Reviews

At the end of the movie, I sat in my chair slack-jawed and thought “I was robbed.” Although other reviews will probably also labour this point I find it necessary that I do to. The reason I felt robbed was that I’m sure like many others I downloaded the film expecting the plot to be orientated around Amano Touko the “Bungaku Shoujo” herself. To my disappointment, it wasn’t. The fact that she ate books was, to put it bluntly, irrelevant. So be warned, if you haven’t seen this movie and are planning to download it because of the misleading trailer, you’re not going to get what you’re looking for.

Forgetting all preconceptions, this was a fantastic movie by itself. The intricate unraveling of the plot was nothing less than beautiful. The story starts off with a typical soft-spoken boy meets girl, girl drags boy in to join a club against boy’s own will (Erm… Haruhi anyone?) for the first 20 minutes. After which the story starts spiraling down into something much more tragic revolving around the boy and his past. I’m only able to give a synopsis pretty much exactly the same as MAL’s one without spoiling the story. I apologize for that. But just remember, “tragic” is the key word. I did find the story to be a bit overly melodramatic at times which was ever so slightly cringe-worthy but not so much that it stained my impression the anime.

The animation was superb, every scene was beautiful. It reminded me of “5 Centimeters per Second” and man, that’s one hell of a feat. As for the sound, the voice actors were great especially Miu. Oh my lord, it was the right choice to pick Aya Hirano for a yandere biatch. As for everyone else, you know when a particular voice just fits a particular character? Yeah, that was the case for all the characters here. I did find Inoue Konoha, our protagonist, to be bordering on melodrama all the time but I guess that’s a given for any serious anime of this genre.

Having read the plot summary of “Night on the Galactic Railroad” (a Japanese novel which is alluded throughout the movie) on Wikipedia after the film, I guess it would have been heck of a lot more enjoyable for Japanese viewers or those who were familiar with the story beforehand.

Reflecting back on it, was I really robbed? Yes. The misleading commercials and OVAs were the reasons I picked up this movie. But was I disappointed? Hell no. It was no masterpiece but the plot, the drama, the romance, the characters, the animation and the music were more than enough for emotional reimbursement.

So, I’d say, now that you are vaguely aware of the plot. Pick it up. Watch it. If you are a fan of the romance genre, you won’t be disappointed.


Just a tip: you might however want to read the plot summary of “Night on a Galactic Railroad” before you dip into this show.