This review contains minor spoilers
The first half of the film was heartwarming as we see the connection between three friends with the same dream. But on the other hand, the second half felt extremely boring. The sci-fi genre felt like it completely took over the film, and if you're someone like me, all the talk about parallel worlds were dissapointing. The "parallel world" theme isn't exactly boring but the anime failed to execute it in an interesting way. It almost seemed like it was just there to add a reason to Sayuri's coma. I felt no excitement halfway through film except certain scenes like the reunion between Hiroki and Takuya.
The anime also didn't clearly explain what the point of the tower was and why it was constructed in the first place, the same goes for the war as every time it tries to go in deeper into these topics, it goes on to a different scene and ends up being unexplained. The whole plot arrangement was all over the place. The conflict in the film seemed like it was never there as the war, although imminent, never really showed it's presence and in the end it became a completely useless factor.
As for the characters, I never understood why Hiroki and Takuya stopped building the plane just because of Sayura's disapearance, especially since they were building it in the first place before they were even close to her. Their own goals also had no meanings as it never told us why they wanted to go to the tower in the first place.....except because they just felt like it.? No motiviation. Each characters had poor development and in the end, forgettable.
The film went down when it started to talk about parallel worlds and when the three friends split up. The idea was wasted, turning it into a boring story in the end even if it had a great start. If only they executed things clearly and had more excitement and conflict., The Place Promised in Our Early Days would be one of the top anime films out there.
