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Manages to visualize the characters and their problems very well, and with great animation. The soundtrack felt like it matched well with the mood of the scenes and was pretty soothing.

Sadly, the short length of the film makes it so that sacrifices had to be made regarding 2 of the main characters. It made it feel like it might have been better to just focus on the two who got the most time and skip the rest if the time had to be kept.

Preferably, though, it would've been long enough to properly convey all of them, as the situations brought up are extremely relevant.

The pacing ... and writing felt like it suffered from the length as well. There were scenes who felt like they didn't have enough space to breathe, even when they tried to convey tranquillity. It also felt like the dialogue was cut short or made choppy in order to fit it within the time slot it had. Both of these combined made the mood feel somewhat butchered at times.

Still a good film, though, if you have 40 min to spare.

A truly odd film this is, it somewhat feels like a dream, in an almost poetic kind of way.
The lightning in this is beautifully used, with the blacks really standing out and being very smartly designed.

I honestly can't say that I understood too much of the plot, however I think that kind of is the charm, since it allows the viewer to fantasize or just engulf themselves in the sounds and imagery shown. Somewhat not unlike the Souls games in that it doesn't seem to have a lot of story to it, but if you start digging you might dig up more than ... you fancied.

Can't believe it was made 35 years ago.

A film that starts off with the potential of being great but tries to do too much and ends up being okay but with that lingering feeling of what might have been. One of the reasons that it has such a great potential is that is does something that Japanese media often avoids, and that is talking about mental health issues in the younger generations.

As depicted in the film, instead of trying to help Naruse, the society just tries to look away. It's not even just the society but her classmates and even her mother, not noticing that she's becoming one of those many cases ... of half shut-ins that Japan has. The thought of having someone with a mental health issue in their home is a blemish on their reputation as a family, especially after what they have already going through and as her mother even says "Think of what the neighbours will say".

However, after a while this pretty harsh social commentary seems to fade away from memory as a standard anime romance plot takes precedence instead, which is a real shame. Though, the romance plot in itself is somewhat interesting as it is somewhat unconventional but the tools used to drive the story becomes as anime standard as they come. The ending scene is also a real "What on earth?!" moment as it honestly comes out of nowhere, and feels like a "We need a more happy ending". Because somehow the director forgot that the happy ending was already given with the issue of mental health being resolved, either that or they thought that the Japanese audience would yet again overlook the issue and wanted another ending, who knows.

The animation and music was great, also one of the few anime that has a musical that I would gladly watch myself because it seemed to be enjoyable both in direction and plotwise.

A visual feast, over the top and with a colouring that felt like a shotgun to your face, but of visual enjoyment. A compliment I certainly didn't see myself saying about a mostly CG anime production, but here we are.

However, there is not much else to say about the film. The soundtrack really took the backseat, compared to the visuals, instead of riding shotgun. The characters had little to none character development and all in all felt pretty flat in terms of emotional depth. The plot, what plot?, as one may wonder at times, was really lacklustre and with no character development to drive it, ... it all fell all too fast.

Despite the criticisms, it wasn't a horrible film though, I did enjoy it and the over-the-top-ness that this film has. It is so over the top that it makes you laugh in amazement at times but all in all it makes for a pretty mediocre film saved by its fantastic visuals.

You are met by a view, a fantastic watercoloured view of a small town in Japan. Your view, Suzu. Not everything is what it seems though... Outside this calm view of yours there is a war taking place, and it's not any war either, it's a world war.

However, things doesn't change, life goes on as usual and it goes pretty well. The thing is, things do change, no matter how hard you try not to notice it, you start to notice the small changes. The radio always on broadcasting hurried dialogues for the local station, your niece knowing the names of enormous boats in ... the harbour. Then, as unexpected as cranes fleeing, the floods of war is upon you.

Life suddenly can be taking in the blink of an eye and loved ones can disappear forever, however you still need to be strong. If you are strong even the explosions can seem as specks on a watercolour painting and the planes as birds in the sky. Being strong is hard though, isn't it? Being strong as everything you love is slowly taken away from you like pages ripped from a notebook.

You can't take it, can you? Wouldn't it be nice to just give up and embrace it, embrace the eternal sleep as a blessing? Can you? Can you really leave now, do you really want to turn into yet another page ripped away? You have to turn back, you have to protect what is yet left to save.

As quick as it came, it is all over, it goes out with a big bang but it is over. The time has come to live again, it is difficult, isn't it? Living while others did not?

However, instead of focusing on what's lost, why not focus on what can be saved? Help someone else who's pages are all torn out and give them a new notebook to fill with their scribbles. I'm sure that's where you will find comfort, comfort together with the other empty notebooks, all filling the blank papers with warmth and comfort, hoping for a better tomorrow.

Thank you Suzu, thank you for sharing this with me.

Beautiful animation, though not quite on the same levels as they have produced in other films. The problem comes with the stories, firstly because of the short run time and the choice of making 3 short films rather than 1 long or 2 semi-short. This makes it so that there never really is that much time to delve deeper into the characters in each one, so they feel kind of distant and not as relatable as they could be.
There is also an issue with how the films build up their climax and end game, because there is no build up. They introduce the characters, ... drop a bomb and then leave the empty characters to try to clean up the mess. Not an ideal scenario if you want to make touching stories.
The last story was by far the best, but even then the progression was as clear as a guess 1 sec into the future, especially if you have seen Makoto's films before this.
Take Your name., which the marketing was based upon, as an example:
* Remove 90% of the film by condensing the beginning of the film to 5 min, take 10 from the middle and squash it together and then take the last 10 min and cut it into 5 min.
* Cut it together so it sort of makes sense.
* Wholá, a finished short film! Yeah, "great".

A wonderfully animated adventure of an old folk lore, with amazing music and art style. The art style is really distinct and is used quite admirably to visualize the emotions in the film. Especially the scene where Kaguya is running is certainly dazzling and the beautiful pastel colours when they are outside is a sight to behold.

The story's themes of culture and the unnecessary rules placed upon us by beliefs of others, as well as how we should embrace life as is, even the shortcomings as something beautiful, are things I think most people really should be reminded about.

As beautiful as you would expect from a Shinkai film, except that it's also too much of what we've come to expect from him. There's still the weird obsession he has with breasts and the "powerful/strong" female character that ultimately only services as a love interest with a sad backstory. It feels too much like his previous works, except that the backgrounds and cinematography techniques evolves. That being said, it's still a good film, it just isn't what it could be if Shinkai moved past his seemingly set path of storytelling, and just experimented a bit more, trekked new story paths.