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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- Wow. I finally decided to watch this, and I must say, it's probably the most underrated anime movie ever. The animation/art is absolutely gorgrous, on par with Laputa (released the same year) and Honneamise (released the next), the plot is a grandiose heroic-fantasy mix of Shakespeare and Japanese classics such as Ugetsu Monogatari, and even the music are totally awesome. What stroke me most in Windaria is the hero's inability to escape their dreadful fate, the radical side of the movie and the very deep themes it develops as well as the incredible direction. A forgotten masterpiece, and easily of the the brightest classics of Japanese animation. |
 In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
| Windaria is a tragic story about a prince and princess of two different kingdoms who are in love but their kingdoms have broken a one-hundred year peace treaty and are now in a state of war. The two kingdoms are rivals with each other so they do not communicate well. Itha is a kingdom built on the sea. Rich with nature but lacking in technological advancement. They have been monopolizing the water with a super dam, leaving the kingdom of Paro a barren technologically driven wasteland. This pushes Paro to declare war. The prince and princess are forced into hiding, but since they have no where to go back home to they decide to shoot each other with a gun containing a poison bullet. A hero appears who is a village idiot that leaves his neutral hometown in search of prestige. He decides to help end the war behind the scenes by figuring out that this war is about sharing. The hero sneaks into Itha as a kind vegetable sales man and opens the super dam releasing the water down to Paro. Paro finally getting access to the sea decides to share technology with Itha leaving both kingdoms happy and back at peace. The hero then uses the massive amount of riches given to him by both kingdoms to research in an antidote which saves the prince and princess. The hero then returns home to his beautiful wife fulfilling the promise of coming back home. They all live happily ever after. Wait a second... The soundtrack and animation was great for its time, but the characters sucked lol. The only character I liked was Marin<3, who was a God given angel. Overall I liked it. Didn't care that it wasn't a happy ending, just didn't like the way the story developed. Also wtfuxup with the Windaria poster picture thing lol. I guess I missed the unicorns, falcons, panthers, and gazelle. 6/10 |
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WTFwasThat said: and Izu the village idiot just becomes a super idiot. Oh God, I couldn't agree more. >_< When Izu was parting with Marin before the actual start of hostilities, I was thinking "Oh shit, this could only end tragically." Then their house got bombed. X( After that, I was relieved she survived to meet Izu for their promise only then she turned ghost and that's when I regretted being right. TT_TT Also wtfuxup with the Windaria poster picture thing lol. I guess I missed the unicorns, falcons, panthers, and gazelle. LOL. I only missed the falcon, panther and the gazelle. There were actually four unicorns on one of the hills Izu and Marin passed by on the way to Itha in the opening of the movie. For an old anime movie, it was good enough for my taste. |
| You see there's no need to wonder where your god is, Coz he's right here! ...and he's fresh out of mercy. |
| I thought it was a fantastic movie, but I did the the edited version 'Once Upon a Time,' which cut like ten mins from the original running time and added narration. I feel the untouched original would be even better and it is sad that it will probably never be released. There really is a lot to like here, and it reminds me of how imaginative anime was in its heyday |
| Maybe I'll explain more another day, but I am so sick after this movie ^-^: Probably rate it a 6 or 7 out of 10. |
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| Its pretty sad, but I like the end. The fact that Izu will try to honor his promise, like in a legend. |
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| Great music and visuals. The beginning was promising, with what I said, and a nice universe, city, culture, folks and all. But then it turned meh, Izu killed this story for me. He's just one of the biggest bitch I've seen in anime, and in my life. On par with Andou from Kaiji. Too bad. Still enjoyed a bit though, but what the fuck is wrong with this guy. |
 “Read as little as possible of critical or aesthetic works. They are either products of a close-minded spirit, petrified and devoid of meaning in their lifeless hardening, or clever verbal games [...]. Works of art are of an infinite solitude; nothing is worse than criticism for approaching them. Only love can grasp them, keep them, be just toward them. Always give precedence to your own feeling against these analyses, these reviews, these introductions. [...] You must let every impression, every seed of feeling, ripen within you, in the dark, in the inexpressible, in the unconscious, those regions closed to understanding. Wait with humility and patience for the hour of the birth of a new clarity. Art demands of its faithful followers as much as of its creators.” — RAINER-MARIA Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (letter dated April 23, 1903). |
| A true case of the parts being greater than the whole. Wonderful art and animation, interesting world building, very fitting OST, solid voice acting. But its let down by the story. The first half an hour is well done and actually got me hooked but then it unraveled with the total lack of explanation of the motivations of the different characters. Izu comes across as a complete and total oaf. I think this would have been much better as a six episode OVA, that could have gone into depth into why the heck people were doing what they were doing. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| A pretty good movie showing us a chain of bad decisions pushing people even further into a conflict, probably born out of envy. I didn't expect the prince and princess' descent from voices of reason to tragic warlords. The hero's justification for not coming back at first to his girlfriend is incredibly selfish. He even made a promise when he imagined she could never survive a war. Rewatching the scene later makes you seeing it under another light. But to be fair, he transpired of egocentrism from the start, it's just me who wanted to believe that his romantic life wasn't part of this trait. The animation was nice and the charadesigns sweet. The environments with distinct personalities were the best part of the drawings, making the world interesting. The music and song tracks were supporting the immersion too. And the voices were far from spoiling it (viva Furuya). Something seems missing: the beginning establishes things properly then after around 30-40minutes, events start to speed up but a bit later it's like facing a synopsis for a moment. 15-20minutes more could have been beneficial. Enjoyment: 5/5 Score: 7 @Arjman89 The original movie has been "fansubbed" by Live-Evil. |
Rei_IIIJun 12, 2019 7:37 AM
| I think narrative wise this film might've been better, if it were split into maybe two separate movies. Maybe spending a little more time on the characters and showing a more gradual change in Izu. But what we did get was quite fine none the less. I absolutely loved the ending, and found it tied together the theme of the piece really well. Good stuff and a pretty nice hidden gem; the kind of gem that makes me love watching older, more "obscure" anime. |
| A really powerful morality fable, more based on story and theme than on heavy characterization. It almost feels like the anime version of The Prodigal Son parable in a way. Essentially the movie wants to present to you the nature of greed and selfishness, and how that can turn someone with initially idealistic (if egocentric) aspirations into ultimately an evil person, and if once all is said and done - do they deserve redemption? It's rare for an anime to demonstrate such questions in such a visceral and uncompromising manner. It's one of those stories where you aren't supposed to like the protagonist as much as sympathize with their misled nature. I like indirect narratives like these that want the viewer to ask questions and to think, so I immensely enjoyed and was affected by this movie. |
A really powerful morality fable, more based on story and theme than on heavy characterization. I can see that, it reached a point where the actions of the characters were so overly moronic that interpreting what was happening at face value became near impossible. Even then, the transition is very rough (particularly with Izu's character) and every single secondary character seems to suffer brain damage for this fable to even stand in the first place. It just doesn't work. Once most of the main characters die without much of an impact we're left with Izu ( now a genocide we're supposed to care about) griefing about Marin, a girl he never cared about. And the supernatural boat. It seems like they knew what the elements of a tragedy were... but lacked any means to build a cohesive story. I can see how hard it'd be to make both kingdoms minimally functional, to build a beliavable reason for war to start, to find a more poignant way to deliver the tragic love of the heirs to the throne, to illustrate Izu's ambitions and making him less of an opaque character... all in less than 2 hours. But they didn't even try. |
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Unowen said: A really powerful morality fable, more based on story and theme than on heavy characterization. I can see that, it reached a point where the actions of the characters were so overly moronic that interpreting what was happening at face value became near impossible. Even then, the transition is very rough (particularly with Izu's character) and every single secondary character seems to suffer brain damage for this fable to even stand in the first place. It just doesn't work. Once most of the main characters die without much of an impact we're left with Izu ( now a genocide we're supposed to care about) griefing about Marin, a girl he never cared about. And the supernatural boat. It seems like they knew what the elements of a tragedy were... but lacked any means to build a cohesive story. I can see how hard it'd be to make both kingdoms minimally functional, to build a beliavable reason for war to start, to find a more poignant way to deliver the tragic love of the heirs to the throne, to illustrate Izu's ambitions and making him less of an opaque character... all in less than 2 hours. But they didn't even try. You're reading it literally. Would you read Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs literally? Would you criticize a comedy movie for not being more like a horror movie? Looking at it in such a rationalistic way misses the essence of the story, and essentially makes it merely conform to the demands of your own standards. Read stories based on what they are trying to convey, not based on the way you imagine a story should be or what other people say about it. |
PureStone said: No I most definitely stopped reading it literally around half way into the movie or earlier, hence why I quoted your message. I went through the realization of "okay this is what they're aiming for" but that didn't mean I could appreciate it much at the end of the day. Unowen said: I can see that, it reached a point where the actions of the characters were so overly moronic that interpreting what was happening at face value became near impossible. Even then, the transition is very rough (particularly with Izu's character) and every single secondary character seems to suffer brain damage for this fable to even stand in the first place. It just doesn't work. Once most of the main characters die without much of an impact we're left with Izu ( now a genocide we're supposed to care about) griefing about Marin, a girl he never cared about. And the supernatural boat. It seems like they knew what the elements of a tragedy were... but lacked any means to build a cohesive story. I can see how hard it'd be to make both kingdoms minimally functional, to build a beliavable reason for war to start, to find a more poignant way to deliver the tragic love of the heirs to the throne, to illustrate Izu's ambitions and making him less of an opaque character... all in less than 2 hours. But they didn't even try. You're reading it literally. Would you read Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs literally? Would you criticize a comedy movie for not being more like a horror movie? Looking at it in such a rationalistic way misses the essence of the story, and essentially makes it merely conform to the demands of your own standards. Read stories based on what they are trying to convey, not based on the way you imagine a story should be or what other people say about it. Said realization doesn't mean you're meant to dismiss what happens in the movie, sure the events and actions have an allegoric value, but you could've conveyed the same with different ones. As it stands it all seems both too basic, bordering the unimaginative (mainly the setting), and contrived to a fault, built upon all that stupidity (is there a need for every person in that kingdom to be inept and out of their mind, or for the peaceful kingdom to actually been as prone to war as the other one because of a single incident) and hardly relatable character turns (my gripe is mostly with Izu, I don't see how foreshadowing a bit more his intentions would've been counterproductive to the theme, and would've helped relating to his character in the closing scenes, that were by far the least engaging for me). I don't mind much that they decided to include a Romeo and Juliet plotline, or even the rather pointless supernatural elements. They both add some flair, but unfortunately don't help much with the imaginative aspect. |
UnowenOct 1, 2021 12:22 PM
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| Izu is a remarkably dumb protagonist with no explanation for this whatsoever, too bad since I liked the fact of starting a movie with an established couple that acts like a couple. The Teto (that tiny beast from Nausicaa) clone added to the mood. Jill and Ahnas (her especially) went down the route I wanted them to but didn't believe they actually would. A pleasant surprise - that was some good drama. Probably Kaname Pro's best work in terms of pretty much everything (except for the script), even rivaling Leda. P.S. That opening scene with wrong hair colors |
St0rmbladeDec 11, 2021 12:50 PM
| Yeah, I didn't get it. Everything ended up being completely pointless. Just like war itself. Was that the point? Maybe this movie is very deep. But seriously, the problem is the characters are not detailed enough. Izu puts his life on the line to save the town from flooding and "several days later", as explained by the Paro queen, was ready to sneak back to town only to flood it himself and kill everyone. When he grinned at the proposal of riches and women I thought it meant he had a trick up his sleeve and he knew of a way to end the war and would betray the queen. Nope. In a matter of a week he turned from random farm boy to the Joker. Because the minister gave him a bike? Is that really all it took? I get he was dismayed at not getting praised by the queen of Ithas for his heroism but come on here. He literally floods the entire town/country, kills tons of his friends, and forgot all about his wife in a matter of a few days? Not believable. This is the kind of story that needs 26 episodes so we can see the gradual change in the characters' outlook over the course of a year or more. Just hand waving it and saying he did a 180 degree personality shift in a week doesn't cut it. Best part of the movie was the animation quality and Marin but unfortunately she didn't get to do much. Then stuff just happens at the end like Druid turning to stone because ??? and I still don't get what the ghost ship is. You can just apply to be the Grim Reaper basically, like it's a job? 1h40m wasn't enough time to explain all that needed to be said. |