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A lot of people seem to complain that they don't understand Pale Cocoon's ending. Don't feel too bad - I had to rewatch it to get everything. Of course, that's what you're *supposed* to do with this one if you don't understand it.

At 12:40, Ura is climbing the stairs. He has already climbed a long ways. He doesn't want to go back down, but he wants to explain to Rikka what he's doing, so he drops the notebook onto the platform where she spends a lot of time lying.

At 16:10, Ura realizes that there's something strange about the picture from the video when he considers the recovered pictures of what the earth looked like.

Now the video starts, and we watch it at about the same time as Rikka does in the notebook, which is the same time that Ura has finished his climbing and has gotten into the elevator that goes to the top of the construction. We know that's the case at 17:50. At 17:52, the elevator floor starts breaking and Ura has to quickly hang on to the ceiling.

At 19:30, the cable on the elevator, which hasn't been maintained in centuries, breaks. We see this at 19:48. We know it's been centuries because of the video of the sphere with the date superimposed on it we see twice, that shows the progress of the construction Ura sees soon. Ura looks up...

Soon the second video starts. Yoko explains that she is on the moon, and immigrated from Earth because of a disaster that turned it red. She mentions "gravity maintenance equipment" and machinery we saw before is shown at the same time. She says everyone is waiting for a place on the immigration ships. Now remember the giant ship that is shown in the background behind Ura as he stands on the elevator.

Now we see Ura, who is floating above the elevator because they're both in free fall. But he's not concerned with that. He's looking at the blue planet above him, through clear panes that surround the clouds. He knows he's going to die in a little bit, but he doesn't mind, because he got what he wanted - seeing that something of the world he saw in the archives existed.

So, Ura and Rikka are on the moon. The towers, one of which Ura is on, exist to support the shell, which holds in the atmosphere - necessary because the moon has less gravity than the earth. (They would actually be pulling it in against air pressure rather than pushing it up against gravity.) That shell is what the diagram with the date was showing the construction of. Yoko was on the moon, which is why that record was there. She came on an immigration ship like the one we saw behind Ura, some centuries ago, to escape the disaster that happened to the Earth. She is a little bit of a celebrity, because of her music, and so she is sending a message to the people waiting to come to the moon. At that time, the systems on the moon are still being built.

Now, centuries later, the Earth is once again blue, and presumably once again livable. However, people in Ura's complex on the moon have forgotten that they even are on the moon, possibly because the records they have are about Earth. In the meantime the infrastructure has been slowly degrading and they have to continually move downwards.

Two things are left open at the end - the status of the Earth, and the status of the other areas on the moon. We don't know whether people managed to come back to the Earth, and we don't know if the people in the other complexes on the moon also forgot about the Earth, remembered the Earth but were still stuck in their complex, died when the machinery stopped, or managed to return.

So, please, stop saying "the ending doesn't mean anything" or "it's pretty but it doesn't have any story" because that's exactly what has gotten us more Naruto or Inuyasha instead of brilliant things like this - per minute, the best anime ever made.

Pale Cocoon was big time fail :S extremly boring show tbh i want bk that 45mins ive spent watching it

RAGE

well its an artsy anime.. theres alot of those i understood it the whole way through :P

well playing japanese video games sorta help out with that since most of the time they never make any sense so you gotta come up with reasonable answers or think more deeply about it.

It's not so much that it doesn't make sense as that it's meanings are a little less obvious and straightforward. You have to do a bit of thinking to really get it, versus shows like the aforementioned Naruto that don't have much depth.

I wouldn't go so far as to call this the best anime ever, but it was definitely awesome.

Well, I said best per minute. 5 cm/s is some tough competition there though.

If you're talking about the first episode, perhaps, but I wasn't too impressed with the last one there.

I thought it was fantastic. Shame they won't know about anything other than the moon.

*slaps forehead*


I am under the impression that he dropped the notebook by accident. IIRC, the exhaustion and fatigue cause him to lose balance and he drops it as he staggers. Besides, he knows that she spends a lot of time lying down there. What if the notebook landed on her rather than beside her?



Haha. Confusing? Of course, the story hardly has any spoonfeeding but I wouldn't really consider it as confusing. 2 or 3 viewings plus a few moments of reflection should be enough to figure out what really happened in the story. Trying to interpret Yasuhiro Yoshiura's intended message (if any) though is another matter altogether. Unlike Anno who's talked about his work several times already, I don't think I've heard of anything from Yoshiura yet.

You are dumb.

lmao its ok im not gonna take it personal since its coming from 16 years old kid...

OUCHHHHH, the age card. Forget this, there's no way I can respond to such a comeback.

I think it's pretty safe to say age =/= intelligence or maturity, as you're a perfect example of that. I will admit what I said was unnecessary in such a topic, so I will not be responding to any posts following this one, but I'm sorry, when you say something as stupid as that in such a topic you're practically asking to be insulted. It's nice to know though that mature adults such as yourself (if you're even an adult, that is, or just a delusional moron) can come up with such a brilliant response, and use such good english as well! I can rest easy knowing there are smart and mature adults such as yourself in the world.

Oh yeah, by the way:

- I am not 16.
- Pale Cocoon was roughly 23 minutes long, not 45. You were close though.

I do have to agree with Neverender on this...

Especially given the OVA was 23 not 45 mins and given my love for the sarcasm of his recent post.

I liked Pale Cocoon at face value, then there is the different perceptions of the events that took place that perhaps require more detailed thought into the matter is not something I would classify as boring.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and it didn't interest you then fair enough but perhaps you should give more credibility to that claim when commenting on things such as the run length...

...Unless I'm missing 22 mins of it?

*facepalm #2*

@Neverender: Your off-topic retort was longer than your earlier post. There's no need to bite whenever others bait.

@ashura: No offense meant but based on your grammar and the lack of explanations to support your opinion, I find it hard to take you seriously.

Back on-topic:
1) How do you think will Riko be affected by the events that took place?
2) Will mankind eventually return to it's former home?

i don't think that's the kinda anime you need to fully understand to appreciate it.

understanding is a very personal thing, i can come up with whatever story i think it happened on the ova and be 100% satisfied with it.



this ova is great.

looks like you misunderstand why i came up with the "16 years old", maybe i should explain then... lets call it lack of respect for other ppl opinion which is typical for teenagers. i didnt mean to offended you in any way as i wont call you dumb or moron.
i dont mind if you disagree with me. you do like this show but i dont, thats all.
about the 45 or 23 mins i couldnt care less (its been more than year since ive seen pale cocoon)

Pale Cocoon was simply one of the best OVA's i've ever saw (they weren't many though). Its simply amazing :)

It isn't hard to Understand (at least imho) if you watch it carefully. For me in its early minutes showed that it had to be seen with atention. I really enjoyed it :p (i admit it i watched it twice, in a row!)

- Cocoon, not shell. That’s where the name comes from right? It’s semi-transparent, pale.

- Just what I was thinking after I figured it out. Also #1 epicnessPM among other things.

Instead of re-watching it I just thought about it for 40 minutes, then I got it.

Yoko Yamaguchi is Riko’s grandmother, maybe, or perhaps she had ralized it as well? Because they never mention Riko’s last name. I imagine had this story continued half an hour into the future we would see Riko running down the staircase after realizing everything. And then discovering Ura spread eagle right where her grandmother died with his "Insides all messed up".

Another thing, the ending is supposed to be ironic, right? He is always mentioning “The green world” and it turns out to be blue. Since he had only heard rumours of something called the sea. After all that, he still leaves the world in question, in peace though.

P.S. Can't wait for Eve no Jikan

I thought this was interesting. I like it when I have to think a little <(^-^)> Just like the rest of you, I didn't fully understand it until after I watched it. Props to waterfall to helping me understand it better. I also like how it leaves you to imagine what happens next. I watched this on a whim and I don't regret it at all. 8/10. I think they might have left it off like they did so that people would come up with their own "ending" and maby make up some faniction.

How can say this was timewasting?
this anime was so beautiful and thanks to waterfalls for explaining some stuff that left me wondering.