Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

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Alternative Titles

English: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

Synonyms: Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place

Japanese: 雲のむこう、約束の場所

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Nov 20, 2004

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: ADV Films

Studios: CoMix Wave Films

Source: Original

Genres: Drama, Military, Romance, Sci-Fi

Duration: 1 hr. 30 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.72¹ (scored by 65,172 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet aired' titles are excluded.

Ranked: #1069²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #645

Members: 142,066

Favorites: 678

7.72

Ranked #1069Popularity #645Members 142,066

MovieCoMix Wave Films

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Synopsis

In an alternate-reality 1974 Japan, the country is split, with the southern islands controlled by America and the northern lands claimed by the Soviet Union. Hokkaido, referred to as Ezo in Kumo no Mukou Yakusoku no Basho, decides to construct a tower into the sky designed by Ekusun Tsukinoe.

By 1996, Hokkaido Tower's construction is complete and three students of Aomori have big dreams concerning this tower. Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa are considered child prodigies, and both harbor romantic feelings for Sayuri Sawatari, though neither of them would dare admit it.

When a drone crashes down, the two boys resolve to repair it and fly to the top of Hokkaido Tower. Assisting them is their boss at the military plant, Mr. Okabe. They name the drone Bella Ciela, but before their dreams of flying it are realized, Sayuri vanishes. Unbeknownst to them, her disappearance is related closely to the tower that the two dream of reaching.

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Adaptation:

Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

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Characters & Voice Actors

Sawatari, Sayuri

Main

Nanri, Yuuka
Japanese

Fujisawa, Hiroki

Main

Yoshioka, Hidetaka
Japanese

Shirakawa, Takuya

Main

Hagiwara, Masato
Japanese

Okabe

Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou
Japanese

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Staff

Shinkai, Makoto

Producer, Director, Sound Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Executive Producer, Color Design, Original Creator, Editing

Foster, Steven

Script, ADR Director

Tenmon

Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement, Music

Kawashima, Ai

Theme Song Performance

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"Kimi no Koe" by Kawashima, Ai

More reviewsReviews

Jun 25, 2008

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

TheLlama (All reviews)

362 people found this review helpful

The Place Promised starts out with a very tranquil slice of life setting, but don't get fooled by first appearances. It soon takes on a more dramatic tone, with a sense of sci.fi. over it too, depending on which of the two male leads' story it's currently following. With the dreams of the female lead poppign in here and there, you have three fantastic story which grabs you on a deep, emotional level, and it all ends with blending the three together in one splendid end scene, which I'll remember a long time.

The characters in The Place Promised are fantastic, deep and lifelike. Note the read more

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Mar 17, 2007

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Faust721 (All reviews)

148 people found this review helpful

Makoto Shinkai's first feature-lengthed work - The Place Promised in Our Early Days.

Story: Just like Voices in a Distant Star and 5 Centimeters Per Second, this is a story about 2 people and their distances. Unlike Voices where their distance is that of time and space, Place Promised is about their distance across dimensions/dreams/reality. What I like about this concept is how well Shinkai presented it. Sayuri (our heroine) is physically in the world, but spiritually trapped in another. It is very touching to see Hiroki (our hero) search for Sayuri knowing that she is very close yet at the same time very far away read more

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Apr 4, 2008

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

slpless (All reviews)

126 people found this review helpful

I watched Makoto Shinkai’s first major work, Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star) a year before watching this. Hoshi no Koe was nothing short of breathtaking. The animation, pacing, and plot were all top notch and even more surprising, it was essentially done by one person. After way too many delays, The Place of Promise in Our Early Days was finally released.

My initial impression was, ohh pretty. The animation was fantastic; everything was clean, crisp, and vivid. Although, sometimes a bit too clean, crisp, and vivid. This is especially true for the interior backgrounds. I think of a brand new shinny kitchen appliance with I see some of the interior backgrounds. However, the "nature" shots didn't give me that impression. Overall, the animation was very beautiful and well done.

As for the music....well it was pretty good, as expected of Tenmon however, it really didn’t stand out.

The rest however, doesn't really fare as well. As I watching I couldn't help get the feeling that he was trying to do the same thing he did with Hoshi no Koe. Hoshi no Koe was 30 min short exploring the theme of "long distance love." Being a short film it really didn't have much of a plot, nor did it attempt to. The Place of Promise in our Early Days on the other hand seemed like it was going to explore a theme like Hoshi no Koe did yet the same time try to tell a concrete story. This produced a horribly paced movie. First its going nice and slow producing this calm nostalgic feel. Then things move too fast and you're wondering what happened. Essentially the pace is too fast and too slow all at once. The movie should have only been 50 minutes at most. Interestingly enough was what was originally planned out to be. I felt this was a very good 50 min OVA, then scenes were made longer and added extra stuff (ie the sci-fi stuff) to make this mediocre 90 min movie.

Because of the lack of focus the characters suffered quite a bit. Their relationships weren’t explored enough nor did I feel there was any depth to them. In addition, I wasn’t convinced of the love between Sayuri and Hiroki. Once again they didn’t spend enough time on the characters.

The Place of Promise in our Early Days is a beautifully animated film with lush and vivid detailed. However, it sometimes suffers from being too clean and vivid, giving it that new shinny kitchen appliance look. The music was excellent but not memorable. The Place of Promise in our Early Days suffer fatally from its poor pacing that makes the movie feel too fast and too slow at the same time.

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Nov 4, 2007

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Hiromi (All reviews)

46 people found this review helpful

It should be noted that first of all, I’m writing reviews for both The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters per Second at the same time (and as such, I’ll be including the same opening paragraph). Both of these series, feature films, animes, whatever you want to call them hold a special place in my heart/head, again your call. Not because they’re overly interesting or because they’re extremely entertaining but because they make me sad. Strange, right? Well, I’m willing to bet that any anime lover will instantly favorite (no, not add to their favorite list or anything grand) any anime (or anything for that matter) that can hit a cord within him or herself. Anything that can resonate with our frequency or run parallel to our curves; anything that can make us think about our own lives or make us grow as a person; anything that brings a new light to our eyes or makes us hold our breaths; in short: anything that changes our lives if only for a moment is something we’ll remember forever. Shinkai Makoto is one of the few directors/writers to have done so to myself.

Let’s get to it shall we?

Characters:
The Place Promised in Our Early Days begins simply enough. Without going into too much detail (I’m sure you can find a summary if need be), we’re thrown into the rather mundane lives of Fujisawa Hiroki and Shirakawa Takuya. Both are rather normal; attend school, participate in club activities and hang out. What strikes with us is that they’re rather normal. Hiroki is a regular teenage boy with a crush on a cute girl Sawatari Sayuri. As the world they live in is slowly unraveled and we see the differences between ours and theirs we also see how Hiroki and Takuya are different from normal boys. It is during this first part that we get to see watch the key scenes of friendship between Hiroki, Sayuri and Takuya. Despite the differences in their setting we get to see that they’re, in fact, just like us. They have dreams and aspirations – Shinkai Makoto has truly created characters we can relate to and understand. This sets us up for the later parts where as the story delves closer towards the two male protagonists, we can clearly understand their current actions as influenced by their early days.

Story:
The story plays a significant part in how the characters are developed. Without the given setting or ramifications of the war, we wouldn’t have this story. At first, the viewer is fed a slice of life drama that depicts the three main protagonists. This is our humble introductory into a much larger scheme. As the story shifts past the early days, a more sci-fi approach is given through Takuya’s eyes while Hiroki experiences a saddening drama. Finally, through our female heroine’s eyes, we see the surreal visions she trudges through. All this goes back to our characters and how we perceive, sympathize and care about them. Our three views collide at the end in a climax much akin to the beginning – with our protagonists united and their (current) aspirations coming to fruition. The Place Promised delivers a story you want to succeed because you’re emotionally tied to these characters and their situations. If not for the narrative voice, we’d be in the Stone Age of passion.

Art and Sound:
As expected from Shinkai Makoto, our eyes and ears a treated to some of the best the industry has to offer. The art work will blow any anime series out of the water thanks to the high budget. As mentioned before, the entire experience of character and story must be unified and what better way to do so than imagery and sound?

I wrote this review first (i.e. before 5 Centimeters per Second) because I watched it first. It was also one of those anime’s I didn’t give a second thought to buying. I said it before and I’ll say it once more (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme >_<) The Place Promised in Our Early Days provides a fusion of character depth and a surreal view of how friendship and love know transcend all obstacles. Given the characters and situations they’re placed in, we can all sympathize with one of them and that’s what strikes home. Shinkai Makoto does this well thanks to the combination of amazing narrative voice and beautiful imagery – something you’ll rarely see done well.

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According to the official website, Shinkai Makoto came back to Japan this month. He had been in London since February 2008 and not been working on anime movie produc...read more

Apr 29, 2009 8:37 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (26 comments)

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	Poll: Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Desian - Sep 20, 2008	151 replies	by lihle808 »» Sep 11, 4:52 PM
	The place promised in our early days HELP [SPOILERS] tankker5 - Dec 29, 2014	2 replies	by Seiya0890 »» Feb 18, 2017 3:20 PM

Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

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