Makoto Shinkai, director of films as 5 Centimeters Per Second, Garden of Words and other great anime films has a new anime being released based off of short anime of his back from 1999. Today on the news sites it has been revealed that Makoto Shinkai's She and Her Cat (Kanojo to Kanojo no neko) anime short is getting its own television anime titled Kanojo to Kanojo no neko -Everything Flows-. The anime will premiere will be airing in Japan in March 2016. Here is a link to the tweet of the confirmation:
The story will follow the life of a girl during his junior college years, job hunting to make a living, at the same time leaving her pet black cat at home.
If you are a fan of Makoto Shinkai's work than you should put this anime on you radar during the spring season of anime this year. The voices will be helmed by Kana Hanazawa, who plays girl &Shintarō Asanuma who plays cat in TV anime adaption of the 1999 short.
116 Min Genre:Animation|Adventure|Drama Director & Writer:Makoto Shinkai Plot:A coming of age story involving young love and a mysterious music,
coming from a crystal radio left as a memento by an absent father, that
leads a young heroine deep into a hidden world. This is definitely Mokto Shinkai attempt at making a Studio Ghibli film, from animation wise as well as story. Surprisingly enough this is one of my favorite movies of his just for how much it feels the most like an actually movie. Most of his films tend to have a short film feel to them and this was the first one to actually feel like it went bigger and grander than any other of his films. Animation - A
The movie definitely captures the art style of a studio Ghibli movie, but it still retains a lot of what makes Mokoto Shinkai movies look so fantastic. Every shot in the movie is basically a piece of art. Everything is bright and color and that really compliments the world that this film sets up. The world of Agartha is expansive and has a lot to explore. Which helps out on the journey the characters go on. Story - B The Story of Children Who Chase Lost Voices is relatively simple. Its basically a get from point A to point B plot but that isn't a bad thing. Because the plot is simple it is made up completely in the journey to get to Point B. The way Agartha is set up is great and really gets you invested for the journey and the world. Characters - B My main problem with the characters is that we don't really get any arc out of anyone except for Mr. Morisaki, even with Asuna being out main protagonist of the story. For the most part Asuna is pretty static throughout the whole movie and even Shin is pretty static as well not having any emotion to knowing about his brother's death. Rating:
Plot:The love of Japanese high school students Mikako Nagamine and Noboru
Tera is tested when Mikako is sent to fight aliens in a distant universe
and voice mails to and from Earth become months to years in
transmission.
This is one of Makoto Shinkai's earlier short films and could be my favorite story of his in the concept of it. It focus on two students who fall in love at the wrong time when Mikako has to travel galaxies away to fight off aliens that threat the Earth. We follow their conversations in the form of text messages as they both live their lives waiting for a message from each other. The main problem of the story is that with each text message that longer it takes to send as they both get older and older and farther away from each other. Its very simple and short and that is what really works. You aren't told to much about why they are recruiting teenagers to go fight a war with aliens but you get to see how it all works and what kind of battle they have. You can see it borrows a lot of technology that was obviously in the early 2000s but it feels like this takes place in the future, its a nice balance.
Voices of a Distant Star is short but has a lot to offer, even to make me go and read the manga that was adapted after this film was released. The animation isn't amazing, but when I learn that Makoto Shinkai pretty much made everything second of this film by himself, its impressive! Definitely check this film out if you can. Rating:
63 min Genre:Animation|Drama|Romance Director & Writer:Makoto Shinkai Plot:Told in three interconnected segments, we follow a young man named
Takaki through his life as cruel winters, cold technology, and finally,
adult obligations and responsibility converge to test the delicate
petals of love. This is the second Mokoto Shinkai film I have seen, and unlike the previous film I watch (Garden of Words) this movie is essentially three short films with one common plot line.
The first short story the film is definitely my favorite out of the three, it was paced the best and felt like the most original and focused. The second story, while not as good as the first, does has the best message out of the three, focusing on what to do with you future as soon as school is over. The third story was the weakest but not bad by any means, just had a problem with references all the past stories instead of focusing on its own. As a whole the movie has many happy moments but also real moments, that feel realistic and are down very well. Visually this movie is stunning, Mokoto Shinkai definitely knows how to use color and how to make animation look so cinematic. Overall, 5 Centimeters Per Second is great film and one that still sticks with me even after a few days of seeing it. Its also one of the few occasions where I went to start reading the book after I had seen the movie. If your a fan of great animation, this is definitely one to check out. Rating:
