01-20-2006, 05:57 PM
I saw this on a Miyazaki movie marathon (yes, they do those!), although it was actually only written and storyboarded by Miyazaki, and based off of a manga. My reaction was somewhat positive. It is more "down-to-earth" than traditional Ghibli fare, and had substantially more realistic characters to go with it. Unfortunately, Miyazaki's writing talent, or lack thereof, shows. The film begins well, and it peaks well into the final third. However, the ending was pure melodramatic crap. 
I will not say too much, but let us just say that it goes above and beyond its shoujo manga roots. 
I was even working with the theory that the ending might have been subtly tragedic, but then I realized from released documents that Miyazaki probably did not intend that interpretation. Other than that and a few unresolved subplots, it was fairly good.
3 scoffs out of 10.
Has anyone else seen this?
I will not say too much, but let us just say that it goes above and beyond its shoujo manga roots. I was even working with the theory that the ending might have been subtly tragedic, but then I realized from released documents that Miyazaki probably did not intend that interpretation. Other than that and a few unresolved subplots, it was fairly good.3 scoffs out of 10.
Has anyone else seen this?