Dec 23, 2015
When I first watched this film I was mesmerized with just how beautiful the soundtrack and environments were. There are some stunning visuals in this movie and each music score is made for specific scenes, unlike a lot of anime which just repeats the same music for scenes with the same emotion (sad scenes, fight scenes etc.).
This film does actually have some great characters with potential, but it's just sad that the creators of the film didn't develop them enough. The film focuses mostly on Toola and Agito while other characters either only have small moments when they are focused on or they are
...
not focused on at all.
I thought that Agito was a likable character to start with, but when he became enhanced he seemed to lose his adorable personality. I found his moments with Cain to be humorous and I wish that I had seen more of them together, but sadly after Agito became enhanced the film just focused on him and his strength.
Toola was probably the character with the most development in this movie which isn't a surprise since she is the one the film centres around. We see her flashback scene where she remembers the accident in the past and we see her change from how she was at the beginning to how she becomes at the end, and she is the only character to actually have stages of development, whereas Agito literally just touches the Forest's hand and is suddenly a new person.
I felt bad for all of the other characters since they didn't get much focus compared to Agito and Toola. Hajan was only in a few scenes for a very small amount of time, but since he was one of the enhanced humans who carved out Neutral City I felt as if he needed more attention. The same goes for Agashi and Yolda, though Yolda did have more screentime due to being the town's representative. I've already stated how Cain seemed to vanish once Agito became enhanced so I don't need to repeat what I previously said. Then there is Colonel Jessica who didn't even have her name mentioned once. She was practically silent until the train fight scene. Again, I feel as though she should have had more focus since she was probably the strongest woman in the film and had quite an important role, especially towards the end (where she got a little more attention).
What also irritates me is the amount of unanswered questions this film has created. Who are the Druids? To me it sounds as if they are supposed to me humans who have given into the Forest completely, but this is never said directly. What was the book Toola was reading? It may have been hard to notice, but when Toola was using her raban to locate E.S.T.O.C. she glanced down at an open book which Shunack looked at and then closed. What is with the 6 rabans on Shunack's wrist? He states that his own raban was lost during a fight with Neutral City, so what's with the ones he has? He can't use them because Toola already states that "the raban only responds to the person it belongs to", so why did he have them? How did he get them? And also, how did he call Toola if the rabans only work with their original owners? This might just be a plot hole, but it is worth noticing. Unless, of course, that phone call was from someone else from the past...
The film has many more unanswered questions which should really be answered, others including how Toola survived hibernation while everyone else was dead and what caused Shunack to leave Neutral City (Yolda blames herself and the Forest for driving him away).
Don't get me wrong, this film is still outstanding in it's own way. I think it just requires an imaginative mind to enjoy it completely as it is a great film for coming up with theories. The idea of water being a currency works perfectly as the world could very well end up that way, though in the film the accident is caused by a mistake in a project which was meant to bring good to the world.
Overall I do recommend that people should watch this movie as I think that it is quite underrated. Personally I would want to see it remade into an anime series since I've seen many characters and scenes which were cut from the movie, not to mention that an anime series could answer all of those unanswered questions and fit in everything that the creators tried to shove into the film. Maybe an anime series would show more flashbacks from the past instead of just having characters talk about the past.
If you haven't watched the film, do watch it. It isn't as terrible as people say it is. Trust me. I've seen worse anime movies.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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