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Post by drazzl on Sept 28, 2014 11:09:46 GMT
Our first pick for the club, chosen by die roll, is by Mira. Voices of a Distant start is the freshman work of Makoto Shinkai and is quite short at only 25 minutes. It is set in a mecha-universe, much like Macross from what I'm seeing, but focusing on human connection instead of space battles. Here is the link to the movie. It does contain commercial breaks, I could not find the episode on youtube. We have set a view by date for this coming Wednesday, October 1st. Let the discussion begin.
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Post by drazzl on Oct 3, 2014 10:34:06 GMT
It was very easy to be harsh towards this short movie until I did some digging and discovered it was done almost entirely by the writer/director/producer on a home pc.
The background art looks solid, most likely because it looks copied from other sources. The character art seems a bit off and out of place. I've seen criticism that the mech designs were weak, but I thought they were ok. The beautiful landscapes both planet-side and in space carry the art though.
The basic story concept had me psyched, but I felt the execution was lacking. The length prohibited much exploration of the world setting and so a lot of things needed to be taken at face value. In theory, the short movie should hold up most on its writing, which at times seems a bit awkward with the cliche use of illusory daydreams from out of left-field filled with internal monologue and exploration of vague concepts that rarely seem to go anywhere. The world setting needs to be taken at face value as there is no deeper explanation given for things. While series like Gundam get away with underage pilots in mechs, this movie seems out of place doing so with the 15 year old pilot somehow enrolled in the military that doesn't seemed starved for candidates and is still wearing her school uniform in the cockpit. Then there's the issue of a single mech easily destroying a massive battleship with its personal sword turning the tide of battle.
The bright spot is still the core concept of letters being sent between 2 people who have some affections for each other with time gaps growing longer and longer. There's something touching about it empathizing with the characters on a gut level. At the same time, it was hardly even worth remembering either of the character's names.
Overall, given how roughly the film was made and that it was the writer's first serious project, it deserves a lot of credit and was still worth the view.
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Post by <3 :] Mirannah :] <3 on Oct 5, 2014 15:40:55 GMT
I'd like to mention that I somehow got confused and thought the writer/director of this movie was one that had done work on anime that Ten, Viv, and I absolutely *loved.* Not really sure how that happened.
Anyway, what was supposed to be a discussion on how he's advanced in writing ended up as 'well, you did really well for what you had, Mr. Unknown'
The fact that the main character is 15 drives me crazy now, but it didn't when I first saw the movie (at the age of 14.) While the art is rough, I still love the plot. And I don't care what anyone says, I think the characters not being memorable was intentional; the depth of the situation makes it seem like it could be anyone, or maybe more like everyone involved in the mech program was going through something like this, which makes me empathize even more.
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vivex
Member
The Great and Powerful
Posts: 30
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Post by vivex on Oct 7, 2014 17:16:49 GMT
While Makoto Shinkai gets all the props for making this like he did, for me atleast this was a hard sit and thats insane to say about something that is only 25 minutes long. Concept was good but like its already been said execution was lacking. While i agree it wants it to be more about what is happening rather than who its happening to i feel i would of been more impacted if i cared about who it was happening to just a little bit more cause golly whats the males name again? I dunno if you really wanted to sit down and watch it once i say go for it its only 25 minutes long but i think in a few weeks ill have forgotten i saw this. I give it a 4.6
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