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| I liked the movie very much but some things were iffy to me. Especially at the last minutes. It would have liked it more if Morisaki just returned with Asuna and would have accepted it. He seemed to like her more throughout the movie and then this happened... Also the last few seconds with Shin. They showed a wound on his arm which was the exact same that Shun had. And even the same bandage. Just why??? I don't get it. Still I'll give it a 8/10. |
| It was a very good movie but, i still have a lot of questions like, where did asuna's father got that crystal? How did he died? Why did Morisaki stayed behind? And did asuna gave her 'scarf' to shin at the end, like she did at the beginning with shun? Well, on another note, I really like the artwork. Especially when the 'camera' was showing the sky, when the small clouds are farther away from the closer ones. To me, it was breathtaking. At the end, i think if my questions would of been answer i would of given it a 9, but ill give it a 8/10. |
| There's no magical spell to save someone's life. |
| Really good movie but super shitty ending so 3/10 |
| Great movie and really enjoyable. The ending was weak and the violence was a bit too strong for my taste (Especially in the nightmare sequence), but I still felt satisfied after watching it. 8/10 Would've been great with a bit more background story from the main characters (Asuna's Dad, Shin, the substitute teacher) but oh well. |
| Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! Muscle Muscle! Hustle Hustle! |
| First 20minutes I'm not really interested or I can say I'm getting bored, but after 30minutes the story to open the door of adventure and fantasy begin :D Oh crap I crying at the end :'( I can say it's an adventure about a man that did not accept her wife death and wanted to atleast revive or seeing her again.. And not the girl adventure xD Uh..Oh and the ending song is so touched T_T I think this one is the best movie that Makoto Shinkai made ^^ And he make Agartha based on the real legend or myth~ :o Jose07 said: As the people of Agartha said (the old man) "sometime there's an incident where people of Agartha married with the upper world" so I can conclude that Asuna's father is from Agarthawhere did asuna's father got that crystal? How did he died? And Mana is one of the evidance, in my opinion Mana and Asuna have a relation :D And if that's true, then her father might died like Shun (have no more energy to continue living in the upper world~) For other answer I'm too lazy to type ^^ Haicel said: Agree with this, but in many way :DI like this one better than Byousoku 5 cm or Hoshi no Koe in terms of plot |
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| Strangest movie I saw until now and a little disturbing, but I like it 8/10 |
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| This movie was both moving and (unintentionally) hysterical. I loved it. From one wtf to another. Thank u for this bountiful blessing of every Ghibli movie swirled up into a single mad, mad film. 9/10 |
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| Art Porn... 10/10 |
| LOL |
| it was ok. average. the visuals were great, however. for some reason, my favorite part was the beginning. i liked the changing of the footsteps the girl had according to the environment at the time. but according to how hyped i was to see it, it was very near a waste of time. |
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| Was pretty much a waste of time, leaving so many plot points. I don't even know it is 4/10 or 3/10. |
| It was a good movie, but the main character was insupportable. The art/animation was gorgeous, worthy of Shinkai movies The history was at least good until the end, but in the end....i didn't understand what happened, a very inconclusive ending. But the worst for me was that THEY DIDN'T END UP TOGETHER, come on, i know Shinkai hate happy endings but i wanted it so much, forget shun and go with shin, is too much to ask?... Good movie 7.5/10. |
| Okay-ish movie overall But some parts were inconsistent, like what was Shun doing in the topside world to begin with ? Just a coincidence he was looking for someone and turns out to be her ? And why did she have that calvis ( stone she had from the beginning of the movie ) too ? it was a "memento" from her dad which kept me thinking that her dad is from Agartha and the mother is from the topside just like Mana but no explanations, also shallow dialogues and interactions compared to the concept of the movie which is an amazing idea about life and death, oh well hopefully next movies will be better. |
| Too unoriginal, borrows too much from Tales of Earthsea and Castle in the Sky with a dashes of Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke (that scene where Shin leaves on his horse=Ashitaka leaving on his elk) and Spirited Away (gods don't like pollution). Even non-Ghibli/Miyazaki anime like Patema Inverted got ripped off in regards to xenophobic people on "the other side". |
 Novels I have read/am reading pending approval: since November 10 2022 |
| It was ehh, the premise of the movie was good but structure of the plotline was weak. Why did Asuna have a clavis to begin with? What was the point of making Asuna's mom look like the teacher's wife and including the fact that Asuna's dad died? Why didn't Asuna think twice about bring her dad back to life considering she only knew Shun for less than a day. Credits to the consistently beautiful artwork and animation as expected of a Shinkai movie but once again, there wasn't much flow between the scenes. Didn't really take a liking to blood and gore either considering it was supposed to be a pg movie. |
Prim3Sep 13, 2016 3:38 AM
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| I can understand the comparison to Miyazaki but Shinkai has his own style and I think this film is better then most Ghibli films. Also that background art is godtier. |
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| Well the first thing I can say is this definitely felt like it was trying to be a Studio Ghibli film. If I hadn't known it wasn't going in I definitely would have thought it was one. The art style and character/creature designs were very reminiscent. And easily the best thing about this was those visuals. Absolutely stunning, though even that doesn't give them justice. Asuna was a very earnest, likeable protagonist, and the male leads both worked well enough. The plot did too, but the message behind the film about death being a natural part of life and all that fell flat for me. Not because it's untrue, or because there's no merit to that message, but rather simply because it's extremely well worn territory by this point. For me anyway. I've seen this concept tackled so much in media, from a brief Yoda scene in Revenge of the Sith to the core theme of 24/26 episode anime Casshern Sins, and everywhere in between. Maybe were that not the case I would have appreciated it more here. Instead it felt very by the numbers. Even Asuna's brief possession at the end wasn't much of a shakeup to the formula. It would be kinda nice if just once the dead loved one really did get resurrected with no consequences, but then that would send the wrong message I suppose. The world building was much stronger than the end goal in this film. The exotic creatures and locals really stood out. The stretch from Asuna helping to save the mute girl to leaving her with her Grandfather and continuing on the journey via boat was probably my favorite part of the film. The dub I thought was fine with a couple minor nitpicks. First, just the mouthflap matching was a bit spotty at times. Nothing major, but Sentai seems most susceptible to this of all the dubbing companies. Second, and again very minor, but it irked me that they had Brittney Karbowski voice Asuna's friend AND Shin's friend. She was fine, but really Sentai? Too cheap to use two actresses? Overall I thought it was good, and I'm glad I watched it, but I doubt I'll ever get the desire to revisit it. 7/10 |
| The movie was better than I thought it would be. The visuals were great as always, but the story was a bit crazy. My mom described it as, "This is some trippy s***." The ending though, I have no idea why, but my mom and I lost it and started crying. Two minutes before we were just making fun of the teacher and then as soon as Hello Goodbye & Hello played, oh man. That was rough. |
| Rewatching this again after realizing I rated it a 9...now I give it a 6. It felt dragged out in certain scenes and I think they overcomplicated things just to make the movie look and sound more poetic and deep. It's difficult to not compare this to a Ghibli movie... boy in a village gets a task... doing house chores in a new environment like Asuna helping the old man cook... the Quetzal Coatl that takes Mimi... >_> But seriously, at her age, would she feel that lonely to go into another world to save someone she barely met? |
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| It's basically a mediocre Ghibli copy. The striking similarities to Nausica, Mononoke and Laputa makes me question Shinkai's overall creativity and vision of the film. I mean, it's not bad to be inspired by something, but there were so many similarities to Ghibli that it's impossible not to notice. The film didn't have much originality or style of its own to stand out. It's a shame because everything started off good, but the plot and characters fell so flat and the ending left much to be desired. The artwork and animation are definitely the highlights. It looked gorgeous, which is no surprise from Shinkai. Wasted potential, but it wasn't entirely bad. It's better than Earthsea. I'll give it that much. |
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| Loved the movie but man did it felt unnecessary for the military to show up out of nowhere blowing everything up. Treasure what's important to you. Once gone, there's nothing you can do. Life has to move on. |
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Enjoyment: 4/5 (probably more rewatchable than the creator's previous works. A decent albeit uninspired adventure, a bit too reminiscent of not Ghibli but Miyazaki himself. What sets it apart is the main theme, it's actually a good thing Shinkai tried to his usual thing under another angle for once. But he told it in a quite long and farfetched way. Some action scenes seem to have been integrated only to make the show (especially the blade fight toward the end) About the Ghibli problem, I decided to not take it as a "ripp'off" or a sign of his lack of ideas. On the contrary, the amount of references is far too high and too close to their original that I see them as an hommage to Hayao Miyazaki. After recognizing the village's elder as imitating Nausicaä's old man, I even saw Miyazaki himself in him. XD The mythical creatures decaying came straight out from Mononoke-hime too, like a certain horse scene. The fall into water is my favourite in the lot: it was a pleasure to remember about the heroine's skyfall in Laputa's opening. Visually, there is little to say specific to this film, it was "standard Shinkai". I had the impression that the landscapes digital paintings showed a slight evolution in terms of colours or effects (unless it's simply due to the change of setting). And the character-design is a good departure from his "usual" style, too bad they end up also too close of Miyazaki father and son's style. The animation, on the other hand, was excellent and a good improvement on something like Kumo no mukô. Score: 6.5+/10 A love letter to Ghibli with its own theme, technically good. Overall the same level than Kumo no Mukô, but with different problems. This movie is a proof that Shinkai has little to tell (like other creators) but at least tries. I wonder if he has learned about conveying a story between this film and the next one. |
Rei_IIIAug 5, 2017 6:08 AM
| This is the only Makoto Shinkai movie I have ever liked. Good job. I knew it was him when the music montage kicked in towards the end, but it was justified cause it ushered in the credits scene. Every other time he's done this, it's been grossly out of place with the rest of the movie and killed the emotion built up from the beginning of the film. I don't know why he likes music montages so much but this is the only time he's ever made it work. This film reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle and Romeo's Blue Sky so I think that's why I liked it so much. |
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| "Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow." I, not even once, have gone through a significant loss yet. I can only imagine the pain, and how hard it is to let go. But I do love the themes, and the message in this movie. Death is surely inevitable, and no matter how hard it is, we must cope with it. And not even a single one of us is here to stay either, so I think it's important to realize it. I don't know, it's hard to put into words, but Shinkai did it again. |
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| Shinkai trying to be Ghibli still very much only feels like Shinkai. I see a lot of discussion on whether this was an uninspired film and about the "borrowed" elements, but I mostly wonder about the motivation of the two leads and why would we care about them. Morisaki's loss barely has any impact and happened more than 10 years ago. With that we're following an almost unscrupulous character I had a hard time sympathizing at all with. Asuna is visibly just taken advantage of for having that stone and she doesn't even have a real reason to go there nor to care about this "teacher". The scene where she compares him with her father is very hard to believe. Then there's the world building which left much to be desired, despite the considerable amount of exposition. We see the local communities being incredibly reluctant with the "topsiders" being there mostly based in past invasions (so much for Shin not giving a crap about what they were going to do at the gate) and not a clear reason behind the decline they're suffering beyond some uninspired environmentalist undertones and the ever-present acceptance of death theme that is so heavy-handedly integrated in the movie. All in all this movie tried to bite way more than it could chew. Arguably one of Shinkai's worst titles that I at least tried to give the benefit of the doubt coming from the idea that he was trying something different. But definitely this wasn't the way. |
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| I couldn't find much meaning in it but I guess 1st part was enjoyable. 7/10 |
| What I like best about this film is the art. Makoto Shinkai is a magnificent artist and proves it time after time. But there were some things left unanswered... For example, how did Asuna's father get that clavis stone that could only be found in Agartha? I thought there could be a connection between Agartha and Asuna because of that. Secondly, Asuna's teacher seems to have stayed in Agartha, what would he do there being from a rejected race? Maybe he did come back though, that wasn't clear. |
| Amazing art and animation. Plot was awful. 3/10 |
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| Well, the animation/artwork was top-tier as expected. The storyline, however, was plainly bland... |
| Rely on nothing under heaven |
| Didnt really work for me. I actually dropped it after the first 45 minutes (around the time they enter the underground) but decided dropping movies is kinda dumb so I came back to give it another chance. Should have just left it be. The plot feels pretty hollow and the characters are boring. We only have like 3 noteworthy ones, the girls, the adult, the boy. The girl is the MC and has all the developement but zero motivation to be here in the first place. She literally gets dragged along by the adult. (Note: Saying make a decision while physically dragging you underwater is some kind of character trope I dont like with these japanese movies, gives me the adult male privilege trope) The adult is the only one with a backstory and motivation but has zero developement. The boy only shows up later on and doesnt really do much for the theme of the movie. Really he might as well not be there in the first place. Girl and Adult dont interact much. Animation was very much Ghibli, I know Shinkai often gets compared to Miyazaki and Ghibli but the character art here was 100% the ghibli face. Background art was typicall for Shinkai beautifull. I would kinda compare this to Legend of Earth Sea from Ghibli. Both felt hollow, had weak and only few characters and an uninteresting plot. Really its called childrEN who chase lost voices and there is only one child going. What more do you need to know? |
| "This emotion is mine alone. It is for Madoka alone." - Homura or how I would descripe Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. |
| Great film! And it's far better than 5cm |
| All throughout the movie, I was wondering why the visuals and animation were familiar. And then when I saw Makoto Shinkai's name at the credits, I burst out No Wonder!!!🤩 This is the kind of anime movie worthy of my recommendation. |
 She got him back. If you understand the characters well enough, you'd know she did! |
| This really is a sad story, what's more sad is the ending song. It really pinches your heart and mind. |
| It's not that I dislike this genre but... to add unnecessary fan services to/in/for heroines and ultimately destroys her character and personality; their purity tarnished because of it, is the only thing I hope to not happen to them. For that sole purity is my fan service. |
| Out of the gate the art and animation are fantastic. The atmosphere is incredible. About an hour in and this isn't quite what I was expecting. I somewhat thought they would be chasing music into the depths of the planet to discover something; a lost world or civilization -- which I guess they technically did, but I thought music would be a lot more ingrained into the plot. I feel a bit cheated in that sense. At the end of the day, it's more about chasing the promise of resurrection, which also kind of fizzles out. I feel like they didn't know how they wanted to end this, as nothing in particular happens. And, a lot of the story felt somewhat disconnected -- none of what happened prior to the ending felt like it was building toward that, or even had anything to do with it. Then, we get to the end and there are no real consequences or resolution, and everyone just decides to go home and pretend nothing ever happened. It was kind of weird. I was thinking I liked this movie after it was over, but once I started typing out my thoughts I guess I didn't care for it all that much. It was eye candy at best. |
 "...Is your mother worried? Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?" |
| This was an enjoyable movie. You cant ask for more from an anime movie. Nice graphics, great atmosphere, nice action, great background sound. It was never boring. I liked how both worlds looked, with either the small-country-mountain-setting, and the fantasy-world-setting. And it was great themes, with being to want to reunite with a loved one that you lost. It was a nice journey, but the ending was very rushed. |
oooo3333Feb 13, 2023 6:33 AM
| Not the biggest Shinkai fan but I enjoyed it, especially the mythology stuff. And the visuals are to die for, of course. I already loved Anri Kumaki before so her being the ending theme was A+. It definitely needed some tightening up - lots of interesting parts of Agartha left unexplored (like Shin/Shun's background and the old woman, what was so special about the water), and the fight before they got to the Finis Terra should've been cut out completely (just let them get on with it). I agree that it tried and failed to be Ghibli-esque, whether that was the intention or not. And true to the Shinkai name, it was unnecessarily overdramatic at too many times. Ending was also pretty weak considering the whole journey there. Asuna was an uninteresting character, I guess partly because she was too childish. But even her whole purpose for going to middle-earth was dumb: I don't understand why she was so withdrawn and lonely since there was a least one girl who wanted to hang out with her. And her obsession with Shun was unwarranted and annoying imo. If her purpose was to actually find out about her father who seems hinted to have come from there, then the movie would've fared much better. 8 strolls through Mordor /10 |
| "You can't decide the future, but I'm going to re-educate you in the past!" - Erna Kurtz |
| I really enjoyed it but I'm so torn about what to score it. The film teases so much more but answers so little, the ending just left me feeling abit empty. I got the overall message of the film but so much was teased about Asuna, her father and all that just got left completely without any answers. I think we can safely assume her father is from Agartha but just alittle bit more closure on that would've been nice. Also what was the point of all the military stuff just before they got there, it was introduced and never touched upon again all in 5 minutes. Morisaki didn't need that edge, he could've easily of followed Asuna after she left his place. Then the reference to all these past crusaders robbing Agartha was all abit dumb to me. Anyway I did enjoy the movie but like I say quite torn on what to give it, it was engaging but had the odd weird bumps along the way and a not so satisfying ending. Side note - Shinkai just went "Fuck it! I'm going to copy the shit outta all my favourite Ghibli movies and subtlety can suck it". lol. Sure was pretty though. |
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