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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- That was.... very confusing... I hope someone who have knowledge of the novel can answer some of my questions. (There was another discussion thread here. I don't think I should bump it, so I'm going to start a episode discussion here.) The movie starts out promising, great art, great animation. In the beginning, this is what I thought the story looked like: Kyougoku is from the future, comes back to find more kids with superpower, have some kind of plan to take over the school with prohibition of cellphones. I really like the voice actors in this movie; all 4 of them have a voice that I could recognize. Then, things start to mess up after Kyougoku confess to Harukawa. The setting that Kyougoku explains is somewhat acceptable. He believes that with the increase numbers of people with superpowers, it would be better for the future. But I could not understand his reasoning for this, was it even explained?. After that, the most ridiculous moment happens when Seki tells Kyougoku "Let's go the beach." At this moment, the school setting COMPLETELY gets ditched. Take over the school with superpower kids setting is forgotten. Prohibition of the cellphone remains unsolved. The reason that I'm using the word superpower instead of telepathy is because apparently Seki and Kyougoku have other powers, that they can duel with(?) Seriously, what was Kyougoku's original plan for his mission? Wait, what is his mission... some about the future... One of the biggest problem was with the character settings. A lot were introduced, but not finished explaining. Viewers have to make a lot of assumptions. Here are some of my understanding. Kyougoku is born in the future. His father is also from the future. His mother is born around the same time as Seki's dad, I assume that these 2 people are around the same age. His father traveled back in time and brought his mother back to the future with him. Seki's family all have superpowers. His little sister shown telepathy. His dad stopped Kyougoku's dad from doing whatever. Seki was suppose to die at young age, but Ryouura came back in time to same him, but Ryouura took the injury instead. I assume this is where she broke her leg, but her lying on the bed looked a lot more serious(?) The ending in terrible. Seki, Kyougoku, and Kyougoku's dad travel back in time even more to find Seki and Ryouura at younger age. Kyougoku's dad wants to kill Seki and Ryouura. This is what I don't understand, how will taking Seki and Ryouura's powers change the future for the better? Seki and Ryouura will destroy earth, how? This makes no sense to me at all. Although Kyougokusays that it will not work anyways... Kyougoku's dad disappear after this; Seki's dad dies. WHAT? I'm not even going to comment on the animals in this anime... The dog and fox like pokemon... Some things you will just never understand. TL;DR conclusion: Mix feeling about this anime. Really impressed with the art and animation, just like Kotonoha no Niwa that I watched earlier. However, the plot is really confusing. Almost reminds me of Bones' bad sci-fi/superpower mystery animes. (Not trying to offense Bones but...) Knowledge of the original novel is probably required to make sense of this anime. I know someone will ask, some I'll say this now: DVD/BD is on sale, just WAIT for it. Oh, I'm curious how it is going to rank next week. |
ShihJun 4, 2013 10:49 PM
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 Enjoying that mystical breeze~ Finished watching the Chinese subs of the movie. Those Sunrise production values...glorious animation. Also lol @ the beginning, dat position. Oh and I guess one other technical factor I liked from this movie would be the piano melody played literally by the piano. The supernatural aspects with the spiritual like fox beings were illustrated well but I'm not sure how they fit with this. Anyways, I might re-watch this again but seems like a strange watch although I'm not surprised with Sunrise. I kinda like the backgrounds of the movie though but I'm not sure if it was executed right. But ya, glorious animation along with premise but also mixed feelings here. I might review this movie later this month also. |
Stark700Jun 5, 2013 12:25 AM
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| Mayu Watanabe's voice kind of sounds like Yui Makino!! Except less vibrating effect as Yui-chan's voice. Though her voice is interesting. I might be wrong, but this is just my guess after watching the whole movie, but main guy's grandfather (future), OnoD's character's mother (present), and OnoD's character's father (the fox-like creature and from the future) are the main reason with this space and earth distortion with the "connection" problem, That's why the cellphone vs. Supernatural humans thing was involved in this movie at first. Then OnoD's character, obeying father's wish, who somehow has grudge on main guy's grandfather, has to experience what's really happening from his supposed enemies, who are the childhood friend with love. |
I ♥ Two Syaorans from Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and TRC!!! |
| It's like this was directed by JJ Abrams... |
| wow....the gorgeous animation bar just got raised. |
| I was expecting something above-average in terms of storyline, accompanied by stunning visuals. Only the visuals lived up to my expectations, and somewhat surpassed them. The story was awful. It could have been so, so much better. What a waste of that fantastic art and animation... |
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| i am 36 minutes into the movie and its boring as FUCK! really hope something happens soon that is somewhat relevant to the movies name lol... really a waste of my time sofar. // 1h30m in still horrible and the story is just plain stupid! this movie is a waste of resources. 4/10 for alrite animations and voice actors. also i cant stand the anmount of cliche in this one. makes me wanna throw up. |
KerozinnJun 23, 2013 9:47 AM
| Alright finally I can see this. Now to see if all the ranting and raving about the story making no sense is actually true or just the usual reaction to anything that gets produced by Sunrise. Based on experience and almost always having a totally different reaction to their stuff than most and typically being in tune with it I'm betting pretty confidently on the latter. This should be good. |
| That was a poor adaptation. I'm not sure if it's trying to be pretentious but ended up being shit or if it's just shit that happened to look pretentious. The irony is that it was supposed to promote communication between individuals (or least one of the subthemes seemed like that way) while the movie itself is a prime example of lack of clear communication. It's like me throwing random big words and not making the connection between them. The result: this borefest. Most of the movie time was wasted on... the daily lives of bland and boring teenage characters. Very nice art. But that's about it. I feel strangely offended by this movie overall. It's like they are trying to insult the viewer's intelligence. |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| Well, I enjoyed the splendid animation, the seiyuus and the presence of Nakamura Ryousuke's directing... |
| After watching this the reactions to this film no longer come as a surprise to me. It's so absolutely not made for today's modern late night anime TV going audience, it's entirely wasted on them as it's the kind of film that asks more questions than it answers. It's not a blockbuster even though it has the budget of one, but more of an art piece dabbling in ideas with a pretty face put on it all. This isn't actually a bad thing, just the audience that is going to be watching it in the West is totally going to see it that way because that is what they do. It also doesn't help that it has a school setting, but is not in fact a comedy or ero-romance or something like the Monogatari series that everyone is into these days. It doesn't deal with any sort of subject matter that is familiar to or commonly accepted by otaku, nor is there much in the way of action, grittiness or all those other things that people tend to rate highly in the 2010's. It also tends to deal with it's subject matter, themes and messages by showcasing how it's characters are often doing the opposite of what it wants to convey rather than the other way around which is rather unusual and probably a source of confusion for me, though I think it's very much intentional. The irony that a lot of natural face to face communication is conveyed in a most unnatural way in this film despite the removal of cell phones as the apparent cause of this issue is not lost to me because people are natural;y dishonest about their intentions and yearnings regardless of such things and always putting on a face around others or acting as the one teacher pointed out. That's why the only real answer in a lot of cases is to look within and then to the natural world for the answers we seek. As experience has taught me and this film seems to convey as well if you do that usually the answers you seek will come to you more than they will just by following what others are doing around you. I don't see how that's pretentious so much as kind of true. |
PeacingOutJun 23, 2013 2:03 PM
| People who criticized this movie should just die. It was almost perfect. Of cause storyline was a bt episodic and some questions were left but... It had that atmosphere of old sci-fi which I really like. And the visuals, the animation and the music was perfect. So subjectivwe 9.5/10 from me and haters gonna hate |
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Kaioshin_Sama said: After watching this the reactions to this film no longer come as a surprise to me. It's so absolutely not made for today's modern late night anime TV going audience, it's entirely wasted on them as it's the kind of film that asks more questions than it answers. It's not a blockbuster even though it has the budget of one, but more of an art piece dabbling in ideas with a pretty face put on it all. This isn't actually a bad thing, just the audience that is going to be watching it in the West is totally going to see it that way because that is what they do. It also doesn't help that it has a school setting, but is not in fact a comedy or ero-romance or something like the Monogatari series that everyone is into these days. It doesn't deal with any sort of subject matter that is familiar to or commonly accepted by otaku, nor is there much in the way of action, grittiness or all those other things that people tend to rate highly in the 2010's. It also tends to deal with it's subject matter, themes and messages by showcasing how it's characters are often doing the opposite of what it wants to convey rather than the other way around which is rather unusual and probably a source of confusion for me, though I think it's very much intentional. The irony that a lot of natural face to face communication is conveyed in a most unnatural way in this film despite the removal of cell phones as the apparent cause of this issue is not lost to me because people are natural;y dishonest about their intentions and yearnings regardless of such things and always putting on a face around others or acting as the one teacher pointed out. That's why the only real answer in a lot of cases is to look within and then to the natural world for the answers we seek. As experience has taught me and this film seems to convey as well if you do that usually the answers you seek will come to you more than they will just by following what others are doing around you. I don't see how that's pretentious so much as kind of true. The problem I have with this is that it could have achieved all what you described without this future/psychic power element. I did not see the point of introducing this whole time traveling fiasco. It would have been fine if they tone down these SF elements and make it either a bit more subtle or more obvious. This movie seems like stuck in this in-between awkward state. |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
wakka9ca said: I did not see the point of introducing this whole time traveling fiasco. Probably the same point Shakespeare had when he introduced Faries in A Midsummer Night's dream. Mayybe that's a little too pretentious, but the references to the play definitely aren't there at random. My point is, don't worry about the SF side of the story too much. What this movie was conveying was mainly a story of love and relationships, not one of time travel and espers. |
LazyJ said: wakka9ca said: I did not see the point of introducing this whole time traveling fiasco. Probably the same point Shakespeare had when he introduced Faries in A Midsummer Night's dream. Mayybe that's a little too pretentious, but the references to the play definitely aren't there at random. My point is, don't worry about the SF side of the story too much. What this movie was conveying was mainly a story of love and relationships, not one of time travel and espers. How are people missing this? I think its like this nachtwandler guy points out in it being more likean old sschool style sci-fi story ala Star Trek TV where the science fiction is used as a method of exploring modern social implicationa and trend by removing them from the context of our time period rather than the modern blockbuster sci-fi action sense ala Star Trek into the darkness. I get the sense many were anticipating the latter going by the comments in this thread as opposed to the talky teenage school life film it is. Once it became clear it was a brain bender I bet most people just said fuck it and decided on a low rating then and there and came to the thread to bitch. |
| The character development was good but the ending seemed rushed and caused the story to become convoluted. Such a shame since I was enjoying it until that ending came. |
| In the End, was it worth it? |
| A lot of cliche, some skipping I did because I got bored. Animation was godlike imo, ost and music was also nice. Lots of confusing stuff, but w/e, though one thing that bothered me was What happened to his Grandfather or w/e during the ending scenes. He collapsed on the ground next to Seki little sister. 5.5/10. |
TyrelJun 23, 2013 5:48 PM
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| gg subbed this? |
Kaioshin_Sama said: LazyJ said: wakka9ca said: I did not see the point of introducing this whole time traveling fiasco. Probably the same point Shakespeare had when he introduced Faries in A Midsummer Night's dream. Mayybe that's a little too pretentious, but the references to the play definitely aren't there at random. My point is, don't worry about the SF side of the story too much. What this movie was conveying was mainly a story of love and relationships, not one of time travel and espers. How are people missing this? I think its like this nachtwandler guy points out in it being more likean old sschool style sci-fi story ala Star Trek TV where the science fiction is used as a method of exploring modern social implicationa and trend by removing them from the context of our time period rather than the modern blockbuster sci-fi action sense ala Star Trek into the darkness. I get the sense many were anticipating the latter going by the comments in this thread as opposed to the talky teenage school life film it is. Once it became clear it was a brain bender I bet most people just said fuck it and decided on a low rating then and there and came to the thread to bitch. I agree. The movie and its story were we well animated and conveyed imo. It took me a minute to catch on once they got the ball rolling but following it afterwards was a pleasant ride. The ending was expected but nonetheless was still heart touching. Truly this is a movie not made for most fans of anime but for a niche group. From what I have seen most people will look at this show and compliments its art but as for the elements used to convey the story and the story itself, I fear it is a bit beyond their grasp. The move was well done but do not take it for its face value. I gave it a 10 having read the story; I feel that the movie does it justice. truly iy is both a sci-fi novel and romance greatly blended together. |
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Rawrdaysgoby said: This anime was great if you actually understood the story it was extremely good. The ending had a few holes in it but that was meant to be there where the answers lies in your imagination. But the answers can be wonderous depending on how one sees and understand the movie. Here is something to ponder upon the statue with no arms Venus de Milo why is it so mysterious to so many people people wonder why the arms aren't created how the imagine was meant to be but will never find out because if it was found out the statue itself would lose a lot of its impact. I would have appreciated it more if it exposed more coherently its themes instead of juggling with many of them forcefully sewn together. Can you enlighten me about your interpretation of this movie? It's not that I didn't understand the story. It's that I don't understand the point of the story because everything was so shallowly touched upon. So much wasted potential. I'm sorry, this movie just rub me in the wrong way. |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| The romance is just good but not anything significant. The plot is quite confusing so that's a meh for me. Beside the artwork's really good but I think it's nowhere near Kotonoha no Niwa and its impact. And tbh, I felt a little bit boring after watching 1/3 of the movie. Although romance, drama, slice of life are all my fav genres but the show has failed to deliver something in that regards. I will admit that it's still better than twillight though. The whole story feels like a mess, filled with holes I wouldn't bother to explain. Overall 6.5/10. |
wakka9ca said: Rawrdaysgoby said: This anime was great if you actually understood the story it was extremely good. The ending had a few holes in it but that was meant to be there where the answers lies in your imagination. But the answers can be wonderous depending on how one sees and understand the movie. Here is something to ponder upon the statue with no arms Venus de Milo why is it so mysterious to so many people people wonder why the arms aren't created how the imagine was meant to be but will never find out because if it was found out the statue itself would lose a lot of its impact. I would have appreciated it more if it exposed more coherently its themes instead of juggling with many of them forcefully sewn together. Can you enlighten me about your interpretation of this movie? It's not that I didn't understand the story. It's that I don't understand the point of the story because everything was so shallowly touched upon. So much wasted potential. I'm sorry, this movie just rub me in the wrong way. I felt the core themes of the movie in how one has to look within to understand the natural world and present time with which they live in were plenty well conveyed in how they went about the whole relationships between the characters. The only aspect of the movie I thought was poorly handled was exposition on the whole time travel thing. Without seeing the world that Kyogoku came from and all of his troubles as well as those of Kenji's grandfather it's impossible to relate to that aspect of the storyline. From what I understand those issues are set up by the original novel and merely resolved here. I don't think the WHOLE story was a mess filled completely with holes whatsoever (that's an exaggeration based on cliches people are used to using), just that part of it cannot make sense without the context of the original novel as this is meant to serve as a pseudo-sequel side story to it. I gave it a 7/10 for those reasons. Anything lower seems way to punitive, anything higher I think disregards the issues this film has in being unable to fully appreciate without the context of the original story. |
| Amazing art and animation. But the story and characters failed to grab my full interest and attention, so I think a 7/10 will do. |
| Please don't tell me Im the only one that feels that the plot was all over the place... Unless Im really dumb and I couldn't understand the plot... Damnit all! I ALWAYS hate endings like this when people lose their memory of all the moments they have shared together Q___Q </3 Damnit too! Kyogoku even loved her back Q_____Q W-w-w-will there be a sequel? T___T //Sobs 6/10 EDITT!!!! b/c I was writing this as the credits were rolling but I didnt see the little scene after the credits.. Hooray! Ken came back and the memories are back too T //// T, but no Kyogaku D; I wonder if Harukawa ever remembers Kyogaku though ; - ; |
ImNotLulexiaaJun 24, 2013 11:14 AM
| Pros: -Artwork -Animation -Kaworu clone (straight this time) -Claire de lune -Natsuki is fappable as fuck -When MC's seal got broken and he became a boss(best scene in the movie) -EGOIST -Seiyuu cast Cons: -There were so many "fill in the blanks" parts of this movie which are nice sometimes but I dunno I feel like if they spent a bit more time on StraightKaworu's, Grandpa's, Seki's, and Natsuki's (apparently she is also from the future and saved Seki but also lost her powers? I would have liked to actually see how that happened) back story then this movie would have made more sense to more viewers. I mean sure giving fanservice to those who have read the novel is nice but you don't want to alienate those who haven't with missing pieces supposedly reading the novel would fill in. -The plot was all over the place, we went from romcom to "we must save the world" then to SYMBOLIC FLASHBACKS then to "MC holds a secret power inside himself" then to serious drama then suddenly everyone was a time traveler all along. At some parts it felt like I was watching two separate anime. Overall: It was okay 6/10 I would like to see more anime with this kind of stylish fluid animation. |
VioLinkJun 24, 2013 1:39 AM
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| Wow, this has to be the worst anime movie I've seen in years... It's disgusting how they pulled it off to include just about every bad anime cliche in existence and combine it into one big fat abomination. Flashy animation but that's about it, how rare these days ~_~ |
| This movie really hate cellphones, doesn't it. Goddamn... that movie was complete shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! I mean... my god... I didn't expect this to be that bad, but I never been this mad watching an anime since Mawaru Penguindrum. If The Wolf Children is one of the best anime films I've seen a while, this is one of the worst. It started out rather generic, and even boring. At first I gave Natsuki shit for always beating Seki almost constantly for almost no real reason, but Seki is one of the dumbest anime leads I've seen in a long time, so much that I wanted to smack him just as much as Natsuki did. Kaho served almost no purpose in this thing, and her backstory is only shared in a couple lines of dialogue and never amount to anything. Kyougoku is just your typical mysterious Kaworu clone, and isn't very interesting. The stuff with the student council banning cellphones was just ridiculous, and the court room thing was stupid. The ending was all over the place. Also, why did the grampa suddenly died? Was that necessary? Was erasing their memories necessary? Especially if it's at the very end of your fucking movie and they get it back after the credits?! This movie... I really did not expect myself to get this mad at it. When I first saw the previews I thought it looked fine. Yes, it looks pretty, but it's an anime movie with a budget, of course it's gonna look pretty, that's a given. It looks a lot like one of Matoko Shinkai's movies. The music is nice, and I like Supercell. That's about the only nice things I can say about this otherwise terrible movie. And speaking of Motoko Shinkai, I watched Kotonoha no Niwa a couple weeks prior, and while I didn't think that movie wasn't a masterpiece by any means, it had more character, better story, and a better romance in those 40 minutes then this movie had in this 100 minute piece of trash, while being just as pretty. I can't even go to fucking sleep now. It's 3 in the morning and I feel the need to watch a better anime now after watching that travesty. |
KillerTune12Jun 24, 2013 6:45 AM
| Are you serious? You can't expect me to take this. The production was superb, but everything else, not so much. This is like a 12th grader's student's essay in English>Literature, basically anything can make sense if you make it so, and this was just random shit made coherent through the use of more random shit. Oh wells. |
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| Good movie, really confusing though but it was good |
Ungrateful said: I wonder if i should have high expectations for this, i just barely started watching it right now. I will probably give a summary of it when i'm done. so far im liking the animation, ost, and characters but that will probably change later on The movie is not as bad as people are claiming, I wouldn't even call it bad period let alone "the worst movie I've seen in years" (really people?). It's pure hyperbole ala typical MAL threads when there's issues with a story. Just be prepared to be baffled by the time travel storyline cause it ties back to the original novel. This is sort of a fan service movie for fans of the book. Some of the comments today in particular are absolutely ridiculously over the top. KiraMustDie said: This movie really hate cellphones, doesn't it. Goddamn... that movie was complete shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! I mean... my god... I didn't expect this to be that bad, but I never been this mad watching an anime since Mawaru Penguindrum. If The Wolf Children is one of the best anime films I've seen a while, this is one of the worst. It started out rather generic, and even boring. At first I gave Natsuki shit for always beating Seki almost constantly for almost no real reason, but Seki is one of the dumbest anime leads I've seen in a long time, so much that I wanted to smack him just as much as Natsuki did. Kaho served almost no purpose in this thing, and her backstory is only shared in a couple lines of dialogue and never amount to anything. Kyougoku is just your typical mysterious Kaworu clone, and isn't very interesting. The stuff with the student council banning cellphones was just ridiculous, and the court room thing was stupid. The ending was all over the place. Also, why did the grampa suddenly died? Was that necessary? Was erasing their memories necessary? Especially if it's at the very end of your fucking movie and they get it back after the credits?! This movie... I really did not expect myself to get this mad at it. When I first saw the previews I thought it looked fine. Yes, it looks pretty, but it's an anime movie with a budget, of course it's gonna look pretty, that's a given. It looks a lot like one of Matoko Shinkai's movies. The music is nice, and I like Supercell. That's about the only nice things I can say about this otherwise terrible movie. And speaking of Motoko Shinkai, I watched Kotonoha no Niwa a couple weeks prior, and while I didn't think that movie wasn't a masterpiece by any means, it had more character, better story, and a better romance in those 40 minutes then this movie had in this 100 minute piece of trash, while being just as pretty. I can't even go to fucking sleep now. It's 3 in the morning and I feel the need to watch a better anime now after watching that travesty. Did something put you up to this or something? This is the most cliche reaction I've ever seen. Seriously it's all there, the comparison to Kotonoha no Niwa in style (I don't think it looks anything like that movie other than they both take place during summer), the bit about wanting to like it based on the trailer, the bit about it being the "worst movie ever made", the pity me line about how it apparently wrecked your sleep patterns. Are you trying to impress people or something by including as much raging frothing over the top ranting reaction cliches as you possibly can? Are you 12? I'm going to do what I suggest to a lot of people nowadays and say just stick to your Monogatari's, you'll be better off for it. That's what you kids like nowadays isn't it? Anyway that said I'm more than willing to argue against the idea that Garden of Words had more story, romantic encounters (if you can even call the relationship between teacher and student a romance which I think is entirely the wrong way to look at it) and character development than this movie cause I'm pretty sure it didn't. dobbs said: As everyone else has said animation was good. Not on the level of Makoto Shinkai, but good. The backgrounds lacked I guess the detail that Shinkai puts into it, though I enjoyed the character animations more. As for the story I vaguely comprehend it. To me seems like it is more a love letter to fans of the novel which I have not read. You probably would have a better viewing experience if you were accumulated to the novel. Overall a decent watch. Though it felt a little I dunno... Maybe meticulous at times? It just seemed it drag on at times. Maybe rematching it would help make it better? The movie lacked the photo realistic look to the backgrounds that Shinkai has. That's his bread and butter. This movie had Studio 8 art style who are known for their character animation only this I believe is their first movie budgeted project. And yeah it seems to definitely be aimed at people that read the novel, which probably explains it's rather low sales count. I wish they'd made the movie more accessible, it's why I really can't give it anything higher than a 6 or 7 tops. It didn't make me angry, but then I'm an adult and the only anime to really upset me on some level with it's style and subject matter was Bakemonogatari. |
PeacingOutJun 24, 2013 11:06 AM
| Too much themes thrown together with plot jumping around like crazy together with stupid cliches..... And ended with too much unanswered questions..... What this all fuss about cell phones? How did both Seki and Natsuki survive? What was Kyougoku's father's original intention? Still animation was godly .... and OST was pretty good.... |
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twonline said: Too much themes thrown together with plot jumping around like crazy together with stupid cliches..... And ended with too much unanswered questions..... What this all fuss about cell phones? How did both Seki and Natsuki survive? What was Kyougoku's father's original intention? Still animation was godly .... and OST was pretty good.... The fuss with the cell phones was about one of the girls who was on the student council being humiliated by an incident regarding cell phones. The student council wanted to restrict the use of cell phones in response to this incident. After Kyogoku stopped her from committing suicide and turned her into a psychic her vendetta grew still further and then it became about banning cell phones outright because she saw them as an impure/imperfect form of communication with others compared to her psychic powers. As the movie ultimately shows in the end they are no better at understanding peoples true yearning than non-psychics, it was one of the core themes of the film that a lot of people seem to miss, that it's better to look within and to nature/logic to find the answers one is looking for about their yearnings and those close to them. That and living in the present and enjoying the now rather than worrying about the past and the future is the best way to achieve happiness and contentment. It's a sort of Buddhist philosophy albeit the movie carries it out in a very teen coming of age style with sci-fi subplots. As for the latter two, sadly one must read the book to know the answer to that, which is the one thing about the movie I definitely find shitty. As for all the stupid cliches, can somebody please point out to me WTF they are talking about with this? Like actually point out to the elements of the story that are really bothering them. I know one of them was Natsuki's physical abuse, but to be honest I think that kind of had a point in highlighting how she's the only one of the group that's actually direct about her emotions all throughout the movie at the same time it's there as slapstick. I think people really overlooked that, but then I think a lot of people missed the core theme of the movie entirely and saw it all as just a jumble of cliches, which is common when things get thematically complex. Look to the discussion they have at the start about Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream if you want to grasp most of the themes of the movie as it pretty much sets everything up and could not have more of a "pay attention to this scene this is REALLY important" vibe to it if they had tried. It ties in quite heavily to events that unfold in the plot (this perhaps is the source of a lot of confusion since now you have a movie based off of the events of a 16th century play as well as a sci-fi novel, which I still can't tell if that was a good idea or made some things more muddled thematically than they needed to be) as well as much of the dialogue between the characters with each of them sort of fulfilling a role from that play. Kyogoku sees himself as Puck and seems to see Kahori as Titania. I think they claimed that Kenji had ties to Lysdander's character, but I would have to go back and watch the film again to find out, which I'm planning on in the near future. |
PeacingOutJun 24, 2013 11:56 AM
Ungrateful said: alright i see the point in the low scores, like the plot jumps all over the place but i wouldn't say the movie is total shit. yeah i agree with you, that people are really going overboard with the reaction of the movie. if i read the novel i think i would've scored it higher. It does feel cliche though, but what anime isn't these days aha Again I would really like it if some people would explain what they are referring to by cliche and why these cliches offend them. I would like to address it, but I can't if people are just going to make a general claim like that. As for the shit thing, it's typical people wanting their posts to stand out more and they don't know how to be thoughtful and engaging about it with others so they just start up an over the top rant about how a particular work is extra special bad and just sort of trail off from there. I prefer to describe the movie as I actually saw it. That means at least trying to pay attention and understand what transpired and only if I can't then declaring it a flaw or issue. Many things I could explain or relate to in this movie, others one simply cannot deny do not make sense in their context because their is no proper context. And yes back to cliche, you raise a good point about most anime being cliche in some form. That's why I kind of find it a flimsy form of criticism to selectively single out certain works only for apparently being too cliche. To me it's a really cheap way of keeping certain genres and movies down without actually having to think all that hard about what exactly makes it better or worse than other works of it's time. I'm sure for example if I really wanted to I could point out how cliche something like Bakemonogatari is (I mostly use this example a lot because everyone on MAL seems to absolutely adore it and think it's a flawless masterpiece of storytelling and art), but I think there are better more specific ways of critically approaching a work like that, same as there are for Nerawareta Gakuen. Anyway I think MAL in general is quite confused about the difference between personal taste and preference and actual narrative flaw and plot holes when it comes to how they react to and retroactively look upon anime. There's a lot of immaturity here. One last thing, I think more than a few people are being overly harsh on this movie because they want to keep it arms length from Garden of Words (the new Makoto Shinkai movie and I don't think I need to mention that guy has a lot of angry fanboys) which I think it is being mistakenly compared to. The only thing I see in common with regard to style between the too is both take place during summer, but petty fanboy competitiveness would appear to have overruled logic in this case and made it a target. No doubt a lot of the reason people even bothered to check this out were those flimsy comparisons between the two otherwise I have no doubt Nerawareta Gakuen would have flew entirely under the radar since people really don't pay attention to projects like this. There's no big name attached to it (I've noticed nobody really pays attention to anime films period anymore unless some big name like Shinkai or Hosoda is attached and know for a fact that the only reason this even got subbed is because gg have this weird love/hate relationship with Sunrise that compels them to sub all their productions) that anyone would even know about and it's kind of meant for Japanese audiences and specifically fans of the novel after all. |
PeacingOutJun 24, 2013 12:14 PM
Kaioshin_Sama said: Ungrateful said: alright i see the point in the low scores, like the plot jumps all over the place but i wouldn't say the movie is total shit. yeah i agree with you, that people are really going overboard with the reaction of the movie. if i read the novel i think i would've scored it higher. It does feel cliche though, but what anime isn't these days aha Again I would really like it if some people would explain what they are referring to by cliche and why these cliches offend them. I would like to address it, but I can't if people are just going to make a general claim like that. As for the shit thing, it's typical people wanting their posts to stand out more and they don't know how to be thoughtful and engaging about it with others so they just start up an over the top rant about how a particular work is extra special bad and just sort of trail off from there. I prefer to describe the movie as I actually saw it. That means at least trying to pay attention and understand what transpired and only if I can't then declaring it a flaw or issue. Many things I could explain or relate to in this movie, others one simply cannot deny do not make sense in their context because their is no proper context. And yes back to cliche, you raise a good point about most anime being cliche in some form. That's why I kind of find it a flimsy form of criticism to selectively single out certain works only for apparently being too cliche. To me it's a really cheap way of keeping certain genres and movies down without actually having to think all that hard about what exactly makes it better or worse than other works of it's time. I'm sure for example if I really wanted to I could point out how cliche something like Bakemonogatari is (I mostly use this example a lot because everyone on MAL seems to absolutely adore it and think it's a flawless masterpiece of storytelling and art), but I think there are better more specific ways of critically approaching a work like that, same as there are for Nerawareta Gakuen. Anyway I think MAL in general is quite confused about the difference between personal taste and preference and actual narrative flaw and plot holes when it comes to how they react to and retroactively look upon anime. There's a lot of immaturity here. One last thing, I think more than a few people are being overly harsh on this movie because they want to keep it arms length from Garden of Words (the new Makoto Shinkai movie and I don't think I need to mention that guy has a lot of angry fanboys) which I think it is being mistakenly compared to. The only thing I see in common with regard to style between the too is both take place during summer, but petty fanboy competitiveness would appear to have overruled logic in this case and made it a target. No doubt a lot of the reason people even bothered to check this out were those flimsy comparisons between the two otherwise I have no doubt Nerawareta Gakuen would have flew entirely under the radar since people really don't pay attention to projects like this. There's no big name attached to it (I've noticed nobody really pays attention to anime films period anymore unless some big name like Shinkai or Hosoda is attached and know for a fact that the only reason this even got subbed is because gg have this weird love/hate relationship with Sunrise that compels them to sub all their productions) that anyone would even know about and it's kind of meant for Japanese audiences and specifically fans of the novel after all. I think you have nailed the nail on the head throughout this thread. I have a member PM me asking for clarification on this movies story and whatnot. Without having read the book most people will be confused as hell by the movie. IMO I think the movie compared to the novel is superbly done. There are some things that could have been explained better but hey then you would have to extend the length of the film. Quite frankly I would suggest that everyone go read the novel then come back and whine. What is bolded abouve is pretty much true. This move is not made for the causal anime watcher. It is understandable why people are confused and lashing out at the movie. What is the human respond when something makes no sense to them?(rhetorical question) |
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Kaioshin_Sama said: I felt the core themes of the movie in how one has to look within to understand the natural world and present time with which they live in were plenty well conveyed in how they went about the whole relationships between the characters. The only aspect of the movie I thought was poorly handled was exposition on the whole time travel thing. Without seeing the world that Kyogoku came from and all of his troubles as well as those of Kenji's grandfather it's impossible to relate to that aspect of the storyline. From what I understand those issues are set up by the original novel and merely resolved here. Yes, that's why I said this was a poor follow-up of the original novel. Of course the time travel part comes from the original novel (which I totally forgot about). Kaioshin_Sama said: I don't think the WHOLE story was a mess filled completely with holes whatsoever (that's an exaggeration based on cliches people are used to using), just that part of it cannot make sense without the context of the original novel as this is meant to serve as a pseudo-sequel side story to it. I gave it a 7/10 for those reasons. Anything lower seems way to punitive, anything higher I think disregards the issues this film has in being unable to fully appreciate without the context of the original story. It wasn't a whole mess, but it was a big disappointment. I don't a lot of people who haven't read the novel will enjoy this or fully understand the implications of time traveling, communication and other themes. To be fair, I also gave it a 7, which is just about an average score. Kaioshin_Sama said: As the movie ultimately shows in the end they are no better at understanding peoples true yearning than non-psychics, it was one of the core themes of the film that a lot of people seem to miss, that it's better to look within and to nature/logic to find the answers one is looking for about their yearnings and those close to them. That was pretty obvious because the MC explicitly mention how they are not actually communicating despite their psychic mind reading powers. Also why Ryouichi asked Seki's father to answer him with his own words and not using mind sharing/reading abilities. Mind reading != communicating. To communicate must involve both parties actively choosing what to share. Kaioshin_Sama said: As for the latter two, sadly one must read the book to know the answer to that, which is the one thing about the movie I definitely find shitty. As for all the stupid cliches, can somebody please point out to me WTF they are talking about with this? Like actually point out to the elements of the story that are really bothering them. I know one of them was Natsuki's physical abuse, but to be honest I think that kind of had a point in highlighting how she's the only one of the group that's actually direct about her emotions all throughout the movie at the same time it's there as slapstick. I think people really overlooked that, but then I think a lot of people missed the core theme of the movie entirely and saw it all as just a jumble of cliches, which is common when things get thematically complex. I personally don't think having cliches or stereotypes is bad. I think it's just MAL overall. Also, it's true I was being a bit harsh with words like "shit" and stuff because the execution of the movie really rubbed me off the wrong way (just like how Madoka rubbed me off the wrong way as well). Maybe it's because I am way too rational (not artsy enough) in my thinking. |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| There's a novel too!? At any rate, here's what I got from the movie to try and clear up my own confusion while watching the movie. Plot points explained: The future of mankind is undetermined, because Seki and grandpa stepped in front of Kyougoku and his father's original plan to awaken psychics of the past to survive the coming future, or if that fails, take them from the present to the future and continue to survive in their dwindling numbers, with even fewer epsers. The talking cat-like-thing is apparently Kyougoku's dad that went back in time like his son, and did battle with secret psychic grandpa and the dad's plans foiled. Kyougoku's mother was born in the present, an acquaintance of Seki's family, possibly meeting with future dad when he went back in time, and the two went back into the future on the moon to give birth to Kyougoku, which explains why grandpa said only half of him belongs in this era (mother from present, father from future). The battle between grandpa and cat-dad was probably due to grandpa's opinion that the past should stay in the past, and the future come-what-may, which goes against cat-dad's desire to take the present psychics to the future, if they can't prevent the fall of mankind in earth. The dog was actually the manifestation of Seki's sealed psychic power (explains why he looks like a big puppy despite being an old dog). My speculation as to why Seki's psychic powers were sealed in the first place was due to grandpa deeming them unnecessary up until this point, due to their conversation at the dinner table about cellphones and psychic powers not being needed; when talking is best form of communication. The speedos + goggle entry to save Natsuki from the "inquisition" was hilarious when he pulled out his cellphone from his crotch. Definitely my favourite scene. The yellow goggles reminded me of Simon from Gurren Lagann. For a second there, near the beginning; before I connected all the dots as they were shown throughout the movie, I thought Kaho might have been Kyougoku's future mother since he came from the future and all. But I'm glad that's not the case, otherwise it would have been really awkward. Big reveal about Natsuki using up all her psychic power when she and Seki were children, to reverse time to change the past where Seki takes the fall and dies, to the now present where she was the one to take the fall for him, and only break a leg. Epilogue/credit scene: So Natsuki and Seki finally realized their feelings, as well as Kaho and Kyougoku, but the girls end up forgetting about the boys because they apparently time-slipped to where Kyougoku can exist in their era. Since they were no longer part of their era, it would explain why they forgot about them. Cue Supercell music! The student council guy that supposedly "moved away" is back for graduation together with the other student council girl. The psychic squad-wannabes have gone back to their daily lives, including the suicidal 8th-grader repeater (whom is implied to have been bullied, or humiliated involving cellphones in the story). Grandpa is fine now after collapsing possibly due to heart attack, but now needs a wheelchair. After credits: The girls talk about getting a transfer student, which turns out to be Seki calling, walking up behind them, who finally returns from his psychic time-traveling adventure through an ocean-like rift, maybe even doing battle with Kyougoku's dad while there. Natsuki remembers him now too, and probably not wanting him to see her crying, she doesn't turn back, instead yelling into the phone calling him an idiot/jerk (probably for leaving her in the first place). Kyougoku is back too apparently, this time as a similar cat-like-thing just like his father after using up all their psychic powers. After seeing Kaho seemingly remember him too, he then transforms into the hour-glass-like object, exactly like how his father materializes. Unknown if he can return to being a normal human, because his father never did, but it can be assumed that Kyougoku can occasionally materialize as the cat-thing too. Even if he can't return to being a normal human, or even animal-form, at the very least, he can exist in the present era where he himself wants to stay, close to his friends and loved ones. Edit: Intereo said: It's like this was directed by JJ Abrams... That's what I thought too! Too many lens flares. Guess they were going for dreamy-romantic, but they could have also chose different times of day other than sunset/sunrise more often. |
Estoy_GordoJun 24, 2013 3:04 PM
DNI said: Is there an english translation of the original novel? The novel is quite old and it seems it's very popular in Japan, but i can't find any english translation of it in the internet. I really liked the movie, not really understood the story at the end, but really enjoyed fantastic visuals and characters. I don't think there are English translations. However, the author Mayumura is a well-known SF writer with his famous Shiseikan series. How much I wish they would adapt the Shiseikan series instead of this. Heck, if they simply adapted the original Nerawareta Gakuen it would have been much better (although hard to fit in a single movie) |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| I remember when I first watched the trailer and thought of Shinkai Makoto, and of the supercell's theme song made me really want to watch it. But since I haven't read the novel and can't completely understand the movie, I was a little disappointed. Still, the visuals were wonderful, though I think they may have overdid it a little with the lens flares, I mean I liked how they used the technique, but I felt it might've been better if they didn't use it so much, same with the sun rays, although they were beautiful. So I kind of understand the theme of this movie, the connection/bonds with people in a natural sense rather than relying on things like cellphones or psychic powers (I think?), which is something I highly agree with and it's a theme that I really like. However, aside from, the visuals and the theme, I didn't particularly the execution of the romance parts...for some reason, I just didn't see it, or maybe it's because I didn't really like Natsuki that much, and could care less about Kahori. Part of that though may have to do with how I felt that a lot of the movements of the characters were extremely exaggerated, things like Natsuki jumping all over the place and doing gymnastics. I realize it's anime so it doesn't have to be realistic, but the exaggeration the movements reduced my enjoyment of the movie a bit. I also don't particularly like this kind narration? I'm a simple person with a simple mind, so when stories aren't too coherent, I get really frustrated...but still, the little things that I picked up I did like, such as the allusion to Midsummer Night's Dream, my favorite play by Shakespeare. But I guess the incoherent plot progression made sense in a way, especially when Kyougoku said that words were formulaic or something like that. I felt that from that point on (which was pretty early on), the story wouldn't progress formulaic-ly like most stories do. Well aside from what I didn't like about the narration, I was also confused about the dreams/flashbacks??? And also the scenes when Seki was on a hospital bed with Natsuki watching him, vice versa? Can anyone explain to me what that was about? I feel like it's something really important that I should be understanding...>< but oh yeah, the dream scenes were really well done, the animation was really, well, dreamlike :) Hm oh yeah and the music was great, but of course I already knew that since I have the soundtrack ^^ I guess in the end, I wish I understood what was going on half the time in the movie, and that I had read the novel. I think as a movie by itself, without knowing the source material, it was a good movie, but not a great one, despite its unique theme and stunning visuals. |
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wakka9ca said: I don't think there are English translations. However, the author Mayumura is a well-known SF writer with his famous Shiseikan series. How much I wish they would adapt the Shiseikan series instead of this. Heck, if they simply adapted the original Nerawareta Gakuen it would have been much better (although hard to fit in a single movie) I agree. If the movie had been about 2.5 hours then i think it would have turned out alot better than what it was. Actually reading the story on my part is what allowed me to score at a 9. It was not a great adaptation that will appeal to many people but for readers of the novel I think it will go over fine. @GulityKing For you comment that movies should appeal to a broad audience I have to disagree with you there. Niche films are not uncommon. There is one anime that I know was a niche film but cannot remember its name.(will go through my list to find it) Whether or not the director wanted to target a specific audience or not is unknown to me but from how the movie turned out, accidental or not, it appears to me that they might have been targeted the readers as opposed to the larger audience in general. Considering that I do not think the book is printed in English I believe that this movie will not go down well in the West. This thread is proof of that. |
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| WHY!?! WHY?!? I HATE YOU SHAKESPERE, overall it was very confusing but in the end i felt like punching my laptop , i give this a 6/10 |
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