Diagonaldi Very well executed

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

familievandermeiden Apart from the impressive artwork and craftsmanship, this movie is totally disappointing. The young girl is a superficial character that only appeals to the watcher by deploying her puppy-eyed look and her legs as thin and crooked as those of a just born deer. She's the victim of some vague power, that brings her in a deep sleep in which she dreams about a parallel world. Completely paralyzed (because of this sleep), she has no other role but symbolizing weakness that needs to be rescued by men.Of course, other movies use a cliché like this as well, but it never struck me as a bad thing as much as this time. I was distracted by it so much that I could hardly follow the plot. Or was it because the story itself was also not worth being told? Most likely.

bcheng93 Makoto can do no wrong, everything he touches turns to gold. i put him right up there with Miyazaki but with a certain sadness which touches you. you feel that lonely and sad feeling with everyone of his films, and trust me, evoking that type of emotion from viewers every time takes a genius to accomplish.that is one of the reasons i watch his films and i've watched all of them including his latest(garden of words). watching his films is like enjoying good poetry, it just flows. his artwork is breathe-taking and i will never get bored of that. i love the way he colors his films, evoking emotions and feelings of sadness and loneliness . i couldn't care if the story sucks or not, because even if the story is not that good the animation is always top-notch. but that doesn't really apply because in every one of his films the storyline was also very strong.the story is about 3 junior high school friends, 2 boys and a girl in an alternate postwar Japan and their continuing relationship into their early twenties. they split up right after junior high and never go to the place promised in their early days and then the subsequent fight to keep that promise at the end. this is a sci-fi, romance and drama movie, although the sci-fi part gets a little convoluted even though the ideas are very good. just like all his other films you can't help getting a lump in your throat while watching the movie.i recommend this movie to everybody that is above the age of 12 because any younger and they won't be able to grasp the content of the whole movie...hey, they can always just watch the beautiful artwork in that case.

Seragovitz OK lets list some anime conventions; insipid male leads with about as much personality as a bowl of rice, all the female characters are snivelling drips, banal supporting cast, glorious childhood memories, some promise or other that needs fulfilment and dialogue that would make a Furby wince etc etc. Behold "The Place Promised in our Early Days" delivering each in spades. The animation is very well done but is "over done" with every scene seeped in sepias, moonlight etc which I found soon got tiresome. The sci-fi plot is a strange mix of quantum mechanical dream state mumbo jumbo and parallel universes; which while rather silly (sorry all you parapsychologists) is at least quasi-interesting. The musak is dreadful fluffy garbage. I think this would have made a good silent animated short. If you want to watch a ten star anime rent "Night on the Galactic Railroad".

slkje22 For a movie that goes for 90 minutes to last my group of friends 120 minutes to watch one must think it's pretty awful.We paused the film many times to talk about what happened but still ended up finishing the movie with no clue.The story was very nicely written but was all over the place. For some reason Hokkaido had been taken over or something and a tower was built... Why??? don't ask me What happens??? I don't know... it was nice but not good,. I may be writing a critique about this film but it was so confusing do not know what to write about. It was just so hard...Watch it if you need to fall asleep.