Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru: Fantasy Railroad in the Stars

This Movie of The Celestial Railroad show us many stories about the starry sky, the constellations, accompanied by a concise narrative according to every story, every moment is themed magically by the voices of Males, females and kids, transmitting a natural curiosity along the story and pictures.

The animation is showing elements we see everyday and how combines the world we see with the starry sky, to be precise, it become real when the Milky Way is placed at the beggining as the railway, being as well the start of the many different constellations and stories.

Is quite relaxing while watching and listen to it. ... We are talking a 100% of sceneries, no characters around, counting with different storytellers as main characters, sometimes may feels like a documentary about constellations and their phantasies behind. Mention the music is talking about the film as well, gives a total ambience to this travel Goes to different sounds, mixing natural sound and the most imaginative and fantastical music.

The movie had this moments that before and after a single episode, leaves you alone to enjoy or particulary observe something, is curious and is good, as it is to emphasize the narrative is constant and can overwhelm a bit.

More or less, this movie is all about.

This is an extremely beautiful piece of animation, accompanied by marvelous and relaxing music. It is a work of art worth watching even if only for the sceneries and soundtrack.

Here the focus is almost completely on the journey through the milky way, and the story is not presented in its entirety, although it's possible to follow some events. It is beautiful and relaxing, and we do not have here the deep plot conclusions or eerie atmosphere present in the previous movie adaptation. No character is shown, although we can hear Giovanni's and Campanella's voices in many moments in the narrative.

The animation focuses on showing the ... beautiful scenery of the journey and mostly explaining where they and the train are at each moment, with more precise astronomical information, which is quite interesting. With this approach in mind we can truly enjoy it.

The only negative side I would point out is that the story is incomplete and many passages from the original book or previous movie adaptation were left out. Maybe this could be a bit longer, but again, the focus of this animation is not the story, but the journey and the scenery, so that is by no means a big issue.

With many direct references to the original book and its author, this really stands out as a tribute.

This film is one of the most whole experiences that I've ever had. The film mainly takes us to an astonishingly beautiful and relaxed atmospheric audiovisual journey.

While there is narration of the story throughout the film I'd say that understanding it or even caring about it isn't really important for the experience that is this film. The film itself is more of a audiovisual journey literally through "Fantasy Railroad in the Stars" as the title of the film suggests. I'd say this is one of the best and most unique adaptations of a story that I've seen. It is made almost in a ... way that makes you feel that you were part of the story yourself.

Kagaya did phenomenal job with the visuals and art. Pretty much every scene of the film is brilliantly rendered with a fantastical look and extremely true to the detail and enhancing the story immersion experience. You can see that this art was created through passion for the work in question and fantasy of the stars and space in general. In short I'd say this film has showed me something that I didn't believe was possible to achieve with animation and visual medium in regards of immersive storytelling experience through the visuals.

The art and overall visual atmosphere is as soothing as it can be. It is rendered beautifully and retains its fantastical and mysterious vibe throughout the film while still appearing relatable and immersive, as if you were discovering something beautiful for the first time. Laying your eyes on a masterful work in art gallery. I'd say the film definitely is an artistic experience and journey where Kagaya poured everything in the art and you can experience that through this film.

The sound design is another part which I think is something exceptional. The general tone and voice of the narration is done with a soothing voice, giving you and the film a calm and relaxed vibe, its almost like you were listening some kind of performance. That is only when it comes to the narration and the voice acting. When it comes to music it really matches the fantastical and extraterrestrial vibe of the gorgeous visuals, while still staying calm with the narration. I'd say that the music itself is a masterpiece of its own, but combined with the narrative and visual experience, matching flawlessly, I think we have something extraordinary here.

Note there are no visual depictions of any characters that appear in the story, but as I mentioned earlier due to the excellent way of visually portraying the story it is possible to immerse yourself as a part of the fantastical scenery as a character of the story. It is almost as if you were actually boarding the train experiencing the "Fantasy Railroad in the Stars" through the combined experience of narration and audiovisual storytelling of the film.

I've not experienced anything like this film in anime or anywhere else before and I can safely say that it is one of the most unique experiences that you can get as far as audiovisual medium goes. I got nothing but respect for Kagaya for crafting this luminescent masterpiece.