Review of Voices of a Distant Star (2002) by Tiffany C — 20 Mar 2007

Shinkai Makoto really knows his stuff.This anime manages to effectively combine high-flying mecha space battles with a sweet, sentimental romance that spans the galaxy itself, and all in the span of 20 minutes. Though this may not sound like a formula for success, it works a hell of a lot better than it sounds, and the end result of Hoshi no Koe is something so poetic and heartwarming that it gave me shivers.

In short, Hoshi no Koe is not really trying to tell a long, drawn out epic of a story. It only wants to demonstrate the love between two young students and how it transcends any sort of physical or temporal boundary. The backstory or plot progression may not be incredibly powerful, but it is a fairly unique premise and certainly one that succeeds at what it's trying to get at. The characters and story make the perfect vehicle for reaching an emotionally charged climax and conclusion; they are simple and elegantly portrayed, used as tools for producing emotion in the viewer. Though forcibly attempting to invoke sadness in an audience very often ends in failure and melodrama, Hoshi No Koe goes about its duty in a very classy and understated way. On that note, there is not a lot to say about the characters in this anime, since they receive very little development in the short time span. Like the plot, they are merely used for the emotional message that this story propagates.

My one nitpick is a very irrelevant one, and that runs on the principle of Murphy's Law. Why is the male lead still using the same cell phone that he owned nine years ago? Certainly he would have purchased some other portable device that had been invented, or at least an improvement on the one that he already owned. Perhaps, even though he claimed he no longer awaited Makoto's mail, there was still a little bit of hope locked away in the back of his mind...

Hoshi no Koe is so romantic in the simplest and purest of ways. It has that infallible spark of hope to it, with so much heart that I couldn't help but appreciate it. Though I am not a mecha fan, the robot fighting was used in a very interesting moderation, and the relationship took the forefront. This anime is a wonderful effort by a single man, and worth anyone's 24 minutes.