Review of Voices of a Distant Star (2002) by Aaron C — 07 Aug 2011

For an animated short film made completely by Makoto Shinkai alone, when he was still an amateur, this is exceptional. Some of the art is raw and rough, but taking into account that this was made entirely by Shinkai himself, and is his first real work, this flaw is easy to overlook.

The beautiful visuals and the emotionally compelling plot shows that Shinkai at his very essence, with almost no money and absolutely no staff, can still make something visually and emotionally beautiful.