us by the gruesome ways in which they kill people. This is truly a movie of actions speaking louder than words. Luckily for us, the action is fast, fluid, and exciting, and rarely feels over-the-top or unnecessary.

Combining the great artwork with a great sound department also allows the dark, fearful atmosphere to escalate. While the voice acting isn't anything to write home about - Saya is very monotonous (intentionally) and David doesn't show too much emotion either, the creepy noises of the Chiropterans, the gruesome sounds of battle, and the eerie music all lend to the atmosphere. It's not exactly a horror movie; the action is too rampant for that, but it all helps to escalate the already dark mood that the animation sets.

While Blood: The Last Vampire isn't a deep film, or one with a great plot or cast of characters, it offers a bevy of gorgeous thrills and chills wrapped up an a very aesthetically entertaining setting. It is strictly a no holds barred, non-complex action film and nothing more, but for what it's worth, it plays that part well.

7/10

Oh Akira, where would anime be without you? Would Ghost in the Shell ever have come about without your cyberpunk aesthetics that influenced anime more than any other work, this side of Blade Runner? Would The Matrix have ever come about without either of those two works? The answer is probably no, and so I do have to offer some thanks to Akira for helping to inspire people from inside and outside Japan.

That said, I still think that Akira is largely a hodge-podge of crap.

The first few moments of Akira are breathtaking. We take in the lights, the sights and sounds of neo-Tokyo, a hauntingly ... familiar yet eerily distant dilapidated, frustrated city, rife with neon lights, traffic noise, and trash.

Sadly, it's all downhill from there.

See, Akira is a trilogy of 6 hours or so wrapped up in a 2 hour film. It introduces new characters, violence, and important plot devices faster than the motorbikes the characters blaze down the highway with. For a lot of people, this rushed pace, combined with the "weirdness" factor is going to be a turnoff. It is actually rather surprising to me that this anime is as popular and mainstream as it is, because I do not consider it very accessible at all.

The terrible pacing, sadly, becomes a bit of a snowball affect, or feedback loop. The more that is introduced the viewer, the more that needs to be introduced to try to clear up the former, but it doesn't really work out and now you're left with all kinds of new ideas that all feel horribly underutilized or misused. It doesn't help that the dialogue feels a bit like 80s Dragon Ball Z; lots and lots of yelling, little substance or insight into the characters or plot. Banal might be the word to use.

On that note, the central love story of sorts that is introduced halfway through the film is developed so fast, you might not even know it exists until you sit back and think about it for a bit, only to realize it was way too sloppy and feels forced. The characters never had much experience together, but before you know it, their trying desperately to save one another at their own peril.

To be fair, the original manga is a large scale work, but that doesn't eliminate all the blame for this mess.

Problem is, because there are so many characters and loose ends regarding them, it's hard to feel attachment, or even repulsion towards any of the characters. It feels sort of like they are all running like a chicken with their heads cut off, if I can use that term. Kaneda is not a compelling protagonist, and his rivalry with Tetsuo and his rise to power is suitably mishandled and tough to swallow. And the bottom line is, most of these characters are stock stereotypes. Kaneda is a bit of a womanizing gang leader. Tetsuo is... well, we don't really know what he is, but it's apparently enough for him to threaten every living thing on the planet. And yell a lot at Kaneda and everyone else.

A lot of people seem to like the soundtrack and sounds of Akira. While I admit the roaring motorbikes and city noises are great, the music seems inadequate. It peaks at all the wrong times, trying to drum up drama when there is little to go on. Perhaps part of it has been lost in translation over the years and it was more effective in the 80s. I myself am not convinced.

It's all too bad, because their are interesting ideas here; themes of fear of technology, class struggle, and more, but once again, they're rarely actually explored; merely hinted at by the film. We're not ever told why it's relevant or why we should sympathize or feel antagonistic at any of them, besides the shock use of violence. When you throw in the psychic powers and government conspiracy and the like, the whole thing just feels bloated without having real substance. It's a film lacking exposition; the aged psychic children, and powers, Akira, it's all barebones and too little to go on. Relevancy is never established.

I can't leave without saying that the violence is over the top, and not in a cool, stylized way. It more borders on ridiculous. But maybe that's fitting in a film as ridiculous as this. For me? I'll try to find something more thought out and compelling.

Appleseed is a work that seems to show up every now and then, after many of us have forgotten it, usually in the form of a reboot or remake. As it stands, the original 1988 anime is the best of the anime versions, so far, but it is not without its flaws.

Appleseed is one of a minority of animated works that can lay claim to being too short. There's is just way too much going on for a single 1 hour film, but, to director Kazuyoshi Katayama's credit, he manages to keep the threads of storyline together enough to make this a largely enjoyable fare.

One ... thing that Appleseed, this 1988 version, does much better than the 2004 version, is moral ambiguity. This sci-fi is ripe with it. Earth is introduced to us having recently suffered catatrophe through World War III. Olympus, a protoype "utopia" of sorts, is the setting, where in step the Bioroids, genetically engineered beings, created by humans, to oversee society and prevent another near apocalyptic event from occuring. As with most political scenarios where control is vested in some people, there are others who want it. The Bioroids, while they do a decent job maintaining peace, are also in total political control of Olympus. This doesn't go over to well with certain humans, who view Olympus as a cage.

One refreshing thing about this anime is the tag team duo of protagonists, Deunan, a very skilled female E.S.W.A.T (read; Special Ops) member, and her partner, the human on the inside, cyborg on the outside, Briareos. Deunan is thrust into the conflict of humans seeking to wrestle power from the Bioroids, and she follows her convictions to their conclusions. Whether or not she makes the right choice at the conclusion of the film is debatable, but it's one of the endearing features of the work.She shines here as a strong female lead, and her relationship with Briareos doesn't fall into a rushed, corny romance trap that we often expect of works like this.

Another note; for an 80s anime, there is a surprising amount of women in positions of power here.

This whole conflict that takes place is complicated with E.S.W.A.T mole(s) corraborating with the humans seeking power, a meddling prime minister, and the computer helping to run the whole show, all of these setting the stage for a solid sci-fi thriller.

However, as I alluded to earlier, the one hour runtime just isn't enough. When you combine these subplots with the various, lengthy action sequences, it becomes apparent that plot development is given the fast track, often to the detriment of the work. Plot developments and devices are introduced almost haphazardly at times, and you're given little time to contemplate on the importance of one thing before another important one springs up. To this point, one major plot device, inolving the character Hitomi, who is, essentially, the key to everything, is severely mishandled. It's thrust into the film in mere seconds even though it is such a crucial point.

The ending is a bit of a mess too, featuring a terribly cheesy Star Wars like apparition imparting words of wisdom. It's almost comical.

That said, the Appleseed universe is a very compelling one because it takes the sci-fi genre and puts a new spin on it. The Bioroids are right to have grievances in that they are meant to serve humans, the humans are right to have grievances in that they have little political power, and so, you have a great setup here with no true good guys or bad guys. Sadly, the potential feels a bit wasted with the rushed nature, but the strong characters, particularly Deunan, and the compelling scenario and moral conflict largely allow Appleseed to be an enjoyable work.

7/10

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is an intriguing film. Released back in 2001, it was a bit of an unmitigated disaster for Square, costing them a lot of money. To this day, many people consider the later animated film by Square, Advent Children, to be vastly superior (although they are very different). However, whereas Advent Children was a lamefest of no plot and character development, The Spirits Within maintains some level of story and characterization.

Easily the first thing you will notice about The Spirits Within is that, even today, it looks amazing. You can see the pores and freckles on skin, hair moves independently, the ... facial expressions and nuances of each character all look fluid and real. After ten years, it still remains as a testament to the capability of CGI as it continues to improve.

The story, however, is not as strong. It tends to occupy the realm of "be good to Earth" that many sci-fi films do. It's passable, but it doesn't really do anything to make this message new or original. This is compounded by the use of a villain right out of sci-fi stock. He is predictable and very typical, and it means the conflict isn't as compelling as it should be. You'll see his role and decisions from a mile away.

The rest of the cast is decent. Aki, the female scientist and protagonist, is a strong-willed, independent woman, who is, rather refreshingly, not sexualised at all. There are other typical character types here; the wizened old biologist, who is easily one of the standouts as a perfect mix of intelligence and compassion, the concerned love interest, and the comic relief. They're all mostly genre standbys.

I can forgive some of this, however, because, perhaps most surprisingly, the "acting" in this film is rather great, whether you watch it subbed or dubbed. Buoyed by the realistic animation, the voice acting feels incredibly natural and comfortable. I daresay, the "acting" in this film is substantially better than the acting of many modern day sci-fi movies.

While the story itself may not be a home run, director Sakaguchi and company keep up a relentless pace, never letting the film get too terribly wordy and preachy. The action scenes are generally well choreographed and intense, and the story moves along at a brisk pace. While you have to deal with some wishy-washy new age mysticism regarding "spirits," and a living Earth, it doesn't really detract from the film as a whole. Yes, the environmental message is pretty heavy-handed here, but it's incorporated well enough into the story and justified enough that it doesn't detract too much. Same with the spirits and mysticism aspect.

A quick word on the ending; I actually rather enjoyed it. It does a good job answering enough questions but leaving the future of humanity and the planet somewhat up in the air. We don't really know if anyone outside of Aki knows exactly how the Earth was "saved," which is a nice bypass of the standard, leave-some-people-alive-to-tell-the-story device.

Ultimately, I consider Spirits Away one of the most surprising animated films I have seen in awhile. While the story doesn't set the world on fire, and the nature of the conflict is a bit cliché, the strong acting, solid lead characters, and exciting pace keep the film very watchable and enjoyable. If you're looking for a true Final Fantasy film, go elsewhere, as this has pretty much nothing to do with the games. If you're looking for a generally exciting sci-fi movie, this should definitely pass the time.

8/10

The Place Promised in our Early Days remains, after my 8th viewing today, a crowning achievement, to me, not just in anime, but in cinema, or even art, as a whole. For 90 minutes, Shinkai sucks us in to a world where emotions and characters matter, as they grapple with each other and show the ways in which they all can affect us.

The movie is Shinkai's first full length feature, after the success of his promising, but ultimately a bit cheesy, 30 minute short debut titled Voices of a Distant Star. Like Voices, The Place Promised in our Early Days (henceforth I will shorten as ... The Place Promised) explores the way that time and distance impact our relationships, but with the full length, Shinkai is able to weave a much more complex, fulfilling, and beautiful tale. His maturation as a director also shows.

If you look up Makoto Shinkai on TVTropes, you might find a mention of him being perhaps the single greatest source of "scenery porn" in the anime world. That's probably true. Shinkai imbues his work with pristine hues and colors, capturing the beauty of sunsets, clouds, night skies, and bustling metropolis's. It's rarely an exaggerated way of doing things; even with the sci-fi element I will elaborate on in a bit, Shinkai firmly places his movies, particularly his last one, in reality. But visually, there is not a better director out there in any form of cinema, animated or otherwise.

However, there are a lot of works that can offer pretty visuals but little substance. Shinkai's work, lucky for us, gives us something to chew on. The Place Promised takes place in a sort of alternate time-line; Japan is split between the South and the North (Hokkaido), the South being jointly administered by Japan and the US. The North is mostly an enigma in this movie; we never see the people inside it or get to visit it, but it contains the most striking feature of the film - a large tower that reaches well into the upper atmosphere, up to the point where planes coast along in the sky.

In southern Japan, three friends find themselves encroaching on adulthood. Two boys; Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa, take up a job putting together guided missiles at a small arms factory during the summer, earning some extra cash and material to work on the thing most occupying their spare time - building a plane to fly across the de-militarized zone the separates the North and South, to the tower in Hokkaido. Sayuri Sawatari, a close friend of theirs, and a possible source of something deeper, is asked if she would like to go along to the tower. She agrees, and a promise is made, and voilà, we have The Place Promised in our Early Days.

Time and change have a weird way of affecting people, and after a beautiful, warm summer day is spent between these three characters, Sayuri is never seen nor heard of again for three years. It seems that somehow, she is connected to the tower in the North, a tower that we learn has the ability to "replace" the space around it with that of another universe.

This is where the sci-fi comes in and the metaphor of the tower works so well. The reason that Sayuri seemed to disappear is that she is now, quite literally, permanently asleep, stuck in a dream world, unable to wake up. The dream metaphor works on two layers here; the dream, as in goal, of the three one day reaching the tower, a goal that now seems long gone, and the power that sleep-dreams actually have over our daily lives. Even the alternate universes that we learn of are described as a sort of "dream world."

The Place Promised packs an emotional punch as the two boys get embroiled in the distinct possibility of war breaking out between the two sides of Japan, and Takuya being directly involved in having the South figure out how, exactly, the tower in the North works. Still, Shinkai never loses site of the human aspect of the film, and the three main characters consistently remain at the center. His pace is deliberate but well-handled, continually expanding on the relationship between Hiroki and Takuya, and their struggles with each other and the world, as they learn about what happened to Sayuri.

This probably sounds very cliché, but the climax of the story hinges on the power that love has over one of the main characters. I'll leave it at that, but it is a thrilling decision that Hiroki makes, and one that could have serious implications for a lot of people.

The other technical aspects of this film are wonderful. Shinkai uses the advantages of anime adeptly; being able to have direct control over camera angles and lighting, Shinkai often "points the camera" away from characters as they talk, allowing you to take in the environment around them. One of my personal favorite little details are small lights that seem to "race" about the inside of a train as two characters have a dialogue.

Tenmon, the composer behind the music, has created a stirring, beautiful soundtrack of graceful violins and touching piano. It hits all the right notes, pardon the pun, peaking and diminishing at the right time, every time.

As Hiroki and Takuya "come of age," so to speak, they realize that, perhaps, some of their childhood fantasies will remain just that, fantasies. You can feel some of the innocence and wonder of these two young men disappear as the world frustrates them, and the weight of adult responsibilities comes to fruition.

Makoto Shinkai, has, ultimately, crafted a wonderful tale about life and love. A coming-of-age story about holding on what is most dear to us, not only our dreams and desires, but those we care about most deeply, and how it affects us if we lose them. Having seen this film 8 times now, I can tell you that the emotional punch has not dulled one bit, and the intrinsic beauty of the characters, the animation, the music, and the story, all help to create one of my favorite works of art from any medium. It is a slow, plodding film, one that will certainly not be for everyone. But if you can put aside the need for a faster-paced film, the wonder and imagination and heart of this film may just take you to a place you rarely get to go. It is, to me, a testament to the beauty that we humans can create.

Bottom Line: A deeply emotional, beautiful, painstakingly crafted film that works both metaphorically and literally, this coming-of-age tale of both love and loss, regret and redemption, is one not to be missed.

10/10