Last Exile (2003)

This anime is beautiful to look at. That is the first thing I will say about it because I'm sure that that is the first thing you will notice about it, and is what will probably keep you watching for the first half.

Last Exile is a story about two orphans, Claus and Lavie, who make a living as couriers. In the land they live in, people move around in the sky more than they do water or land, and the two fly an aircraft known as a vanship. All is normal in their lives until one day, during a vanship race in their home town (think star wars), a foreign vanship cuts off their path and crashes into the forest below. Claus, the pilot, decides that they should go down to make sure the people in the vanship were all right. When they get there they see that the pilot has been shot, but is still alive, and there is a dead person in the back seat holding a small sleeping girl. The pilot tells them that an enemy faction, The Guild, is after this young girl and asks the two to see his mission through to the end and escort the girl to safety. The Guild is an advanced race of people who have superior technology and almost silently rule the people below them. Of course the pair accept the mission and take the girl. This leads the two to eventually come on board a ship called the Silvana and on that ship, they will face wars with others and ultimately battle The Guild's control over them by attempting to prevent their awakening of a powerful and unknown entity known as 'exile'.

The first half of this anime bored me to tears. I'd heard so many rave reviews I couldn't believe that it could possibly be as bad as I initially perceived it to be... so forced myself to watch episode after episode. The beginning is king of pointless and disorienting. We see Claus and Lavie living life as usual, doing a mission or two, fighting in a race, but there was nothing that really drew me into the plot or care about the characters until around the twelfth episode. The story up until that point was kind of like the middle of an anime... boring and just filling up space. And at that point the audience doesn't have enough emotional history with the characters to care. I was so bored I spent more of the time picking out character flaws. Lavie is completely useless for most of the series. This is actually stated in the show by one of the other characters. For a majority of the first half of the show all she does is whine and yell. She continues to do this in the second half, but not as much because she is not in as many episodes. I felt that they could have done so much more with her character, there was so much potential there.

The show was not all bad though. As I said, the second half was much better than the first and I would say that the ending makes up for the pain of having the watch the build up. The flashbacks helped, as did the actual purpose given to the character's existence. The war inspired many emotional and political problems for the characters, and the characters were a defined a little bit better for the viewer. The Guild reminded me of the blue giants in the animated film Fantastic Planet, for those who have seen the film, both in how they acted and how they treated the people. The end of the anime was the very best part for me.  I don't know why exactly, but as I watched Claus and Lavie flying over that field with Claus' overtone and the music in the background, I got this nostalgic sort of feeling. Kind of like the feeling I get after watching a Miazaki film, a feeling of endless possibility... but I have no idea how as I don't think I liked the show that much to have developed such feelings about it's final moments. But it is as it is I suppose.

The animation in this anime is absolutely stunning. It is one of the most beautiful animes I've seen artistically speaking. In regards to the scenery anyway. One of the funny things about this anime is that even though the landscape is so well drawn.. for some reason the characters can look very amateurishly drawn at times. There will be a stunning scene with some sort of aircraft or landscape or room and is so amazing that it will have you sighing in awe, but two seconds later there will be a scene with one of the characters positioned awkwardly or drawn with an arm or leg too skinny. Just in general I feel that the artists put so much effort into the world the story takes place in that they sort of just drew the characters in last-minute like 'oh ya this story actually revolves around people... we should draw some'. Claus and Lavie we see the most of because the show is about them, and Claus I'm fine with, I feel that his look suits the artwork surrounding him. Lavie, on the other hand, I do not like one bit. There is so little detail in her features that her face is literally a circle with huge 'anime eyes' and a big mouth. While the other characters are drawn seriously, like the characters of a drama, Lavie is drawn like the heroine of a high school romantic comedy... you expect her to go chibi any second. And since this is not a romantic comedy, and Lavie does not even serve as a comic relief in this story, her look is completely out of place and always takes me out of the whimsical mood the scenery has so beautifully created for me. Most of the other characters could also be drawn better, but Lavie is where they so obviously slacked or guessed wrong... I'm not sure which. And her haircut doesn't help.

I have mixed feelings about the anime, but for each negative point I have, there is a positive one to combat it. Overall I would say that it is indeed worth the watch, and you will probably enjoy it immensely at some point. The question is how much are you willing to put up with to find what you might intensely like?

 

The War Between Us (1995)

This movie is a few years old and was a straight to tv production as far as I can tell. And seeing as how I can't seem to find it anywhere else, I would assume it was only on for those couple of runs that I saw it... but it was one of the best films on how the Japanese were treated in Canada during world war 2.

The story features 2 families, the Kawashima family and the Parnham family. When world war 2 took place, the Kawashima family was uprooted from their lovely home and successful business in Vancouver, British Columbia, and forced to move to a low-income mining town. This came as something of a shock to the family because though Mr. and Mrs. Kawashima were not born in Canada, their children were and Mr. Kawashima served in the Canadian army during world war 1. One of the very vibrant images I have of this film is watching the Japanese family move into this little shack of a house from the perspective of their neighbours, the Parnhams. The family is obviously wealthy. The women wearing fur coats and have fashionable hair and make up, the men in suits, the ornate furniture and belongings they have brought with them to their new home, and how all of this so obviously clashed with the poverty-stricken area, the dirt roads and floors, and even the shabbiness of the cart carrying their things.

The eldest daughter of the Japanese couple, Aya, ends up becoming a housekeeper for the Parnhams. Ed, the husband, is open- minded about their new neighbours, but his wife Peg is more skeptical and treats Aya like a maid. By the end of the movie though, Peg has warmed to Aya and she becomes one of Peg's closest friends. The Parhnams have a young daughter, Marg , and she is very curious about the new neighbours. She starts hanging around their house and asks her already nervous mother questions about what she sees there. She completely immerses herself in the culture of the new family and the other Japanese people there. By the end of the film the family discovers that the government sold their house and business without their consent, and to add to the insult they are to be deported back to Japan, even though they are Canadian citizens and their children have never been to Japan. The final scene in the movie has the Kawashima family in the back of a truck, being driven away and Marg running after them in a little Kimono.

This movie is a really good film, both in terms of its historical content as well as in terms of it just being a good film. The acting was well done and I could relate to all of the characters. I was probably in elementary school when I saw it, but I really enjoyed it and I think that the movie's ability to hold my attention and imprint itself in my memory says something about the storytelling.

I cannot find a movie cover for this anywhere, it's not on amazon or any other site I can find, so here is the imdb page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114892/

Tithe by Holly Black

Like many tales that take place in the realm of the fae, Tithe (as the name would suggest) is a story about a girl in the human world who finds out that she has been chosen as a sort of sacrifice for the faeries. This is a pretty common story, a good one is Hunter's Moon by Melling if you're unfamiliar with the genre, but Black takes this story and gives it a nice little twist.

Here's a quick intro. The story begins with a teenage girl named Kaye who travels around with her rock star mother. She should be in high school but because of all of the moving around her mother has to do, what with being a starving artist, Kaye finds her time better spent working. She has no father to speak of, as she is the product of a one night stand her mother had with a popular Japanese rock star and her mother h been jumping from boyfriend to boyfriend since. After an inexplicable attack on Kaye's mother by her current boyfriend, she and Kaye return to Kaye's grandmother's house, where Kaye lived when she was young. Kaye used to have what people around her would call imaginary friends whom she would talk about all the time, but no one else have ever or could ever see. She also had a school friend when she was a child, Janet, and goes out with her and her friends after she and her mother have settled in. After an odd incident involving an old carnival horse, Kaye runs away from the gathering into the woods, and to add to her current state, she stumbles upon a knight bleeding to death because of an arrow in his side. The knight takes a leaf and smears it with his blood and asks Kaye to put it in the water nearby. She does this in exchange for the night's name. When she puts the leaf in the water it summons a kelpie who takes the knight away. After some soul-searching and some conversations with some old friends, Kaye discovers that she is not as human as she seems. That she is in fact a changeling, and there are those who would like to put that information to use.

I enjoyed this novel. I've seen it around for some time but avoided picking it up because I thought it would be like the new syrupy, poorly written, weak-willed heroine in love with two guys at once, who can't stand up for herself or think for herself trend that seems to be popular with teen books right now in regards to the paranormal genre. I am however happy to report that it is more like The Blue Girl by De Lint than Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It's an urban faerie tale with echoes of stories past, but changed enough to make it new again. I don't know that I agree with all of the changes or slants given to how the faerie world works... in fact I would have preferred that she make the faerie realm more dangerous. This is a teen novel. It doesn't have to be full of gore or indecency or anything (I mean it is still a teen novel), but I personally would have enjoyed it if there was a little more of the danger I usually associate with the fae. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty suggested evil doings in the unseelie court, but the faerie food, for example, wasn't as bad as older tales describe it. There is none of the pining away until you die or other bad side effects the food may have on mortals, it just knocks you out or gets you drunk for a while. Kind of softening the blow of the danger of faerie. Overall though it's a pretty good book.

Canadian Historical Fiction For Kids

These are some books about that can get kids a little more interested in history. The age range of these books is about 9- 13 but I'm sure anyone able to read at that level or greater will enjoy these books. These books are about Canadian history specifically. I'll put a link to the book on amazon so that you can see a synopsis and some feedback.

Eric Walters is a great author for this subject. He has written many books, both for this age group and for teenagers, and his books are generally well written and adventurous. I read some of his books when I was in elementary school and I remember enjoying them. Some of his titles are Bully Boys, Trapped in Ice, Camp X, The Hydrofoil Mystery

A Question of Loyalty, this one i had to read in grade six for school and I enjoyed reading it. It's about a young boy who hides from conscription is this family's barn, he of course develops feelings for the daughter of the household, who is the one who finds him.

Underground to Canada, This is a story about the underground railroad. I also read this book in grade six and also enjoyed reading it. It's not too brutal, but it makes the reader understand what happened.

The Hollow Tree, This is a story about a young girl who leaves her family to travel by herself over a mountain to deliver a message to an army camp. The message was originally given to her cousin, but he was hanged due to his loyalties, so she delivered it in his place. I really enjoyed this book and read it many times over.

The Root Cellar, by the same author as the hollow tree. In this book a girl in the present day gets sent back in time (through a root cellar) to the civil war era.

Agouhanna, This is a great, lesser known, story about a young native american boy who must go through his warrior training and find his animal spirit guide. It's a great story about inner strength and growing to find your own. At first the boy is very timid, but as the story goes on he grows more self confident.

Lost in the Barrens, Classic. This author has tons of books out, most of them about kids connecting with nature or with a time past. In this book a boy goes on a hunting trip and gets separated with a native american boy. At first he resents him and feels superior, but ends up relying on this boy for survival and learning from him and by the end they're good friends. There is also a movie which I had to sit through at least 3 times in my school going days. If anyone's interested. I would recommend all of his books, but another one to take note of would be Curse of the Viking Grave, again, two boys discover something.

Anne of Green Gables. I don't think I even need to say anything here. Pretty much everyone I know knows about this series. It has been made into a movie which is very well done, fantastic. It has been made into a cartoon and has even made it's way over to Japan and there is an anime as well. There was an offshoot called road to avonlea as well but we won't get into that here. It's about an imaginative orphan girl who comes to live with an older couple. Great story. watch the movie if nothing else.

Emily of New Moon, by the same author as Anne, but this series is not as well known. It is also about an orphan girl who goes off to live with relatives, but it is a little bit darker. Also very good though.

D-day this series is good, not so much canadian, but for the young war enthusiasts out there. it's written in a diary style.

The I am Canada Series. I don't know if this is by the same people are the dear Canada books but aimed at boys, it does seem similar though. It is told in a dairy style though. Right now I only really know of three. Blood and Iron, a story of a Chinese boy's family's experience as they build the railroad. Shot at dawn, the story of a man who recounts the story leading up his arrest in WW1 for deserting his company, in reality he was not an actual deserter but went mad from the life of trench warfare. Prisoner of Dieppe, the WW2 diary of a soldier captured in the battle, or what he describes as a massacre, at the German-held port of Dieppe.

Dear Canada. This whole series is good. They're written like a diary and each feature a girl from a different period in history or of a different circumstance. I recommend the entire series because it is good, but here are a few titles. Footsteps in the Snow: The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott (Dear Canada), An Ocean Apart: The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-Ling (Dear Canada), Brothers Far from Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates (Dear Canada), Alone in an Untamed Land: The Filles Du Roi Diary of Helene St. Onge (Dear Canada), Dear Canada: Turned Away. I like this series because not only does it focus on the standards like all of the main wars, but it also focuses on some of the more unattractive parts of history, like in turned away we see that during world war 2 canada was very cautious about immigration and turned away a boat of jewish people, and in an ocean apart we see that chinese families had a tough time getting their families over here. and of course underground railroad and mistreatment of the natives. a good series overall.

Our Canadian Girl. Another good series. I'm pretty sure there are many books in this, series within a series, but here are some. Marie-Claire: A Season of Sorrow, Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining, Angelique: Buffalo Hunt, Emily

The Winter People

The Broken Blade

On A Canadian Day: Nine Story Voyages Through History

Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance

Splice (2009)

I've always been a big fan of Sarah Polley, so even though I wouldn't have normally took it upon myself to see this film, I watched it because of her.

The story begins with a romantically involved bio-chemist team, Elsa and Clive, (it doesn't specify whether or not they are married or are just seeing each other) who are working on a genetic mutation project wherein they combine the dna of several species. The project so far is a success and they want to push it a little bit further and incorporate human dna into their experiment, which would potentially help find cures from many diseases , but the board denies them because they feel it would be too risky. This does not stop them and they go ahead with it. The result is this oddly alien looking being that grows very quickly. Elsa becomes instantly attached to their creation and treats it more like a child than a science project and ends up calling it Dren. Clive is skeptical about the whole thing and at one point tries to drown it, but even though he's so opposed he takes a back seat to Elsa's desires. As Dren grows she gets harder to conceal and eventually they move her to Elsa's childhood home, which happens to be a farm. Things spiral more and more out of control as Dren grows more and as the tension between Elsa and Clive heightens. There's actually a point in the movie where Clive starts to lust after Dren, maybe because of the stress, maybe because it has some of Elsa's DNA, but in either case it's a bit weird. I won't spoil the ending by going further.

Overall I'd say it wasn't a bad movie, but is quite possibly b film material. It's still worth watching though, especially if you're into the whole alien/ sci-fi genre to begin with.

Heir To Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

In this book we return to the world Marillier created with her Sevenwaters Trilogy, an ancient Celtic world where we see heroines undergo some sort of quest involving supernatural beings, otherwise known as faeries. The heroines come from within the same family and in the actual trilogy itself a generation separates each story. Heir to Sevenwaters takes place within the same generation as the last book in the trilogy and the heroine of this novel is the cousin of the heroine in the last book. I really enjoyed the trilogy, and while I do not think this book is as good as the first book, it still brings forth the author's talented story telling.

Clodagh is the third of six daughters born to Sean and Aisling, the current residents of a household buried deep within the forests of Ireland. She has a twin who she can communicate with telepathically (as all twins could in the original trilogy). Clodagh is the practical sister, the 'boring' sister. Of all of her sisters, Clodagh would be the most likely to stay at home and look after household affairs, and she does exactly this when her elderly mother becomes pregnant with a seventh child. This child is very important to the family because he will become the heir to Sevenwaters, a boy who will be able to take his father's place and inherit the land. The child is finally born and many people come to celebrate the birth. Characters from previous novels, such as Conner and Johnny make an appearance at this time, along with some new characters like Cathal, one of Johnny's men. All seems to be going smoothly until one night when the baby is stolen away in the night, when Clodagh is with him of course, and in its place dirt, leaves and twigs are left. The pile acts just as a human baby would, it cries and eats, but only Clodagh can hear it and see it move. She feels guilt for being there when her brother was taken, and her family seems to be blaming her for it. Also, her twin sister is getting married to a foreigner and is cutting herself off from Clodagh, leaving her feeling more alone than she's ever been. Clodagh believes that the child is a changeling and her brother was taken away by the good people. Fearing that her own family will kill the faery baby and fearing that her brother is already far beyond her reach, Clodagh takes the changeling child and takes it upon herself to find her brother's kidnappers and bring him back on her own.

Clodagh, like all of heroines in this series, is reserved and practical. She's surrounded by whimsy and fantasy but she herself is always firmly planted on the ground. Despite this she shows courage and bravery and undergoes her quest with perseverance. Well written, as one will come to expect with this author, and a fast paced plot.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

I heard great thing about this book and I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. It was not bad by any means, but I didn't exactly live up to the rave reviews I've read either.

The story follows a young princess named Ani who, when she was born, did not open her eyes for three days. She opens her eyes after her aunt comes to her and this aunt raises Ani with stories of magic. More importantly, her aunt teaches Ani how to communicate with animals. She teaches her how to understand and talk to swans and tells her that there are three abilities people are capable of possessing; people talking- talking so that your words convince your listener to agree with you, animal talking- to talk with animals, and the very rare nature talking- to talk with nature itself. After a certain age, people in the castle start to notice Ani trying to talk to animals and her aunt gets sent away. Ani is penalized for trying to talk to animals and must instead train to be the next in line for the crown, which she is very horrible at. Ani is very weak-willed and timid at this point in the novel (as she remains through pretty much the entire novel) and allows people to walk all over her and feels insufficient at all she does. After her mother discovers that a much larger and more powerful neighbouring kingdom may threaten to go to war with their country over resources, the queen tries to satisfy them by Promising Ani to the heir to their throne, without consulting Ani first. So off she is sent to an unknown land to marry a complete stranger. On the journey however, an even takes place that hinders Ani on her way and she is forced into hiding and eventually comes to hold the position of goose girl for the kingdom's geese. She learns more about herself and eventually overcomes the injustice done to her.

The plot itself I rather enjoyed. I thought it progressed in a very steady and logical manner. It wasn't boring but there were no inexplicable leaps either, so overall light reading in that department. There is a supernatural element to the story as well, but it is not portrayed as magical ability. Ani's ability to talk to animals is presented as a language she is trying to learn rather than a special ability, even though she is the only one who can seem to do it. It was almost like we watch her work through translating a newly discovered lost language rather than tapping into a magical ability.

If anything bothered me about the novel it would have to be the character Ani herself. Overall I didn't mind the characters in the novel. There was a decent mix up of personality types. Actually I think one of the reasons this story is so like a fairy tale is because many important people who decide Ani's fate are in their own way cruel about it, and those who aren't cruel do nothing to really help her until she gains some self-confidence. It wasn't her weak-willed nature or lack of self-confidence that bothered me however (that is the character and in time she grows beyond her perceptions of her short comings). In fact I applaud the author for keeping Ani so timid throughout the novel, but still forces her to go on despite her timidity. What bothered me was her naiveté. The author would spell out situations that would otherwise build suspense so that the reader is very aware of the plot and is waiting for the heroine to wake up, because even though she is given many clues she is unable to suspect anything until it is actually happening to her, and that was kind of frustrating to me as a reader. I usually like experiencing the story along with the main character, not with the author or the narrator where I know ahead of time what will happen. This is personal preference of course and I'm sure there are several people who didn't mind this. The other thing that I found slightly bothersome was at the end of the novel, her big climax of coming out of her shell and telling off the king, it sounded so juvenile. I was expecting some sort of outburst from her seeing as how she was introverted for most of the novel, but I was expecting that outburst to be somewhat mature and enlightened (which can be done in a passionate way) instead it seemed more like an angsty teenaged 'so there!' which was disappointing.

Despite that however, I did enjoy the book. It was a good read and a nice adaptation of the original.

Canadian Christmas Traditions by DeeAnn Mandryk

I came across this book in my local book store and initially thought it would be an eclectic collection of stories that no one would really care to read about... but I very happily discovered otherwise. This book is a wonderful resource for the origins of all of the things we now take for granted come Christmas. There are recipes in the book, but I do not cook or bake so I do not really care about them nor took the time to look them over, but there were a good number of them and I'm sure they would be of interest to those who do have an interest in both the culinary arts and the holiday season.

The book has pretty much every Christmassy thing in here and discusses both where it came from and how we use it currently. It covers a lot of ground so the information about some of the traditions are not as in-depth as others, some are only a page in length, but there is enough information on each topic to satisfy your average information junkie.

This is the table of contents in list form to give an idea of the subject matter;

Intro, The Origin of Christmas Day, Christmas and Xmas, The Christmas Tree, Christmas Ornamentation and Decorations, The Christmas Star, Holiday Flora, Yule Logs, Christmas Candles and the Festival of Lights, Origin of Advent, Colours of the Season, Christmas Bells, Feasting Traditions, Canadian Christmas Traditional Recipes, Origin of Christmas Crackers, First Christmas Carols, The Origins and Evolution of Santa Claus, Reindeer Names, Christmas Stockings, Christmas Presents, Origin of the Snowman, The Nutcracker, The Importance of Frankincense, Origin of the Creche, The Night Animals Could Speak, The Origin of Christmas Cards, Beginnings of Boxing Day, The Three Wise Men, Groundhog Day and Candlemas, Old Slavic Winter Solstice and Christmas Superstitions

I have always been interested in tradition and in the origins of both my belief and my culture. I would look up the history online and print out pages to show to my family. I no longer have to do that because this book has all of that information compiled into one super convenient and interesting book. It is very readable and easy to get through and a must for all Christmas enthusiasts out there.

Faeries (1981)

Faeries is a very short movie, not even half an hour, and is based on Brian Froud's book Faeries. The story is about a youth named Oisin who is out on a hunt with the men to bring in some game for his birthday feast, but they have been unlucky are just about to give up and go home empty-handed. Just as the men are lamenting at even bringing the boy, a deer runs by Oisin and his horse chases it off into the forest. The deer stops to graze in a ring of mushrooms and just as Oisin is about to shoot it, it turns into a lovely young woman who states that she is Princess Niamh of the faeries. The princess takes Oisin with her to fairyland because they are in trouble. The king was showing off his magical ability and made his shadow come alive, but over time the shadow grew more powerful and began sucking power out of the king. The shadow took over most of the faerie realm with it's darkness (which weakens the powers of the seelie court) and was going to go after the princess next. It is of course up to Oisin and his assigned companion Puck to go after the monster in it's castle and defeat it, bringing peace to faerie realm once again.

The movie was decently done. Even though it was a short film it felt like a feature-length film. The animation of the faeries was very Froud like, which was interesting to see applied in a cartoon and was pretty accurate in regards to some creatures. Certain poses of some of the faeries looked like they came right out of the book. There were some cheesy lines and a few easy way outs that will have you rolling your eyes, but hey, it's the 80's. Overall worth while.

Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy

I have seen this anime around but my impression of it was that it would be one of those vacuous 'cute for the sake of cute' animes about nothing in particular and the most the creator wanted me to take away from it was that 'OMG THAT WAS THE CUTEST EVER WASN'T THAT SO CUTE'. So naturally I stayed away. Despite what I thought initially however, this was actually a good story and yes, it is cute, but not cute for the sake of cuteness.

The story begins with an industrious young girl named Saga. Saga lives with her grandmother and has her life planned down to the minute. She doesn't like disorganization and even makes plans and decisions for her friends. This all starts to unravel, however, when Saga comes across a tiny fairy who almost passes out from hunger. Saga gives her a waffle to eat and the fairy follows her home. At first Saga dislikes the attention and is constantly trying to ignore or get away from Sugar, the fairy. Eventually though, the two become good friends and Saga becomes important to Sugar's mission.

Sugar is a snow fairy. Fairies control to weather, there are fairies who control wind, rain, sun, the clouds, etc. and Sugar controls snow, or will after her training period. Sugar is an apprentice fairy and she, along with other apprentice fairies, must spend time on earth to find 'twinkles'. Each fairy must find a 'twinkle' to make their own magic flower bloom, and only then can they become a full-fledged season fairy. Many of the episodes focus on the fairies trying to find these twinkles.

This show is not only for fairy lovers, there is also a a very strong musical theme. The fairies control their weather specialization with a musical instrument, and Saga herself loves the piano and plays often throughout the series. Music itself doesn't play as big a role as the love of instruments and the hold they may have on our memories.

The characters grow immensely in this series. Saga is not the up-tight girl who clung to a schedule. After she meets Sugar, Saga slowly is forced to loosen up a bit. Normally, people can't see season fairies so they fly out in the open and are invisible to people, but Saga is an exception and can see them. This poses a problem for her because not only do her schedules come under attack, but she is talking to and interacting with things no one but her can see. Over time though, Saga makes room for life to happen and doesn't cling so tightly to her schedule. Both Saga and Sugar experience trials, both individually and together and both grow a little bit from each hardship they face. It's kind of like fruits basket in that it's a sweet story on the surface, but it has a hidden depth to it, it's not as deep or intricate as fruits basket but it does have that double layer of surprising substance even though the characters are so cute.

A new start to an old blog

I have been writing reviews for many years now, and I move my reviews with me when I go from domain to domain... as well as putting them on sites like amazon. So many of the older posts may be much older than the date it says it was posted, but I update it every now and again so needless to say I will post a fair share on this site as I did and do on others.

Voices of a Distant Star (2003)

This movie was a lot more abstract than I was expecting. Its very short, only half an hour long, so the story can't be developed in any great length, but the film went ahead with the characters emotionally without giving the audience some kind of back story to help them catch up. Basically, if you want to relate to this movie you'll have to do a lot of the work yourself, which isn't necessarily a negative, but it's not what I was expecting and it wasn't done well enough to make me forget that that wasn't what I was expecting.

The story follows two high school aged sweethearts, Mikako and Noboru, who were separated at the beginning of high school because Mikako accepts a mission to fly a mecha man across the solar system to fight aliens on a distant planet (which is interesteing to consider in a gender role sense because most of the time is it the guy who goes away to war or to explore and the girl stays home to wait). As she flies further and further away she tries to text Noboru and the more she travels the more years it will take to reach him. She finally reaches a faraway planet that is 8 light years away from earth and she sends a text, by the time he gets the text he's moved on with his life but they both say that they regret not having lived with each other.

I found that I couldn't really connect with the characters very well, Mikako was curled up in a ball crying all the time, even when she was fighting aliens. Noboru was distant and cool and when the time came, gave up on the supposed love of his life way too easily for the audience to believe that he cared at all in the first place. There are very few flashbacks, but the ones provided show them talking casually as friends or hanging out and were not really emotionally charged enough to set up Mikako's constant tears (which is why I said that you would have to do a lot of the emotional leg work by yourself, in your own head, because its not in the film).

Aside from the plot though, the art was beautiful. The drawing of the characters were not to my taste, but the scenery was stunning. Really beautiful artwork. I believe this was done almost wholly by one artist, which is amazing.