Review of Wonderful Days (2003) by Jonathan B — 21 Feb 2011

This movie looks beautiful and has all the strengths of Anime in that is imaginative and novel. It also suffers from the weaknesses of the form in that there is a great deal of confusion and ambiguity which makes Sky Blue not perhaps as enjoyable as it should be.

It deals, as much of this genre does, with a dystopian society living on the brink of collapse. Here it is a duel civilisation of those inhabiting Ecoban, a giant living city that consumes carbon and as a result poisons the environment while outside the city are the usual collection of cyber-punks and eco-warrior types who are battling to overthrow the city and return the world to a more environmentally sound footing.

I'm never sure with this kind of movie whether something gets lost in translation but to the Western eye (and ear) there are some strange inconsistencies such as the belief that things are better in Gibraltar and the unexplained appearance of a weird sewer rat with long stripy ears.

Also, I wasn't quite sure what happened in the end but it all seemed to work out OK and the poisonous black clouds were finally blown away to reveal the sky blue of the the title.