[Specials]

The BFI presents…5cm Per Second plus its director

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Live events, Makoto Shinkai, Unashamed fanboying]

In case you’re wondering why things have been quiet in recent days, I’ve been out of town. Given the time and expense involved I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing in getting the train all the way to London just to see a movie (admittedly I also met up with one of my closest friends who lives in London now, but still…I actually booked an afternoon off work for this) but as it turns out the hassle was worth it: 5cm Per Second looks great on the big screen. Fantastic actually. Shinkai is also really modest and down-to-earth when talking about his own work, which is evident in recorded interviews but all the more noticeable when you meet him in person - I made handwritten notes of the hour-long interview that followed too, which I’ve posted on the Nakama Britannica blog for those interested.

[2 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

The shorts review #1: Mizu no Kotoba and She & Her Cat

Posted by Martin  [Tags: arthouse, Makoto Shinkai, Yasuhiro Yoshiura]

This post is something of an experiment. There are a few bits of anime that are too short in terms of running time to warrant a post of their own - there simply isn’t enough to say about each one individually so I’ve decided to take on two in one go; the only common feature between them, really, is the fact that they aren’t very long. I don’t stumble on these short-and-sweet pieces very often, so I’m making no promises as to how regular this feature will be (recommendations for more are welcome, people). First up though is Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s nine minute effort Mizu no Kotoba (Aquatic Language) and my long-overdue fanboy rave of She and Her Cat.

[5 Comments]

[Editorials]

Valentine’s Day post: zoom lens love vs. wide angle romance

Posted by Martin  [Tags: ABC, Kare Kano, Makoto Shinkai, Random thoughts, Saikano, True Tears]

The mission, should I choose to accept it: write a Valentines Day post without taking the Holden Caulfield-esque stance that I take towards most things IRL. I didn’t want to limit myself to a True Tears follow-up post so tried to make a list of romance anime I’m familiar enough with to write about; this didn’t get very far either. It did throw up an observation that I found interesting though: my limited experience of romance anime seems to show two main approaches which, in keeping with the anime blogging tradition of inventing new descriptive terms, I’ve decided to call zoom lens and wide-angle lens storytelling. Yeah, I know categorising things can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings but I had to call them something.

Cutest. Couple. Ever.

[6 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

2007 in 12 day 1: 5cm per second

Posted by Martin  [Tags: ABC, Makoto Shinkai, Twelve days of Christmas]

Day 1: One More Time, One More Chance

As part of the ABC’s joint 2007 retrospective, we’re all taking on one post per day for the twelve days leading up to December 25th itself, each one centred around a special moment in the last twelve months…just as Epic Win did, except they started early, being the keen rebels they are. Don’t worry folks, this effort isn’t synchronised so your feedreader shouldn’t collapse under the weight of cross-linking and simultaneous posting. I’ll also be running through them in alphabetical order of title because I’m boring that way. First up is what is possibly my pick of the bunch, 5cm per second.

“Breathe in your own light/dream of your own life/I miss me/I miss everything I’ll never be…” *

[7 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Byousoku 5cm (5cm Per Second)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: iyashikei, Makoto Shinkai, realistic fiction]

“…I can survive, I can endure/And I don’t even think about her/Most of the time…”

Yep, I’ve finally brought my scattered thoughts together as promised. It’s going to be a long one, people, and a few links/trackbacks. Sorry about that. ^_^ I’ve already given my first impressions on part 1 but my feelings of the piece as whole have changed a lot since seeing it in its entirety and thinking over it at length. It’s the kind of movie you can think at length over, and also get a lot of benefit from a repeat viewing or two.

Chapter 1: Oukashou

This could be a stand-alone feature since its storyline and conclusion encapsulate a set of ideas, a time and a frame of mind so perfectly. I won’t reiterate the visual quality at length here since it’s consistent throughout all three links of the ‘chain’; besides, it’s stating the obvious anyway. Perhaps due to Shinkai’s already-established talent for sweeping cityscapes and sunsets, I was actually most impressed with the details - textures, objects and movements that you only notice in everyday life when you’re either bored out of your mind or utterly fascinated by something. I actually enjoy travelling by train and at the time of writing I live near a railway station; I find the sound to be soothing rather than annoying and the idea that a train journey offers time to reflect isn’t lost on me. It isn’t lost on Shikai either it seems, as he ably portrays the tension and impatience that is familiar to anyone who has embarked on a journey in which the destination and time of arrival are of great importance to them.

The concepts of shame, regret and so on are set up in this episode which presents us with what is (to me at least) a familiar sensation of nostalgia but at the same time a feeling of having irretrievably lost something precious and dwelling on the could-have-beens and “I should have…”s. I’ll address this issue later but some of the feelings here echo my own experiences: naming no names (the person in question will probably never read this, but still), I didn’t just understand but felt the uncertainty for the future, the sensation of losing oneself in a moment of peace and ‘togetherness’ and the regret of having found a soulmate who I may never see again.

[7 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Makoto Shinkai]

I could have done an ‘easy’ review today but I felt like a challenge. Like my Haibane Renmei review the other day, this is a piece of anime that I find damned hard to review in any sort of objective way (what you are about to read took over a week); I even made a point of watching Byousoku 5cm to get a clearer idea of where this film stands today as part of Shinkai’s body of work, hoping it would help me and also make this post relevant to the time of writing. I think it can be argued that The Place Promised…’s successor is more sophisticated and ‘grown-up’ but I still have what I can only describe as a sentimental attachment to this one. It isn’t a perfect film, it isn’t even his best and it lacks certain elements that its successor - and predecessor - have, but I’ll get to those in a minute. It is, however, still special and moving enough for me to comment on it at excessive length.

[6 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Voices of a Distant Star

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Makoto Shinkai]

Yeah, I know I’d reviewed it before but I wasn’t too happy with the way it read for some reason. It’s also a slow day so I might as well post up another oldie, but apparently 5cm Per Second will be released Stateside at the end of the year so I guess it’s kinda relevant.

The idea of love traversing the infinite distance of outer space is a particularly well-used one in the realms of animated science fiction. From the seminal Super Dimensional Fortress Macross to the heart-tugging Gainax OAV Gunbuster and many others before and since, viewers have seen countless couples separated by the consequences of intergalactic warfare so the premise of Makoto Shinkai’s Voices of a Distant Star is hardly an original one. Furthermore the entire OAV is little more than 25 minutes in length - scarcely enough time for a film to realise its full potential.

A walk by the railway

I know it’s unusual for me to outline the shortcomings of a feature before mentioning its plus points or even a plot synopsis, but the merits of Voices of a Distant Star must be viewed with these criticisms in mind. Shinkai famously animated it on his own using Lightwave and a Mac so writing it off as being too short or a little amateurish when placed beside the likes of Madhouse and I.G. is unfair to say the least. Taking a less sympathetic view though, can it be enjoyed as a movie without using its humble origins as an excuse for its limitations?

Noboru’s agonising wait

[4 Comments]

[Site Announcements]

5cm per second licenced…and other bits

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Makoto Shinkai]

Fans of Makoto Shinkai (i.e. those of you who share my obsession) will be overjoyed to hear that its Western licence has been picked up: by, unsurprisingly, ADV. Since they have Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in our Early Days already this is pretty much a given but the official announcement is always nice when you’re making a mental note of when to keep a lookout for the DVD. Unfortunately then I won’t be following up the series in my fansub reviews but I’ll post a DVD-related rave as and when, which to my mind is even better still.

[2 Comments]