What the heck is ‘United Nation Spacy’?
The first entry for this month is the review Makoto Shinkai’s third work, Hoshi no Koe. At 30 minutes, it is considerably shorter than his first two movies reviewed here, plus it will also be judged with the usual higher standard I use for romance genre titles.
The usual beautiful sceneries in Makoto Shinkai’s movies is also present here.
Story:-
Two middle-school friends were separated when one of them (the female protagonist) was selected to fight aliens in outer space. They keep in touch via e-mail (or is that SMS?) but as the space fleet travel further towards Sirius, the time for the messages to go back and forth become longer and longer. The girl then gets to battle space monsters with awesome mobile suits while her male friend has to worry whether he will get the next message or not.
The story is excellent, better than The Place Promised in Our Early Days but inferior to 5 Centimetres Per Second. The presentation and pacing are done very well, but character development is minimal at best (it’s just 30 minutes). The part that really stands out the most is the ending, which is simply magnificent. This short movie’s ending is vastly superior to the endings of the first two Makoto Shinkai’s movies I have reviewed here before, or the huge majority of the anime I have reviewed here too.
That Sir, is how you wrote an ending. Note to Japan anime writers, WATCH THIS SHORT MOVIE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!
Well, there are not many things I can say about this short movie anyway, except for good things only.
You were chased by a hungry horde of space monsters. What will you choose? A. Retreating like hell to the safety of your mothership that is about to enter hyperspace. B. Looking around frantically for your mobile phone so that you can send a message to your boyfriend.
From the screenshot above, you would have guessed what she has chosen. Women, just like man, minus the reason and accountability.
Character Design:-
Makoto Shinkai’s influence can be easily seen here, thus the character design is of the realistic type. As usual, brown is the new black, but then again the setting of this anime is somewhere in the future. A positive point for this anime.
Mecha/monster designs in this anime are very well done too.
Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is pretty good, but not on the same level as the previous 2 movies reviewed here though. There are no outstanding characters too (as if you can choose between only 2 of them).
The mecha design is surprisingly very well done.
Music:-
The OST is good, but the ED theme is something else. The ED really complement the awesome ending perfectly. Definitely a positive point of this anime.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is excellent, just like you expect from Makoto Shinkai’s brainchild. There are no problems with fast-paced scenes either, and the choreography for the mecha battles is decent and intense. Speaking of that, I think Makoto Shinkai watched too much of The Legend of Galactic Heroes when doing some of the armada battles. The directing, as you may suspect, is the best from all three of his movies reviewed here to date. You will have no complaints for sure.
Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. With the higher standard I use for romance genre titles, this is as good as 10 out of 10 already. The next review will be special, and you should tune in to see what is in store next.
Even if this is not high-definition, the rain effect is still good to watch.
