Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
lemonshark06
Makoto Shinkai famously first burst onto the scene with Voices of a Distant Star. This short OVA, nearly entirely self-produced, is technically and artistically impressive, which meant the anime world was waiting with bated breath for his first full-length professionally-staffed production. This is that film. Originally released in 2004, The Place Promised in Our Early Days covers some of the same scenes recognizable from Voices: connection and distance, fleeting youth, sci-fi window dressing without fully-examined worldbuilding.
Place Promised is set in an alternate timeline where Hokkaido has been separated from Japan. We’re never told how or why, and the when is only vaguely implied. Shinkai’s strength comes from his scene setting. Every moment is incredibly deliberate and evocative;…
Read at the sourceCaitlin08
I don't usually comment but I feel this film is being judged too harshly, especially by those who compare it to the directors newer and more popular work your name. While the animation isn't as good and it isn't quite as emotionally intense as your name it still offers a bittersweets storyline that portrays a beautiful friendship and loyalty. The animation is beautiful especially towards the end, the backgrounds help to capture delicate moments and the music used throughout helps to set the mood perfectly. For anyone up late at night looking for something to make them feel deeply whether that’s a little cry, a quiet ache, or just something in the same spirit as Your Name I’d definitely recommend this.
8/10
Read at the sourceDepressionBroz
I feel like this movie gets way too much hate and is oddly charming and heartwarming in its weird little way. Is it poorly written? Maybe. The plot is a bit convoluted and the dialogue is corny, but I just do not understand why this gets as much hate. Watching this right after Shinkai's previous work is like the equivalent of going from getting punched in the face to eating a birthday cake, the improvement is staggering. The environments especially are breath-taking in this one, especially for 2004 standards. The story itself is rather intreguing and kinda heartbreaking. Even if the characters do feel a bit flat the way they interact with eachother feels both very wholesome and heartbreaking at the same time. Yes, this is a Kimi No Na Wa rough draft, so what. A rough sketch of The Great Wa…
Read at the source1stDecame4Danime
Another Shinkai movie repeating the same nonromance of nonlover noncharacters separated and trying to connect (across worlds, get it? just like how the multiverse tower connects the universes pointlessly, it's pointless, this whole movie is pointless). This ain't Your Name (I'm convinced his original script for Your Name was to just end it with the impact reveal of the comet and they never interact ever again before something led to the movie being rewritten with an actual plot by writing the rest and cutting out the filler to get it down to length). This is some scrawled out rough draft rehash with all his usual low effort proclivities (hello again girl foot fetish indulgence shot).
This movie is almost pure filler. It's rough to get through even sped way up. Both the nonromance and the n…
Read at the sourceHalcyon13
A sometimes tedious exercise in slow drama, Shinkai's only defense is him still exploring the themes of alienation and separation in the early stages of his career. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho happened to be his first feature-length production, and likely the substantial foundation for a lot of the romantic metaphors he currently gravitates toward. The film is simple, everything about it is relatively muted, and content in lingering around alternate-history war politics and monologue-driven intimacy with a yearning for a hopeful future. Shinkai's writing isn't as technically sound as some of his later features, and that's apparent in the deliberate assortment of character interaction and science jargon. It frankly suffers a great deal from inadequately contextualizing seemingly import…
Read at the sourceMichaelRusPro
It was an intriguing movie, quite old, so you could say I arrived late to the party.
It was incredibly touching, there was one line from the movie that I didn't quite understand and made me think.
"We've lost the place of our promise in this world, but even so, our lives begin now."
The art style and visuals are vivid and stunning, captivating the eyes.
The music, too, evokes deep emotions, enhancing the overall experience.
Moreover, there was another line that resonated with me on a personal level, as it seemed to reflect my own recent life experiences.
"From here, I thought, I wouldn't have to look at the _____ anymore. But I was in for a disappointment. and I'd be overwhelmed by a depression."
Read at the sourceEDOSHINRATENSEI
On my way to finish all Makoto Shinkai’s featured-lengths.
Now the premise of this movie was one that actually fascinated me. The physics of parallel universe and it’s connection with dream is not super new, but it’s a cool and mind-blowing concept. I liked how the movie set up the premise by making the tower a mysterious being. Also I loved the idea of the two characters connecting with each other through dreams.
However, I think since this is his earliest feature, Makoto-sama couldn’t fully realize this concept. The movie was more grounded than it should have been, but the most regretful part was the connection between the two main characters were not that well done. It seemed simple and lacked in depth. The ending, a pretty obvious one, didn’t really land with me.
Overall, it’s a de…
Read at the sourceMur-CuoreDiVirgo
I love this work by Makoto Shinkai, which I consider a spiritual prequel of the most popular 5 Centimeters per Second. In the same way of the latter, it's particularly emotional, heart-touching and more oriented in exploring the relationship of the main protagonists, by making use of poetic visual art, great use of warm light throughout the scenes, fascinating soundtrack and soft background voice narration.
I found the plot to be on the dystopian sci-fi side and quite interesting on its own, although it never seems to come under reflectors more than the necessary, to ensure somewhat the main emphasis remains on the main protagonists feelings, as well as their emotions and relationships.
Compared to Your Name, it might appear as more slow paced and somewhat boring. However, I found this…
Read at the sourcetarunnihariya
Your Name is the only Shinkai film that I like. I adore that film, it had good characters, good relationships, and a refreshing fantastical charm, and unfortunately, all of his other films fail to deliver on any of those. The only positive thing going on with this film is its art style and animation, but that too sometimes feels clunky and underutilized. Some of the shots are just bad on a camera placement level. The editing is also meh. Let us see and absorb some of these frames and not cut away so quickly.
I liked the idea and concept of the story -- the sci-fi element is interesting. But it is underdeveloped and rushed. Everything else, the character works, and the relationships are just plot devices. Characters are shallow, especially Sawatari. She seems to be in the story to dream an…
Read at the sourceHudsonwt
I don't man, I think I'm just a sucker for Makoto Shinkai's style of storytelling. All of his work is extremely similar tonally and thematically, but so far I've enjoyed pretty much everything that he's made at some level. You can tell that this is a precursor to a lot of his work later on, 5 Centimeters Per Second and Your Name being primary examples. There is a significant jump in quality between this and Voices of a Distant Star on a technical level as well. The plot itself was pretty interesting, keeping me engaged for the entire runtime which I wasn't expecting. Generally with earlier works of a well-known director you expect it to be a little less interesting than their more recent work, but, for me at least, that wasn't the case. Not sure if I'll watch it again, but I honestly would…
Read at the sourceRahat_Dpi
"Slow killer"
It's just a freaking Masterpiece!!! I know a lot of people will not agree but. I know this is slow. but still.... You won't be dissatisfied when you watch this fabulous movie. I won't give any hints or so. But know that, at first you'll it's a non easy. but when the story commences, you'll see this is a heart warming story. I watched it two times straight and every time I was so HIGH, yes High with such emotions racing through my mind! In the end, have this movie for a trip of emotions.
“Jarring and intriguing” is an appropriate way to describe the movie’s story as a whole. Plot progression was logical, but felt unevenly paced. Exposition takes up most of the film while rising action builds rather slowly in the background. It isn’t until the last twenty minutes that anything…
Read at the sourceMxyiee
(NOTE: This review contains a bunch of spoilers.)
"The Placed Promised in Our Early Days" is Makoto Shinkai's first debut feature film back in 2004. It started with two young guys, Takuya and Hiroki, who had admiration to their classmate Sayuri and to a very tall Ezo Tower that stands across the Tsugaru Strait. Japan has suffered from a separation, having North Division occupied by the Soviet Union, and South controlled by America. Takuya and Hiroki started to construct a plane named Bella Ciela, to fulfill their dream one day to reach the sky and see the mysteries of Ezo Tower which was built by the Soviet Union. They were joined later on by Sayuri and they've made a promise to reach that place together. However, the sudden disappearance of Sayuri halted everything they've started and de…
Read at the sourceAnimeBW
Well, I think it’s official; I am not a fan of Makoto Shinkai’s pre-Your Name career. Perhaps it’s by virtue of A Place Promised in Our Early Days being easily the weakest thing he’s ever put out, but watching this film, I couldn’t help but be exhausted by his entire sensibility. He’s spent just over a decade telling and re-telling the same basic story, and no matter how many variations he puts on it or how well he addresses his deficiencies, the basic mechanism by which he tells these stories is fundamentally flawed. His stories drag on and on through countless slow, plodding landscape shots, yet the actual plot is paradoxically rushed and underwritten. The atmosphere does its best to communicate the emotions of yearning, loss and isolation, but the actual characters are wooden ciphers wh…
Read at the sourcecomiclove
The debut film feature of Makoto Shinkai (Your Name.'s director/writer), 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is definitely a strong start to his directorial feature career. With a captivating plot, stunning art design, a beautiful soundtrack, and relatable characters, this film is worth a watch regardless of whether you're a fan of romance anime or not.
[Story - 9]
The story starts out rather well - in an alternate history Japan set in the mid 90's, we follow 3 middle school students - Hiroki and Takuya, 2 child geniuses, and their newfound friend Sayuri. They set out on a rather ambitious dream (to fly to a distant tower with a repurposed drone), which is unfortunately cancelled when Sayuri suddenly vanishes.
While there is a hook there, it still seems mundane at first, right? Fortu…
Read at the sourceelrond99
I've recently been checking out all of Shinkai's older flicks (and I suspect I'm not alone there) after seeing Kimi no Na wa. I feel like you can really see the evolution of a great artist by following the chronology of these movies. The early ones show a lot of potential, but there's something lacking in the execution, while the later ones build on that experience to deliver fulfilling films.
STORY - 7/10:
I wanted to like this story more, but I feel like it's really what's holding this movie back. It feels almost like we're being told half a story. We're tossed into a fairly fantastical sci-fi setting where none of the sci-fi really gets full billing. Apparently there are parallel universes, but they're almost an afterthought - just a plot device to explain away why Sayuri is in a coma…
Read at the sourceRising_Sun
A slice of life with a dose of fiction and a somewhat epic ending. It shows us a truncated romance and the story of three friends whose friendship has a peculiar connection with that tower.
The animation I really liked, beautifully designed landscapes giving a magical atmosphere to certain parts of the story.
The characters are fine, Hiroki and Takuya are two friends with a dream that together with Sayuri (who looks like Akari of 5 Centimeters per Second) form a friendship based on a promise that time, distance and the tower can not separate.
Tenmon and Ai Kawashima give us an incredible Soundtrack offering one of the best musical settings I've seen, giving a nostalgic feel to the movie.
As someone who really likes Slice of Life pretty much I think this is a movie that you will surely…
Read at the sourceBowlingJD
This was director Makoto Shinkai’s first big feature film. Together with Studio CoMix Wave Inc, they have produced some of the most visually and heartwarming anime films to date. Similar to Shinkai’s previous work, Voices of a Distant Star, this film is very reminiscent of it and better. It was created by Shinkai telling a wonderful story about following childhood dreams.
The tale is about three junior high students, Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri who all made a promise to fly across the land to see the top of this massive tower in the distance. This tower was built by another nation to the north which makes this adventure a task of crossing borders. Both Hiroki and Takuya are child geniuses and both have romantic crushes towards Sayuri. She ends up joining them in their dream to rebuild this…
Read at the sourceAli_Q
Another anime movie and surprisingly for me when I checked the details later by same person Makoto Shinkai.
Promise. Its just a word for us but when feelings and honesty is attached to it then it turns into something which you will experience watching this anime movie.
A nice anime movie to watch as the story build is slow but heavy and ends up pretty strong with feelings and emotions.
I liked this anime because it has a build from friendship to un explainable relationship to love to void of feelings but deep affection. The way story begins to where it meets to where it concludes and ends is definitely some really creative writing.
Read at the sourcebenjli
"The Place Promised in our Early Days" is yet another masterpiece from Makoto Shinaki. It offers a sci-fi set in an alternative history, where Japan has been split to two - Hokkaido (in this movie, Ezo) is controlled by the Soviet Union, and the rest of Japan is controlled by the US. The best parts of the movie were the animation (obvious, this is a Makoto Shinaki film...) and the story itself, which is very interesting and emotional. However, it has some plot-holes, and its background is not explained well, and these are the main drawbacks of the film.
The story is about two teenagers, Fujishiwa and Shiakawa, who are fascinated by the huge tower the Soviet Union built in Hokkaido. They rebuild a former fighter jet, and intend to fly in it to the tower. Their friend, Sawatari, is also ver…
Read at the sourceXerxus
The Place Promised in Our Early Days Review (4/10)
This review contains minor spoilers
The first half of the film was heartwarming as we see the connection between three friends with the same dream. But on the other hand, the second half felt extremely boring. The sci-fi genre felt like it completely took over the film, and if you're someone like me, all the talk about parallel worlds were dissapointing. The "parallel world" theme isn't exactly boring but the anime failed to execute it in an interesting way. It almost seemed like it was just there to add a reason to Sayuri's coma. I felt no excitement halfway through film except certain scenes like the reunion between Hiroki and Takuya.
The anime also didn't clearly explain what the point of the tower was and why it was constructed in…
Read at the source
