Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below

Very unfocused story, one dimensional character, no story arc or character arc in here. Looks like desperate attempt of copying ghibli movie. Pacing is bad, motivations are unclear, plot is poor. Animation is brilliant but this is thw worst work of Makoto Shinkai.

It's a huge, complete world that Shinkai created here, big and well thought out enough to fill me with a sense of wonder at every new element I discover about it. Some of the things are just thrown in with no lore behind them, which is a little disappointing, but as a whole, this was great. The art was amazing and professional down to the beautiful landscapes, intricate details, and stunning camera angles. The biggest disappointment, here, is the English dubbed version has sub-par acting.

The first hour of this film worked beautifully with the fantastic music, and scenery. The story fell apart After mimi died. But it remained a gorgeous art piece. The story had a good beginning but didn't make much sense after the point of mr morasaki splitting up with asuna. Mr morasaki also became hard to like when he became so desperate to get Lisa back that he would sacrifice Asuna. But it wasn't to bad there were still little perks throughout the entire movie.

What worked: beautiful aesthetics and visuals, emotionally driving moments, and the cute cat thing. What didn't work: The fact that the dialogue, most of the plot points, and half of what actually happens in the story feels more like I'm watching someone play a video game than a movie. So many ideas and directions in the story are introduced and then abandoned, and others are referenced before even being introduced! Try as he may have with this one, Shinkai is no Miyazaki.

Shinkai's best movie to date is this highly complex/rich movie which is among the most visually impressive movies ever made, animated or not. This movie is worth watching just for the visuals.

Like Shinkai's other movies, the details of the animation are gorgeous, this one filled with Lovecraftian creatures in the underworld. Also like his other movies, the plot is either far too complex for its own good, or not quite fleshed out enough to make a cohesive story. They're interesting enough to watch once, but don't have enough to make me want to re-watch them. Fav scene: the red-eyed monsters following Asuna along the river.

Would have been great if the world of Agartha were more exploited and consistent, but visually a great journey.

Like any movie by Makoto Shinkai, this is beautiful to look at and worth watching for that alone, but I wish the story had had more focus on exploring the world of Agartha and less on the connections to our world and all of the secret society nonsense.

Shinkai makes a Ghibli. Or at least, tries to. He's no Miyazaki. And he really doesn't know how to write a satisfying ending. Still, he's built a pretty compelling world, and it's an engrossing adventure for kids - my 10-year-old daughter thoroughly enjoyed it. Parts of it are rather gruesome and/or scary for that age group though.

I enjoyed this more than Shinkai's earlier works. I liked the mythology and the way it was introduced. I liked that plot focusses less on teenage romance (especially compared to his other film) and more on the archetypical quest. The animation is good, but the voice-acting is a little subpar, noticeably with Haag's Asuna and the "baby-voice". Enjoyable, though the theme of loneliness and loss that runs through the characters is a little lacklustre and the film is unevenly paced in places.

plot: convenient/characters: underdeveloped/their motivation: unclear (based on what they do, not what they or others claim they're feeling)/their development: skipped/inner logic: disregarded/emotional beats: unearned/structure: weak/pacing: adhd/writing: OK for a 10-year-old, I guess/animation: cheap/asthetics: TV/recycling of visual motifs from other things: lame/kitsch: also lame/story: all over the place, therefore nonexistent/movie: generic

Surprisingly boring animated film from Makoto Shinkai. This is not the usual style from him and it seems more like a Ghibli film without the depth or emotion. Beautiful but lackluster.

Not a bad movie, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how heavily it depends on its influence of Miyazaki movies. Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Nausica, etc. There's nothing wrong with being influenced by a director whose work has changed the way we look at animation, but there's nothing wrong with originality either.

Definitely Shinkai's best movie; this feels very Miyazaki and I love it. The whole affair seems to exist on a far more expansive, deeper scale than Shinkai's other work. Fantastically powerful, with great music and characters, it's a grand fantasy-adventure epic that I would definitely recommend to any anime fan.

Music was really good and it did essentially give me the ending I wanted, but the Quetzal Coatl were weird and tore off something of mythology I don't understand nor think they understand. Although that ending song was awkward.

A beautiful and imaginative film although the story sometimes feels like some key scenes or backstories have been forgotten.

Shinkai's dreamlike fantasy sendup to Miyazaki is wondrous to behold once it gets past the introductions, even if it lacks substance and could have done more with its run time.

I am following Shinkai's career right from the start, and while his stories always lacked complexity, he had his own way to provoke happy-sad emotion. With each movie he was getting better, so my expectations for this one were high. What a great disappointment it was to find that Hoshi o ou kodomo is just a bad imitation of Miyazaki's Laputa. Story lacks coherence, characters are shallow - I was bored out of my mind watching this. Animation is good, but not his best.