Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Aoi Tamago Japanese: ペイル・コクーン
Information
Type: OVA
Episodes: 1
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Dec 10, 2005
Duration:
23 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.761 (scored by 15283 users)
Ranked: #8002
Popularity: #712
Members: 25,016
Favorites: 151 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
drama sci-fi |
SynopsisA future where the continuity of history has broken off, a world of enormous ruins that continues endlessly. Oceans and continents have vanished, existing only within the archives brought up from the remains. Ura works in the Archive Excavation Department, which restores and analyzes the data left behind. One day, he finds a disturbing visual record...
(Source: ANN) |
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Red_Zealot
109 of 138 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Pale Cocoon tells the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth as observed by two humans, a man and a woman. They are involved in the extraction and cleaning of digital archives left by humans many years before. They include all types of media, pictures of Earth, newspaper clippings, video... the works. They are to a certain extent futuristic archaeologists. The story follows them as they hope to unravel Earth's history. Although short, as one off OVA, it doesn't feel like it is short. If that makes any sense. The plot is nicely developed and reaches an interesting conclusion.
The animation and direction for Pale Cocoon is absolutely amazing. I found myself getting lost in the amazing visuals and rewinding to where I was previously. It is meld between 3-D backdrops and traditional 2-D characters. This was pulled off spectacularly and as I said before, looks "absolutely amazing". The "camera" is used in a very realistic manner and often pulls back to give a sense of grand scale and is some of the best cinematography I have seen in an anime.
The musical score is phenomenal. With piano piece accompanied with a limited orchestra, the music does an outstanding job of accurately conveying the mood. The insert song is fantastic and played at exactly the right time. Overall it is some of the best music I have heard in a short anime.
The characters, who I don't think we ever learn the names of (I have a poor memory for names), are nicely fleshed out over this short story. The male lead is voiced very well and is very believable. He is very serious about his job and is eager to learn the truth about Earth. The female lead is always a little side-tracked and is beginning to lose interest in the project. She is very interested in a particular, for lack of a better word, shaft. This stairwell has a special place for her...
Overall I really enjoyed Pale Cocoon, and although it was short at just over twenty-two minutes it didn't feel like anything was left out. It comes to a very satisfying conclusion and is a must watch for any anime fan. read more
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SamFury
26 of 39 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
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Story
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“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”
-Buddah
The audience opens their eyes to a set of wrought iron stairs, coiling about a brilliant pillar of golden light. It illuminates the dreary recesses of this world, the rusting iron, the sluggish gait of the excavators leaving their cubicles. This is the fate of mankind, stuffed into the interiors of the planet because the surface has rotted away from overpopulation. At least it’s not global warming that dooms us, Pale Cacoon predicts it’s a lack of protection.
My fascination was pulled into the dank crypt of Ura and Riko, the two leads, as Pale Cocoon toys with many concepts. Environmentalism and population pollution are obvious themes but only scratch the surface. More interestingly, the narrative asks whether the past is on any use when there is no escape from your present? The theme is expanded as the characters are asked to question their reality and prove to themselves the sky of once-upon-a-time is truly gone. It’s ambitious, aiming for annals of philosophical abstraction even with its twenty-three minute scope. It’s grand but it has a humble foundation; Most of the story is driven by the interaction of Ura and Riko and their diverging opinions on the archaeology of history. Their friendship is both unnatural and snug, a love-hate push and pull that’s intriguing and advances the plot. It’s the small nuances of this relationship that make Pale Cocoon a moving experience, and the revelations of the final minutes that make it phenomenal.
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Art
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Dilapidated never looked so pretty. Seamlessly integrated CGI and artwork come together to form a visual masterpiece. Lines are clear and crisp, serving as frames for the cell shaded images. These set pieces are filled in with an appropriately post-apocalyptic palette. Soiled browns and sooty grays swathed in the pale light of computer screens. Swashes of neon green burn dimly in the underground bunkers as the workers return with their zombie-like strut. It’s a mechanical world that inspires both sadness from its poor condition and awe from the technical beauty the artist took effort in creating.
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Sound
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Both grand and haunting, the soundtrack for Pale Cocoon is exceptional. It draws from different genres, a classical back bone of pianos and violins, layered by electronic horns. It even delves into Pop, a guest appearance by Little Moa, who solos a powerful ballad. The voice acting is just as impressive; Ura’s delivery devoid of most emotion while Kiko’s inflections delivers insight into her sorrow. Like the rest of the film the sound is handled spectacularly.
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Characters
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From such a short film you can’t expect much development, but the two leads Ura and Kiko have surprising depth. Ura is an excavator, swimming through seas of binary code day by day to figure out the world that was. He’s passionate, teetering on the edge of obsession when it comes to the past, tirelessly trudging through the 0s and 1s, saving what he finds interesting. But he is curiously detached from Riko, the analyzer, a friend of his. Riko has stopped showing up to work favoring the bleak company of emptied stairs. She sprawls herself across the grate looking up into the dark retreat, pondering. The anagnorisis of both characters not only speaks volumes about each of them but the world they are living in. In the brief time we see their conceptions of the world change, Ura finally maturing and Kiko gaining a bit of optimism.
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Overall.
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Pale Cocoon brings together excellent storytelling and production to create a miniature gem. Its easy to get lost and not realize that the program is over. It deserves a watch by any fan that believes anime should be more than entertainment but art. Pale Cocoon does what most animation doesn’t: provoke my imagination. Just as Riko gazed up into shadows I was left contemplating my dimmed screen.
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Recommendations
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Made by the same studio, Has the same mysterious feeling of wanting to know what is happening.
Made by the same studio, and it gives off the same kind of feeling.
Made by the same studio, and has a very similar feel. There is a lot left to the viewer to figure out. Both have stunning art, and are very different from most other anime that i've watched.
Same studio, similar art style. Both are about how daily life will be in a hypothetical, not-so-distant future. Also, Pale Cocoon was playing on the TV at one point in Eve no Jikan.
Made by the same studio, futuristic setting, and the storys both involve some mystery.
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Both Mikako of Voices and the protagonists of Pale Cocoon are forcibly alienated from Earth. Both stories take place in a depopulated and dystopic future, and emphasize a kind of ethereal nostalgia for the "Home Planet." Both involve elements of ambiguous romance.
Both OVA takes place in the distant future that tells a tale of humanity and the truth of society.
Both series has a nice soundtrack that is appealing to the ears.
Both series has that melancholy feeling that seems to reflect emotions and sadness. Additionally, they also have science fiction themes that details humanity's future; a scientific touch in the anime world.
Both are calm and quiet scifi anime in which the character's careers bring them farther apart from each other.
Both deal with the relationship of 2 people in the context of humanity being in danger, in the future.
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Opening ThemeNo opening themes found, add themes.
Ending Theme"Aoi Tamago" by Little Moa
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Fansubbing Groups
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Animax [Animax] (Brazilian Portuguese)
Hokkaido [Hokkaido] (Brazilian Portuguese)
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