Review of Voices of a Distant Star (2002) by Senh D — 24 Jun 2004

So I'm in the anime section of my local (apparently doppelganger universe) Blockbuster, and I see a shiny new case. "Hmmm," says me. "Glowing reviews on case. Of course - why would they put negative ones on the case? Oh, and it's distributed by ADV films, who does a pretty good job of finding new properties even though they distribute some established stinkers. Hmmmm.".

I did some reading up. Turns out director Makoto Shinkai wrote and animated the entire thing himself, sequenced it, produced it, did pretty much everything but the voice acting on his computer. I was intrigued. I rented it.

I was utterly unprepared. This short film feels like a poem and plays out like a gentle childhood story book, read to you in the soothing voice of a parent, while you stare at the watercolor illustrations and hover on the edge between sleep and wakefulness. My cynical brain could spot the places where a solo CGI animator had to take short cuts, repeat motions, utilize the movement of the background to keep from falling stagnant. Just to save room for rendering the really big frames. But my heart didn't give a flying fuck about that - the images are gorgeous and moreover, the story broke it.

From the opening line ("There is this word, 'world'. I used to think it meant everything out to the far edges of where my cell phone signal would reach.") to the closing, my attention never flagged. The 25 minutes were up before I realized it, and I let out a little yelp of frustration, followed quite unexpectedly by tears.

VOICES is a love story, told through the text messages exchanged between two high school children over their cell phones when Mikako is chosen to serve in the intergalactic army, leaving her best friend and destined lover Noboru behind on earth. This device, along with the elegant manipulation of distance and time, never tries to get any larger than its canvas, and so succeeds completely.

Thanks to ADV's strong distribution, you should be able to get your hands on it at most rental places. I sincerely hope you decide to. It's 25 minutes out of your life, and you deserve it.

God, I sound like a plant. Or a fangirl.