Indie anime director Makoto Shinkai took a break after making 5 Centimeters Per Second in 2007, a slow-paced slice-of-life film reflecting Shinkai’s original style. He went abroad, spent some time in the UK, where he understood what to do next: to tell a universal story.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below is about a young girl who likes to listen to the strange music coming from the crystal radio left by her father, leading her to an adventure into the hidden world. With the girl experiencing the beauties and horrors of the world.
In other words, Shinkai seems to move a little bit away from his previous works, not repeating himself and trying to achieve something different. The visuals are still gorgeous, with lots of details to enjoy. But as the director said (in the 23-min interview, see below), “creating something universal isn’t just about pictures, but about the story, and I got a hint on how to make the story universal from myths“. Expect a coming-of-age adventure in the most noble sense of the word? With some action scenes!
And this review concludes saying the film “comes across not as much as a product of The Next Miyazaki so much as The Old Miyazaki Remixed” — referring to the fact Shinkai has been called the Next Miyazaki. This conclusion seems to confirm Shinkai’s new approach, his interest for myths, which can be seen as an interesting step from a director willing to improve his art.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below was released in Japan on May 7th, 2011. Coming out in the West sometime in 2012? Let’s hope so!
Source: Official website
Thanks Kochi Kochi!
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