Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
AkiraMiyazaki17
Bought this film purely out of curiosity after discovering it in a charity shop, and decided to go in virtually blind. The first act is absolutely stellar, with the kind of stunning sci-fi/fantasy art and world building I’ve come to love from slightly older anime (reminiscent of Escaflowne). After that, it goes downhill, rushing through its story, introducing some very jarring CGI animation, and constantly drowning you in visuals and concepts which are painfully derivative of Castle in the Sky (and occasionally Nausicaä). It has all the makings of an anime classic, but unfortunately it falls short. I will say however that theme song is absolutely beautiful: it really elevates that jaw-dropping opening sequence.
Read at the sourcenikqiv
I'm just gonna flat out say that this movie is just okay. It's not a bad movie, it has a great artstyle and great set up. I really enjoyed the character design and the world in this movie. But they just don't do anything with it that matches the excitement created in the world. There is so much they could do with this that they just didn't. It was too tame for the build up they created, and it led me to feeling disappointed. It's an okay movie to kill time with, or something you go into with low expectation, but I think the fact that this movie had a 7 rating and the fact that it was such a cool idea, got me really hyped, just to leave me feeling shot down. I think this movie had insane potential, and it's a shame that the story took such a predictable route that falls short. It tries to b…
Read at the sourceOneFaintingRobin
I've never seen a film that seems so genuinely unsure about what it wants to be. To an extent, I think it mostly wants to be a dystopian science-fiction alternative to the historical fantasy of 'Princess Mononoke', and that's not a bad idea in the slightest. And it puts the pieces in motion well. Introduces enough characters to build a story around, a compelling enough mystery box of a female lead, some good world-building. But at a certain point it sort of loses track of everything, and by the end I found myself a little confused as to what it was trying to do, be, or say.
Because I do think the 'Princess Mononoke' comparison is apt, I think it's tonally similar, and aesthetically similar to a degree, and I think that the film thinks it's thematically similar, but it's just... it's not s…
Read at the sourcesaintsinn
Rating: 6
This anime is beautiful but it lacks in its stoy aspect. If it was given more time - say 1-2 more movies it would be great. It seems rushed but it is forgiven for its amazing art and music. Even when they reveal the reason for the plot, it makes little to no sense.
It is an anime film that you can watch half way and drop off only to continue a week later to finish it off without really caring. It is a bit of a shame that the anime art work is really good and the music itself is amazing too.
If your just watching it for the sake of it, you will like it. If you care about the story - then you will be very disappointed.
The thing I really did hate was the main guy (agito?) screaming for TOOOOOLA as if he was navy from zelda.
The anime was boring but beautiful.
Read at the sourceNyarlatAnime
Review in one word: TOOOOLLLLAAAAAAAA
Review in two words: Missed Potential
Lets start with the good.. This movie has some really excellent environment art and use of colors. The world itself feels familiar while looking just a bit alien. This fits the story, of course, and the opening sequences of Agito waking Toola up from sleep are very well done. There is CG in there, but it is mostly well blended (though the characters themselves stand out, in a not so great way). In fact, it still stands up well today and thats something to at least be a bit proud of when it comes to CG in general, much less something that was made about 15 years ago.
The opening song and general tone setting at the beginning is very, very well done. I would easily recommend the first 20-30 minutes of this movie to…
Read at the sourcecrazycatwizard
I can sum this anime into one word:
TOOOOOOLLLLLLLAAAAAA.
If you watched the movie you will very much understand this.
All in all it was a average experience as far as a anime movie goes. You can tell that there was a lot of inspiration from the famous Hayao Miyazaki, which is not always bad but when your work comes close to one of Miyazakis film and you end up comparing and you cant help but feel disappointed.
The start of the anime really had me captured and I was generally interesting to hear how the world had progressed to the state that it was in, since you can still see left over ruins from a civilization that looks very similar to our modern day city's. unfortunately the reveal was not very interesting and felt boring compared to the world so far. The forest had interesting ele…
Read at the sourceJonah_Lee
At first I was sold by the amazing art style and the animation. The concept of humankind attempting to transcend nature only for the plan to backfire was still acceptable. The opening delivers an impactful backstory to the plot. However there are pedantic errors that I felt frustrated while watching it.
The voice acting was terrible to say the least. No offense to the sound supervisor I think they really did an amazing job at the sound effects. But the voice acting is so out of place that it makes me think that they have no idea of their roles. Like who sounds so soft when falling off a ledge?
The voice acting was a major turn-off but there's more. The logic is debatable. How does a walking volcano not spill the lava from underneath ?
Lastly, the story could have gone better. Why let th…
Read at the sourcegulnan
This is an example on how to have an amazing idea for creating a piece of art and then executing it in an extremely poor manner. Minor spoilers will appear at the end of this review.
Let's start with what is good: the backgrounds. They are incredibly detailed, providing the viewer with so much eye-candy that you might as well press pause whenever there's a scene with a forest and spend a good few minutes admiring the work that was put into them.
Second good thing, the music. Although I expected a bit more after an amazing opening song that was immediately saved for my music playlist, it is still good nonetheless, serving both as a mood setter for scenes and a pleasant experience alone. I'd say music and background artworks are the best features of the film.
And here it goes downhill. While…
Read at the sourcetherex55213
I've never seen a film strawman both sides of its own argument before, so that's new. If you want to watch something that looks good and deals with the industry vs nature concept well, watch Princess Mononoke. If you want to waste something like an hour and a half presenting "nature good because reasons, industry bad because reasons", without ever finding out why or learning a good moral of coexistance between civilization and nature, feel free to sit down with this film. Honestly, its strictly binary outlook, and its wholly absent representation for why beyond caricaturing both sides as stubborn and unwilling to self-examine does the beautiful art and music in this film great injustice.
Skip this, go watch Princess Mononoke again, and download the OST for this, because that's the most goo…
Read at the sourcexehnri
(2018) For an anime movie made in 2009, it has aged well. Both the art and sound gave an immersive experience. However, half-way through I found it hard to continue watching the movie because both main characters are unlikeable.
"SPOILERS AHEAD"
The female MC, Tula, made a very poor and thoughtless decision with overreaching consequences. For someone who is supposedly from the past and has an educated background, she neglected asking important questions. Meanwhile the male MC, Agito, seems to be motivated by infatuation throughout the movie and the life-changing decisions he made were not his own and were made for him by others.
Read at the sourceeienOwO
Nature vs. machine, yes it's THAT again, yes, it's THAT predictable. What's the problem? The message doesn't work because 1 - the characters are downright annoying in their attempt to force their own beliefs on others, and 2 - "nature" which we're "supposed" to side with is actually the greatest EVIL of all!
Why does the best friend's little sister have a rivalry with the female lead? It adds nothing to the plot and only makes her appear whiny and immature! Why did the Colonel sabotage the lunar project? For vanity? Personal belief? Hell if I know!
And the main male lead, oh boy, what an obnoxious bible-basher! - he will hunt you down until he converts you into a tree-hugger like him, and if you say "NO!" for the umpteenth time, he can only repeat "why not???" as if the concept that peop…
Read at the sourcePhantom_Evans
I originally watched this movie on Netflix as either an 8th grader or a freshman in highschool. Around that time I really enjoyed the movie. Then around December of 2016 I decided to rewatch the movie in the same english dub form that I did when I watched it all those years ago. I can safely say that I was too easily ammused.
Now the positive sides I have for the movie include the world it creates, the animation, and the music.
It's the rest of the movie i have problems with, the story I believe is a bit mediocre, and most of it is a missed opportunity with the world that the writers had created. The characters I felt were kind of one dimensional and bland, and the villain's plan and motivation were moronic. And seeing as I watched the dub I should review that as well, the dub wasn't "…
Read at the sourceBabyGirl06301
I watched this movie FOREVER ago, so I don't remember the fine details, but I do remember that it was breathtaking.
The first thing that comes to mind is the art and how grand and amazing it was. The next thing is the story. It was so magical and enveloping; I remember getting lost in it all.
The last thing is the characters. I felt so connected with them, and I wanted to learn more about them as well as their connection to the city.
As I said, I can't remember much of this movie, but I remember how beautiful and captivating it was, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about watching it. In fact, I may do a rewatch of it myself. I could use some magic in my life right about now.
Read at the sourcepelican_antics
Upon watching the first 20 minutes of this anime I was delighted by the world design and art. The opening sequence was for me a masterpiece of storytelling. However, after the initial introduction to the world and its characters, the movie went downhill exceedingly fast. While the quality of animation kept up with the beginning, it lacked cohesiveness, and seemed to push for an ever grander scale of wonder that pushed the integrity of the artistic value way over the line.
As for characters, there are none, only empty voids giving shape to an ever increasingly erratic plot. There is no reason for writing to be this bad in a movie that had so much effort put in to the world design. It feels like they made specific plot points on a timeline but didn’t know how to connect them. Except for th…
Read at the sourceLordDanny
When I first watched this film I was mesmerized with just how beautiful the soundtrack and environments were. There are some stunning visuals in this movie and each music score is made for specific scenes, unlike a lot of anime which just repeats the same music for scenes with the same emotion (sad scenes, fight scenes etc.).
This film does actually have some great characters with potential, but it's just sad that the creators of the film didn't develop them enough. The film focuses mostly on Toola and Agito while other characters either only have small moments when they are focused on or they are not focused on at all.
I thought that Agito was a likable character to start with, but when he became enhanced he seemed to lose his adorable personality. I found his moments with Cain to be…
Read at the sourceHabitPlays
Origin: Spirits of the Past follows Agito in a world where humans and the forest no longer live peacefully. In Agitos attempt to get extra water for his father he is caught by the forest and in his attempts to escape he stumbles across, Tula a girl put to sleep inside of experimental coffins in which people from the past can awake in the present day. Throughout this series you see humans struggle against the forest or so they thought. This is a heart warming story of preservation of humans, the earth, and a love story of two kids from another time. I personally think this series is fantastic with a great art style for the time. Along with a great story and characters to grip you into the story. There are very few minor things I didn't really like I'm not sure it really held up with time. I…
Read at the sourceashlex
Honestly, let me start by saying i'm a little biased against mecha anime but that doesn't mean I dislike all of them - I found Innocent Venus to be quite enjoyable. I didn't really like Giniro no Kami no Agito though, although i'm not entirely sure why. It just felt quite dry and bland with not much character development.
STORY- The plot doesn't sound too bad, actually. Maybe it was due to the plot execution?
ART - It was okay. Above average, I guess.
SOUND - Let me first say that the only reason I watched this was because I really liked the ending song "KOKIA-Ai no Melody". Ehh... but other than that, the OST is so-so. Nothing memorable, but not bad either. I do like the vocal OST before the ED though.
CARACTER - Maybe because it was due to the lack of character development, but I didn'…
Read at the sourceCheesecakeDragon
heres a shitty review.
fuckijn ell, i tried to like it. especially with the intro. great song and visual and it felt good. i was enthralled. not 100% perfect mind you but certainly an astonishing intro. then the opening sequence thing. also good at showing some world but its lacking in places. for example it could establish towns customs and worlds lore visually (since post-apocalyptic setting and by nature very different) and does some but not much. instead it goes for a more character driven/development way. i could of handled this if the characters weren't also shit. they're stupid (both in actions and as characters knowing things they shouldn't know), unlikable and not developed enough. characterization was thrown out the window (except that 'main character throws an important personal…
Read at the sourcejejealam
the plot is very interesting, but the way they delivered it, was weak and confusing. some of the concepts aren't explained well. Also, the events were expected and easy to predicate.
There is no character development, and most of the introduced characters don't do much.
The art was amazing but again it's very common among the anime films.
what i liked the most about this movie are the soundtrack, pretty impressive.
Read at the source-Hotaru_
"We cannot command nature except by obeying her."-Sir Francis Bacon
There is a time and space when the world changed overnight, all that was left were a few survivors, ruins and over these,governing as a mighty shadow,was the forest. It obeys no one, but needs to be obeyed,it isn't the same nature we knew,it is chaotic,destructive and belligerent. However, even in these harsh conditions, man learned to adapt, trying to co-exist even with this hostile nature. After a harsh struggle,man finally reached an agreement with the forest. They may reconstruct a town to live over the ruins,in exchange of a few of them being possessed by the forest, sharing the mind of forest,turning with time into a tree themselves, reuniting with the nature.
Amid this pre-existed rules, comes a strange girl,named T…
Read at the source
