Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
UsanBergling
Quick review here;
This movie is interesting to say the least. An odd one for sure, but for some it may be a masterpiece.
As the time went, I just waited for something to happen. The beginning was great. quick and smooth interaction between the characters and the story started developing really quickly. However, as soon as our protagonists reached Agartha, something changed. It felt like, the diretors didn't really know what to do. Add some scary monsters here, make an important, but not to important character die etc.
Suddenly they were talking about life and death, living and the dead. It felt like they wanted to do a lot more than they managed to do. The citizens of Agartha were so weird as well. They didn't really do anything, nor had comprehensive reasons.
However, this movie has some…
Read at the sourceDepressionBroz
I think this is perhaps the lightest, featheriest 5 I've given a film. It's like on the cusp between a 4 and 5. The reasoning for this is that the quality gap between the writing and the art of this film is massive. The OST is georgous, perhaps the best from Tenmon we've ever seen. However, the story is incredibly tedious and monotonous with Shikai attempting to go full Studio Ghibli. On one hand it's a bit nice that each of his earlier films did not turn out to be beta versions of Kimi No Na Wa, on the other hand this seems kinda worse in several aspect. This film surprisingly doesn't do that bad at creating a fantasy-type world. The visuals and music especially are phenominal. You can tell here Shinkai not only knows how to draw people finally but the visuals are on par with Kimi No Na W…
Read at the source1stDecame4Danime
Lots of parts are very reminiscent of Laputa Castle in the Sky but this is far worse, really wastes 2 hours of screen time on barely anything. It's more like Shuna's Journey or The Boy and the Heron or The Cat Returns, hell even like Paradise Island or Atlantis or any other of a million stories just like it that journey into the mcguffin fantasy land to do the mcguffin thing. The problem is this doesn't do anything with it. It's a generic journey through the Underworld to save the dead lover noncharacter, and even lampshades itself as such.
I'm confused why they decided to do such a 1-note story stretched over so much nothing that it develops neither characters nor much of anything beyond a bunch of pointless wandering, exposition, and chases, while simultaneously having almost nothing to…
Read at the sourceAnimetrack07
Story: Much of a new genre story, Unexpected twists and turns. Adventurous for sure.
Characters: the respect, coordination, waiting, wanting, giving and spirited all are up for the whole movie.
Art: it's great that all those spiritual sensation made through the vision of the anime artist.
Fitting: as like most Comixwave productions involves cat as their privilege of honorable tradition hereby it shows the exact timing where it's the purpose of most of the main leads taking them to their destination throughout the journey. Love cats!!
Overall: Typically the music, the soul and the humility all go hand on hand with this anime movie, it may seem to lag but worth to give it a go and to wander upon :)
Read at the sourceDrakestalker
Makoto Shinkai’s massive success for the past decade, which even he seems to be surprised by, has led to him being incessantly called “the new Miyazaki”. Why? Why would he be called that? The compliment is effectively a result of Western media being incapable of discriminating wildly distinct filmmaking styles and its tendency to just label any breakaway success in Japanese animation as a competition to find the next Miyazaki.
This sort of cartoonishly oversimplified heuristic thinking reminds me of a particular gag from The Big Bang Theory. If you’re unfamiliar, TBBT features an Indian (dots, not feathers) character, Raj, who has a crippling fear of women, to the point that he literally becomes mute when in their presence. However, if he ingests alcohol, however little, he becomes very r…
Read at the sourceBensonas
There are seemingly a number of conflicting views on the quality of this film. Some people think its awful, one even giving it a 2/10 (no offence to this person but if this is a 2/10, I'm sure sure how realistic their 10/10s are). Some people have mixed feelings seemingly not connecting with the story, characters or general vibe of the film and then there is me, i thought this was so so close to a masterpiece and i will try to explain why.
First off, the animation. Its a Makoto Shinkai film, of course it has incredible animation, but the world depicted here is stunning. Everything, as always, looks gorgeous. This film however, for me anyway, had a certain charm that others, including Your Name, Zuzume and 5 Centimetres does and I find it very hard to explain it. I think the world here is…
Read at the sourceNerdodivergent
This movie is so unbelievably strange.
Let's start with the positives; it is a pretty good film. The art style is captivating, especially with the use of light and shadows throughout. It's a beautifully fantastical world with so many twists. Watching the characters grow as they interact with each other is really great. Overall I did enjoy watching it.
But there are so many scenes where I felt like I had to physically stop the film just to comprehend what the heck is happening. Just rattling off there's a scene where a little adorable cat is eaten by a creature in a really gorgeous and tear jerking way, the main characters get eaten, there's a giant hole in the middle of the earth, multiple people die like multiple times like it's nothing, and that's just the tip of this very confusing ic…
Read at the sourceEDOSHINRATENSEI
Honestly kinda surprised with this one. Watching other Shinkai’s movies, I realized that his story usually lacks something that made an impact for me, except Your Name of course. This movie still had this problem for me, but I think the execution was slightly better. There was a surprising amount of blood and violence in this one. The creatures also looked scarier than in his other films. Also the story itself was bleaker than usual, which I think made for a bigger impact.
The problem with this story was about the main girl. I understood the loneliness that she had, and how she felt a quick connection with Shun (not Shin). However, I think there should have been more time between them because the story seemed to be about how she had to move on from Shun. This made her relationship with S…
Read at the sourceEvenWeirder
Hot take: this is still my favorite Shinkai film, and the one that made me explore the rest of his filmography. While this film is flawed, this is the one from him that emotionally resonated the most for me.
I've called it the depressing "Spirited Away", since it takes the concept of that movie but focuses on heavier subject matter of loss, grief, and regret. Some of the plot elements are half baked or incomplete, but this show has a vibe that has stuck with me upon first viewing.
I also believe this has the best animation of all his films. His later films have a modern and glossy look to them that rely more on CGI. His earlier films on the other hand were janky as they were still working with new technology and a lower budget. The animation for this film is right in the sweet spot of f…
Read at the sourceFAKECROSS97
Ah, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo. A true masterpiece in the world of anime. This film has it all: adventure, romance, and a healthy dose of confusing plot points.
The story follows a young girl who embarks on a journey to find her missing father, meeting various strange characters along the way. It's like Alice in Wonderland, but with less tea parties and more ancient relics.
The style of this anime is truly breathtaking. The animation is so beautiful that you'll forget all about the fact that you have no idea what's going on. The colors are vibrant, the landscapes are stunning, and the character designs are...well, they're definitely unique.
Speaking of characters, we have the typical anime protagonist who starts out as a clueless child but eventually becomes a strong, independent young adult. T…
Read at the sourcealisairmak
I was very hopeful when I started watching, but after I finished it, I didn't feel satisfied at all. I sensed the mood of Ghibli Studio's, Your Name and Evangelion, but it was not as successful as they were. The plot was good, if it had been handled better, it could have been a great anime movie. The setting and character drawings were beautiful. I didn't like their music at all, I don't even think there's any decent music in it. As a result, I think it is a waste of time and I do not recommend it to anyone.
Read at the sourcetarunnihariya
I did not want to write this review, but I am so disappointed that now I have to. Makoto Shinkai is fucking overrated. He has made one good movie: Your Name (2016). Everything else he made is shit, a good-looking turd, but still a piece of turd. His art style is eye-pleasing, I won't deny that, but his stories are so dull and messy that I can't even imagine that he is the same guy who wrote Your Name.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (CWCLV, dumb title) is, in my opinion (and in many others), an attempt to create and capture the charm of a Miyazaki film. There are direct and indirect parallels between this movie and Howl's Moving Castle or Princess Mononoke. Aspects like the look of the characters, the world design, and the themes seem derivative of (but not as good) Ghibli films. The music…
Read at the sourcepaintpixie
I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was very good.
I think it does a nice job of explaining the importance of life and death, and it gave me a feeling of appreciation for the people in my life. It does a good job of showing how people cope (or don't cope) with death, and how tragedy can really consume a person. It also shows why it is important not to let tragedy consume you because life is worth enjoying, but also that grief is a part of life.
The underground world in the story was interesting. That's probably the thing I found to be the most interesting, as well as the entanglement of the underground world with "our" world.
This is the type of movie that I could play over and over again. It's really good.
Read at the sourceSailorCat_YT
I really like the movie and the story entertained me. I especially like the dark theme of death and loss.
My main negative point is: They travel to Agartha after 40 minutes! The introduction takes too long, they should have spent more time in Agartha. Unfortunately this leads to some themes not being explored or explained enough.
But apart from that, it's a great movie. Agartha is a very interesting world. The artstyle is amazing, as always in Shinkai's movies! You could just pause at a random scene, print the screenshot and use it and hang it on your wall like a piece of art.
Read at the sourceAh-hey-go
The first thing you’ll notice about this movie is that it’s made by Makoto Shinkai which means “Oh wow look at dem gwaphics”.
I never really understood why people compared Makoto Shinkai to Miyazaki until I saw this film. Prior to watching this my whole experience with his work was sadboi cuck shit (5 centimeters per second), sadboi foot shit (The Garden of Words) and Freaky Friday (I forget which movie this one was…it probably isn’t important), none of which seemed even close to anything Miyazaki had ever done, yet within the first 10 minutes of this film I understood that this was a Miyazaki clone. I’m not going to say too much on this point as Digibro (fuck…it’s Digi-Nee) already did that in her (or should I say his video since Digi identified as male when he made that video) Makoto Sh…
Read at the sourcenotdepressedyet
Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo / Children Who Chase Lost Voice is more than just an adventure movie.
If you are looking for more than an adventure and action movie, this movie is for you.
The movie is full of profound messages about life, death. It is a path to self-discovery. The film goes much further than a simple adventure to a new land, it is more a film to analyze and understand strong concepts that we often ask ourselves and do not understand.
Furthermore, history is full of color. Asuna's character is well developed throughout the story, in conjunction with the other characters. However, the movie has some flaws, is somewhat slow in terms of the development of the plot, or fails a bit in the main motif of some characters. Despite all this, this does not make it a bad or unpleasant movie at a…
Read at the sourceAoi_no_sora
I feel im being nice with this score 6, since this movie is boring.
This is a ghibli wanna be, a ghibli withouth sustance movie.
I can use this movie as an example on how nowdays anime care so much about aesthetics over plot, just cuz something is beautiful doesnt mean not to care about the writing .
Art: 10/10
This is the only reason i continúe to watching this movie, is very beautiful, however its like i was watching a mash Up of a lot of ghibli movies, like howls and laputa , and the valley of the wind desings.
Sound: 8/10 nothing special Characters 3/10
Something i love about ghibli movies IS the characters, they are so unique, they have goals, ambition, motivations, and more important, hayao love a female lead, a strong one, all her female character are so rich, so powerfull, thi…
Read at the sourcemouthpiece
So this girl sees these monsters and is saved by a boy from the underworld. And she goes there, and she is chased around by some freaks and… WHAT IS THE POINT IN ALL THIS?
Disappointed! This is how I felt after I finished this film. Wanna know why?
1) The director
Makoto Shinkai is quite famous for his tragic romantic tales. Voices of a Distant Star and 5cm per Second are amongst the few romances even an uncaring bastard like myself enjoyed. So it was reasonable to expect yet another film regarding a tragic romance. Because, duh, Shinkai never made anything else. And to my amazement he now did. And it wasn’t good.
2) The studio
Studio Comix Wave is new but has made an impressive work so far. The thing is, with this film it feels like it is trying to rip-off Ghibli Studio instead of tryin…
Read at the sourceRyanSpring
I'm a big Shinkai fan and have thoroughly enjoyed several of his other works, but honestly if I'd not known this was directed by him I probably wouldn't have ever guessed it. For me this really lacked the heavy interpersonal focus and emotional impact that his other films like 5 Centimeters Per Second, The Garden of Words and Your Name had.
This was, as usual for this director, visually lovely and very colorful, and it's a creative fantasy adventure, but overall I just wasn't all that entertained. The characters were not developed and I had no emotional attachment to them whatsoever, the voice performers were very average and only one song in the entire soundtrack stood out to me. I don't think this is a bad film, but I don't think it's anything special either, and for me this is the low…
Read at the sourceAppleDangani
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
By: Makoto Shinkai
March 29, 2019
Overall: 8.4
Plot: 7
Not looking at the genre of this story, never did I thought that it will show a very different one than what I'd expected it to be. It will catch the viewers attention and incite them to go further through the story. It was fascinating at first. The way every details of it falls and gives more impact on how the story goes, how every information makes their way to be known to their audience is interesting. What I find lacking is its capability to sustain the kind of concept it started. No matter how exciting a story was, the need to justify every bit of information that was shown to the viewer is very very important.
The story takes place on a rural area focusing on a girl who has a hobby of searching…
Read at the source
