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First of all, I'd like to say that the key to truly enjoying M3 is having an interest in a series that not only showcases sci-fi/fantasy elements but also has the tendency to go deep into the characters' psyche, exploring their personalities and how they came to be like that. I'd go beyond that and say it's not so much about the story but the journey these people go through and the very simple yet effective and truthful message it’s trying to convey about what connecting with others truly means.

Story 8/10

It starts really slow and sligthly confusing. I'd say this is the main downfall ... for the series, for those that do not find something about it that makes them want to stick with it. The first ten or so episodes are the weakest ones, but they ARE indeed important to develop the background and offer a starting point to the characters. At the end everything comes together nicely.

Art 7/10

I personally found the character designs appealing and distinctive enough. It handles its (I'm guessing) low budget well enough, but it lacks dynamic action, fluid animation or a visually captivating direction. But it gets the job done.

Sound 6/10

The music is good, not spectacular. Voice acting is very good, though you could find a particular character hamming it up from time to time.

Character 9/10

This is where the series shines. It's quite likely that you won't like some characters from the beginning, but them being initially unlikable really works positively for the series since their evolution and reasons for being how they are makes sense in a satisfying way.
Not all of them are particularly interesting, but the crucial ones are. By the end of it, they're people you want to cheer for.

Enjoyment 8/10

This is a very subjective area; I personally found myself enjoying the series more as it went on. It started pretty mediocre and confusing but as the episodes went by it found the right balance. In the end, the good taste left by the second half overcame the bitterness of the first one.

Overall 8/10

I'm a huge fan of sci-fi in many areas: books, movies and anime. In this last form of media in particular, I have enjoyed wildly different stuff, from Gundam to Getter Robo, with series like Votoms or Dougram in the middle. M3 has little resemblance to the real or super robot genre: it's definitely in line with what most of Evangelion talks about, but developed in a much simpler, easier to grasp manner. It's more akin to mystery series in which the characters' motives are the center, such as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

It was a pleasant surprise and I'm sad to discover most people did not find it appealing enough to stick with it until its final episode. What's more it was not commercially successful at all. While it clearly had flaws (slow start; mediocre production values; excessive use of flashbacks; an underdeveloped character), the positives outweigh the negatives and it offers a satisfying story with a clear finale and a more thoughtful focus.

Note: This review was written by me both on my blog and in an anime-related forum. So if you see this somewhere else, it's actually me trying to make this film more well-known.

This last weekend I had the opportunity to watch the tv movie Kawa no Hikari. In a nutshell, the story is about rats that live near a river and must find a new home cause the current one is threatened by a construction site....

...if ANYONE is still reading this after that synopsis and is able to deal with watching a show about talking animals in a serious mood, it's a WONDERFUL story. I ... mean, almost EVERY minute in this movie is relevant to some kind of reflection upon life: what it's like to yearn for something, how "home" is not a physical place but something that is part of you and no matter how good you feel in another place, you can never forget that; how you should rarely judge a book by its cover (interestingly enough, it is done both ways: there are ppl that may seem the same as you on the outside but you cannot put your trust in them); the fact that when you're a parent you're willing to do any stunt or sacrifice to assure your chirldren's well-being, how being different or weak is not a bad thing if you have the right ppl around you; how we should not feel so afraid of death but more willing to actually live; how you should not quit from pursuing your goals, etc etc. It even has some very poetic lines regarding the title (the light of the river); I think a lot of it (the story) works as a metaphor or analogy of many ideas, and even when most of it is pretty simple, or precisely because it doesn't try to feel complex, it works and makes you care as long as you do not have a heart made of stone or require highly realistic stories. With this one, I did some research and it turns out the original author teaches in an University in Tokyo and has a degree in French Literature. IMO I think it shows in the screenplay.

I should clarify that I'm an adult and can be quite skeptical or even cynical regarding some movies; I didn't enjoy some of Miyazaki's works (probably because in a couple of cases he tries too hard to hamfist his love for nature into his stories) and I'm not precisely a huge fan of Disney or fables with morals.

Having said that, I dunno why this beautiful yet apparently simple story did it for me while others didn't. Maybe it was because I felt a connection with Glenn's (a character) personality ( that notion of "knowing that there is more to life than what you're doing but you weren't born with the right mindset to achieve it"), maybe because sometimes I need a story about nice human values and I want a break from all the sci-fi, seinen, shonen or whatever...maybe it's because I like animals...I can't pinpoint just one reason.

But if I can make at least ONE person to give it a try (while knowing that indeed it's aimed at all ages and it doesn't feature big action sequences, moe or gore) and LIKE IT (or GASP, even making a thread about it or recommend it to someone), I would honestly feel happy. In the end, I guess I decided to make such a long post about Kawa no Hikari because I feel that if I don't, no one will.

I don't have kids yet...but if I did, this is one of those movies I would want to see with them (specially to make up for the fact of forcing them to see the gundam movie trilogym, the rebuild of eva movies or many more). I don't want to make it sound like it's the best thing I've ever seen, but I do prefer to overrate it than not mentioning it at all.

Thanks in advance to anyone that manages to read through all of my rambling.