User Reviews

Makoto Shinkai is unique in his directing style in that he often places more focus on a character's inner thoughts rather than his or her dialogue and interacting with the environment. While this style has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, Shinkai uses it to his advantage to often show a emotion driven story. Such as is here in "The Place Promised in our Early Days." It is not a good as some of his other efforts, but it is still worth the watch nonetheless. The story is about three friends living in a alternate reality Japan. Japan has been split in have by America who controls the south and "the Union" controlling the north. There is a tower that goes beyond the clouds and the three friends make a promise to go fly up to it using a plane that they salvage and start to repair. One day, one of the friends disappear and story follows the other two friends and how they cope and ultimately try to find and help her. Like I said, the setting is in a alternate history and there are some science fiction influences in the world. However, it does not detract from the highlight which is he story. The first part of the story involves the three friends enjoying their summer. It is so genuine in terms of emotion and the bright lighting and beautiful drawn environments really brings the story to life. The character animations is not the best and the voice acting is OK at best, but the environments themselves are so beautiful that you'll easily forgive the previous complaints. Shinkai excels at portraying emotions of lost and isolation, especially when it involves old friends and lost lovers. It is no exception here. The main character is the most developed here as we hear his inner thoughts the most and his desire to see his lost friend again is interesting. As much as I like this movie, it is hard not to compare it to another Makoto Shinkai film, "5cm per Second." The reason I like that film better is because there was nothing that distracted the main story. It was clear and to the point with nothing distracting. Same can't be said for this movie. There is a lot of background here involving politics and a weird dream/ parallel universe science that gets convoluted and messy and at times, it can get distracting. That being said, if you want a movie with genuine emotion, this is not a bad watch. In a age where anime tends to focus less on story and more and cutesy hi jinks and everyday nonsense of high school students who can't get a girl, "The Place Promised in our Early Years" is a refreshing, emotional, and occasionally beautiful film that won't leave and tears in your eyes, but might leave you staring at the screen even after the credits start rolling.

Makoto Shinkai came back. And this time he is not alone.

'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is a pure and beautiful piece of work. This has probably the most beautiful visuals of all animations that I've seen ('Please Save My Earth' and some others are also beautiful but they all have different characteristics, I must say). Pictures themselves are beautiful, and it is no wonder how people call him the 'magician of light'.

My overall impression of this anime is that it's like a poet but with Sci-Fi to match with it. 'Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no koe)' was quite boring for me honestly. But with a similar structure and image, 'The Place...' seems to deliver much better what Makoto Shinkai wanted to deliver, even though its story is slightly loose here and there.

I do think, however, that it is 'too' consistent throughout - from Makoto Shinkai's authentic poetic and solitary, pure atmosphere to its story/drama, visuals (e.g. lighting), music etc (I must say that sound aspects outside music is not very well done but let's put that aside), pretty much everything. This strengthens the sense of purity this anime represents, but I really think it would be better to have more 'bandwidth' to it, so it can have more dynamics and life in it. It is great how Makoto Shinkai pulled it off gracefully knitted altogether, though. I'd say that 'The Place...' stands on its very own ground, really. I think it is something that's quite different to all the rest, and don't really think it's appropriate to judge this by typical standards.

To hold it together for a much longer period of time, and to do it well, he has effectively implied editing (if I could say that) and careful laying out of the story. But the biggest difference I witnessed from 'The Place...' was how Makoto Shinkai has casted much more characters than before - though characters lack in variety as well. This enriches the story as well as adding complexity and depth to it so you don't get bored out easily.

But after all, it is superb how well Makoto Shinkai has put the whole thing together so well. I was very fascinated and captured while I was watching it - which didn't happen for quite some time. I think this is one piece of work that overwhelms viewers by its beauty and sense of purity.

P.S. Although I can understand how some animatings are not up to the feature animation quality, I personally think it'd be better for Makoto Shinkai to get somebody good to retouch on his characters' faces.

Read the title a couple of times.

It's lyrical, evocative, even elegiac, and yet could have been expressed in fewer words.

Such is this film.

Formally, it's a pure joy to behold. From sweeping countryside panoramas and old, weatherbeaten structures that somehow plumb deep-seated sparks of nostalgia, to sweetly-embellished details like a softly rattling electric fan, Shinkai creates a vibrant, human environment. The soundtrack is equally enveloping, with heart-melting violin and piano work.

Beyond this is quite a decent film, with believable characters in often hard-to-fathom situations. The boyhood friendship of the two male protagonists is very real -- but their ability to engineer, fabricate, and pilot a sophisticated aircraft at age 15 is purely the stuff of anime fantasy.

And yet, everything, no matter how incredible or convoluted, is wrapped in these Shinkai layers of lyricism and beauty. Through a very sensitive and even transcendent treatment, scene after scene is made to appear pivotal, even if it's not.

And thus we have a film that is almost cloying in its presentation -- it's not layered with pure sugar; most of the time it feels genuine, even if it's becoming self-indulgent. But indulge it does, because the director knows how to indulge gracefully.

Normally style over substance kills substance. In "Place," it gently infuses it with some sort of warm, nourishing milk.

This is an anime movie done by a relative newcomer to films: Makoto Shinkai, whose only previous directorial work was a half-hour short called "Voices of a Distant Star," in which he did all the animation himself on one laptop (even for Japan, a nation of workaholics, that was unheard of). It made him so famous that they gave him a full studio to work with for his next project, and when Makoto Shinkai doesn't have the constraints that a solo project would bring, look out.

The style of the film and its sci-fi and fantasy themes is equal parts steampunk and cyberpunk, with the film taking place in an alternate timeline of post-war Japan, only a few years from now. The main differences are the division between the North and South sides of Japan, and the research into parallel universes that has sprung up, resulting in the construction of a massive tower in Ezo (Hokkaido), which understandably captures the imagination and curiosity of the surrounding world.

Though the film is ostensibly a science fiction work, the plot involving a tower and alternate realities and so on plays second fiddle to the romantic drama, about three high school kids torn apart by war. The emotions blend with the fantasy elemts in a way that is handled with incredible elegance, care and sensitivity, and Makoto Shinkai's trademark poetic touch.

But what is more impressive is how the film shows that drama can be achieved through implausible situations. You see, too many directors think that in order to make a film "dramatic" and "touching," it must be about REALISTIC people in a REALISTIC setting having REALISTIC problems with REALISTIC resolutions, but Makoto Shinkai realizes a way around that, and uses a science fiction element not as a platform for action sequences, but rather as a way to achieve a kind of drama that you really couldn't get in a film that takes place in the "real world."

The film is aware that the sci-fi is playing second fiddle to the character drama, and doesn't waste any more time than it needs to trying to explain the film's bizarre sciences or justify the contrivances, rather leaving it up to the viewer to interpret and decipher what the fantasies of the film mean or symbolize. In other words, Shinkai wisely avoids the deathtrap of "Movie Science," and instead allows the audience to take things as they come and explain them ourselves.

The part about two teenagers building a plane that could get past a government-built radar system does seem a bit incredible, but this film does reflect on the incompetence of governments and how easy it is to get past them, so the required suspension of disbelief isn't really that big (I wish I found it hard to believe that a couple of teenagers could get past a bureaucratic governmental system in this day and age at all).

Also, the brief violence and "thrilling" assault on the tower are treated with perfect sincerity. The brief fight scenes are breathtaking in their realism and how they show that when someone gets punched, they get hurt. There are no legendary martial arts techniques or complex laser-rifle technology here, this film is about how people feel about each other and what they do when they are in trouble.

The ending is slightly abrupt and somewhat open-ended (although it is happy), but that is a theme in many anime. A lot is left up to the audience's interpretation and imagination, and the film only answers the questions that really matter.

Beautiful drawings, the film is perhaps too technical and not very sentimental. The most beautiful part is the end, the feeling of love wins.

I rarely ever watch anything more than once, but this was my 3rd time watching this today, and I had even bought the DVD.. and I still think its as great as the first time I watched it. I think I feel some nostalgic connection to it somehow, I appreciate how brilliant the boys are, actually building something like that.. successfully.. while being so young. I guess I've always wanted to accomplish something like that. I also like the attention to technical detail like soldering and UNIX command lines. Even if you aren't into the story or the characters, watch it for the animation. Some of the most beautiful scenes I think I may ever see. Especially for those you who tend to like sunsets. I can hardly think of anything I don't enjoy about it, some people have said it doesn't feel tight or whole or well put together, but I think the pacing really isn't that bad, only thing that bothers me slightly is all the fades to black that are used for scene transitions, but really I'm not sure what else would have been better, it makes it a whole lot less confusing than just cutting to scenes and having to figure out whats going on and if its a different place or time. The DVD release is decent, some good interviews (motoko shinkai seems like a real nice guy), video quality is good, audio is fine (dont know about the English voice actors, id be afraid to really watch it in English). its good.

Plot: extremely dramatic, in particular the first half. I felt myself sinking under all of this drama. At the beginning I had a little struggling moment to comprehend everything, to get along the setting of the movie, so I stopped and read again the plot here in IMDb. It helped a lot. And I hoped for a more touching ending. It was quite predictable...

Animation: smooth and good. Colour are perfect for this dramatic movie.

Drawings: not the best, I have to admit. At the beginning (and not only) I had some difficult to recognize the characters. But, with some effort, you can comprehend everything.

Soundtrack: really great. like the colour, it get along the movie perfectly.

Conclusions: If you like drama you have definitely to watch this one. But if you care more about drawings, I'm sad to tell this, you have to find another movie to watch.

While a popular anime, I find that the title (The Place Promised in Our Early Days) is more interesting than the slow, plodding script. Many will find this film unmoving and uneventful.

The animation is so-so. In only one scene (a mountain background with mist) was I impressed; otherwise it's very typical. I'm honestly surprised by the number of reviews stating this is "beautiful". It's really simply not that impressive animation-wise. I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

The characters are largely undeveloped. The plot line is simple and mono-directional, without much in the way of suspense, surprise or emotional impact. There are no highs or lows, no real climax to the film, and the ending is weak.

I am a fan of anime and very much enjoy artistic anime. I don't need giant robot battles in order to enjoy a film-- and enjoy many aspects of the drama genre where story is as important as the animation itself. But this work struck me as mediocre in all aspects. I do appreciate that some may enjoy the (very)subdued romantic aspect, but I found it as undeveloped and uneventful as the rest of the work.

As would be expected I give it 5 stars. Neither impressive nor bad... just a slow-moving story, weak plot line and so-so animation.

Approaching this from the perspective of a sci-fi enthusiast, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, despite the complexity of its theories on divergent realities and their harmonic coexistence with dreams, there was a far simpler coming-of-age story that centered on a childhood promise. The score is haunting. The visuals and animation are stunning and the characters are charmingly awkward. Although there are some action sequences and a pint of blood thrown in for measure, the film's pace is decidedly that of a romantic reflection on loneliness and bittersweet affection. In the end, the story telling is adequate, but viewers who were eager to be exposed to fantastic alternate universes will be disappointed.

Makoto Shinkai's feature film debut packs a number of elements that would later become his trademarks but its confusing plot, inconsistent flow & poor characterisation also makes it pretty much forgettable. An ambitious undertaking by the new filmmaker in town that exposes his inexperience as a storyteller and presents him biting off more than he can chew.

Actually I would give it a 7.5 but as you know IMDb only allows hole numbers.

This movie is basically about three friends (two boys and one girl). Their feeling towards each other is pretty well constructed and easy to follow. This is important because it is the important theme of the movie.

The place, time and events in which the main theme develops is the great flaw of the movie. It is basically a separated japan at the border of war; there is a huge tower at Hokkaido that links to parallel universes and a couple of other strange things. this plot is hard to follow and actually not very interesting. Never the less, this should not prevent you from watching this movie because it is not really important for the movie. This is a very light film and I guarantee you will feel really nice after you've finished watching it (by light I mean easy with your heart, not easy to follow).

Just as 5 centimeters per second, the animation is excellent. However, if you have not seen a lot of anime or you are just not a big fan I would recommend some other movies first. From the same director, 5 centimeters per second is much much better, although, is not as light as this one.

I gave 4 stars just for the art and the music, but I really got bored a lot watching this, the story makes no sense, it's all so dreamy, so epic, the author wants you to deeply feel all this emotions but to me the result it's an hollow movie with hollow character. I've never fallen asleep watching something, but with this I barely succeeded to end it. I definitively suggest not to watch it, there are so many other beautiful anime to see out there. One thing I've enjoyed is the artwork, the landscapes are really intense and make you dream, but also there sometimes there is too much over production, too many light effects, it seems like a punch in the eye. And I hate when authors use science fiction in this way, by throwing here and there some gibberish theory and then making a mess with a convoluted plot, so that people at the end can say that it leave you with the freedom to interpret it, I find this technique over abused lately, and by the way I've never seen using it so badly like in this case

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.

I really like most of his work, but maybe I made a mistake by watching it out of order with this one being last. But then again, if I started with this one, I'd probably not watch the other ones.

I have therefore no choice, but to judge this movie with the eyes that have already seen Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters per Second or Your Name.

There are two sides to this, first one sees all of his moves that I mentioned as basically iteration of the same story, always being said the same way with same basic heroes, beginning and ending. It makes those movies kind of predictable. The second one is that because he makes them the same way, he can make them better and better. I'm on the fence with this one.

What about "The place.." then? To cut it short, it was boring. I know his movies are convoluted, but his one made little sense to me, story wise. Emotions were not as neatly drawn as in the others and whole experience was basically dull, watch and forget.

Mandatory for Shinkai fans, everyone else should probably sit this one out and watch "Your name" instead.

The director and writer of The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a certain Makoto Shinkai who is otherwise famous for movies like 5 cm Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. He has been hailed as one of the greatest anime directors or even the greatest, up there with legends like Hayao Myazaki. Since I saw his other two movies first and absolutely adore them, it is needless to say that my expectations for this movie were sky high. Simply put, I was not let down. Unlike the other two movies under the same direction, The Place Promised in Our Early Days has a very definite plot with clear dips, rises and climaxes. All in all, it is an exciting story that puts you in the center of a divided Japan with different powers controlling both sides. The plot might seem dry and overused on paper, but it is quite intriguing once you actually see it in action. Also driving the storytelling forward is this movie's sci-fi twist on parallel universes and how certain people react with them. Again, this movie certainly brings around one of the uniquer feeling tales around, even if it doesn't sound it. Anyone who has seen another Makoto Shinkai movie however will be able to tell you though, that it is not the story that makes his movies special, but the characters and the emotion that few movies come close to matching. Although it is still a huge distant beyond any other movie in this respect, the power behind to emotions is probably the weakest of all three movies. Don't get me wrong; you will still find the characters and their relations hauntingly and irresistibly real, but you aren't AS horrified when a character's life suddenly changes for the worse. Still, the feelings of loneliness, desperation, or exuberance, all of which Shinkai is famous for, are still found in their distinct, amazing way. Since this was the second of the three movies, it also seems as though it is a technical middle-step between the OK animation of Voices of a Distant Star, and the truly breath-taking visual found in 5 cm Per Second. The animation will not disappoint you, and there are some truly clever tricks that are used that make it look truly wonderful, but they won't stand out among the best in the industry. The music might just do that however with its beautiful, violin-heavy soundtrack that creates a great ambiance for whatever scene is currently playing. Also, the fact that the violin is featured in the soundtrack is of relevance to the plot, and makes both the character progression and the music appear that much sweeter.

Although I have criticized this movie a lot, for every thing it did wrong, it did a million things right. This still stands with the truly great anime movies out there and is a great watch for any fan of sci-fi influenced plots that will bring a surprisingly personal tone to the story.

Though the beginning of The Place Promised presents a rather peaceful slice-of-life scene, don't be misled by looks. Depending on whose tale it's currently following, it quickly adopts a more serious tone with a sci-fi feel to it as well. The three amazing stories that captivate you on a deep emotional level are interspersed with glimpses into the dreams of the female protagonist here and there. The culmination unites the three in a magnificent final scene that will stay with me for a very long time.

The Place Promised has amazing, complex, and realistic characters. Take note of the latter, they look real. Because they're simply regular kids going through all of this, you can relate to them more and have a deep desire for them to realize their dreams.

i happened to see this movie when i was browsing the library for a movie to watch, and decided to check it out on a whim. and boy, am i glad i did. the director of this movie has been called "the next miyazaki", and let me just say that that's no exaggeration. from the animation to the characters to the story, everything is crafted beautifully together. even the music, simple as it is, fits perfectly with the story.

let me just say something about the animation: it is drop dead gorgeous. advent children was beautiful, but this movie one-ups it. from the picturesque scenes to the clearly drawn and interesting characters, i cannot find a single fault with the picture itself.

and the story, like the animation, is a beautiful narrative. i have never been more engrossed by the story or its characters, and it was enough to both pain me and move me at each twist of the story.

all in all, this is a terrific gem of a movie. after i watched it, i immediately went out and bought it online. and i know that if anybody else watch it, they'll do the same.

Mind-bending sci-fi is a staple of Japanese animation, and many of them are complex in a way that makes them difficult to grasp immediately. This one, though, I really don't think the director has any idea how to tell a story. The film is just never coherent. Not only is its science fiction premise (which deals with alternate universes) never clear, nor its world comprehensibly established, but it's terrible at establishing characters and their relationships to each other. All of the characters are quite thin and clichéd. The artwork is nice(the animation is a bit choppy, though), and the music is pretty (but also occasionally too sappy), but this is an annoying mess of a film.

For me the movie did not grip me at any moment. I watched through the minutes and as half the movie passed I still patiently waited for it to pick up. The very beginning part was somewhat interesting, it was developing characters, a plot, and an idea. By somewhat the middle of the movie the plot and the characters were lost. The movie jumped onto details irreverent to anything in the beginning. Such tactic really does throw off viewers but is not completely wrong if you build up on the idea properly. Throughout the movie you had fillers, small lines that made the movie much longer, and further from helping to keep the audience engaged. I honestly was at the coastline of the movie the whole time, I knew the idea and where the plot and movie was going, but the movie did put an effort in tying the audience emotionally to the screen. In conclusion, the movie had too many irrelevant details, lines, very loosely tied together, with very unorganized plot. It very much tried to be a movie like "Inception" or "Fight Club" but in my view it did fail in that category.

The first thing to emphasize is that, regardless of what the plot summary may sound like, this is not and should not be regarded as true science fiction. While there are definitely sci-fi elements in the show, the approach that the director takes uses them more as a backdrop for the main plot line than as an actual focus to the show. As a result, a lot of criticism is generated because the anime doesn't "explain enough," when in fact they're missing the point entirely. The science-fiction is used to aid a story of love and friendship, not the other way round.

The second thing to bring out into the open is that truly appreciating the storyline requires both a tolerance of a deliberate pace and an appreciation for what at heart is a rather simplistic story. Both of these elements seem to have turned more than a few people off, but for me they only added to the film's elegance.

Unfortunately, the narrative admittedly falters when the anime wanders into superfluous details that distract from the main focus of the show. Although such moments are thankfully rare, the times that they occur feel messy and muddled. These flaws in the story can most likely be attributed to the extra length of the movie; in Voices of a Distant Star, the limited running time forced the director to focus on what was most important. Here, however, he feels free (or even obligated) to diverge into places not relevant to his main plot line, and the result is never helpful.

However, barring each of these points, the anime offers a truly moving experience. Essentially, the basic storyline can be distilled to three characters learning the importance of their childhood promises and feelings. While the story is simple, the director is able to give immense depth and power to it. The message is also relatively straightforward, but at the same time thought-provoking and moving. The storyline is aided considerably by some absolutely beautiful animation, which sparkles with light, color and detail.

As a whole, Beyond the Clouds is a soaring work, a stunning accomplishment that is basically a must-see for this year. As Makoto Shinkai's debut into the world of film, this is a landmark achievement, and I dream of the day he surpasses this work. No other anime released in 2004 has resonated with me more.