[ MOVIE ]

Reviewer : Kylara

The sweet, down-to-earth, and precious movie - is what most people have to say about this movie. Quiet, slow, (although not boring) and gentle, this movie holds a special place in my heart - the place where I put movies that are simply 'ok'. Truly sweet and darling, the movie just didn't connect with me the way I had hoped. The idea struck me well, and the execution was well done, but it seems that much of the movie has to do with visual effects, and that was not something I had at hand.

Tsukishima Shizuku, an avid fantasy story reader attending middle school, often checks out books from the library. Books are nearly everything to her, as well as other miscellaneous talents she uses. The movie opens with the John Denver country song, "Country Road", [credit Anime Colony], which you later see her attempting to translate into Japanese. (The problem she has is choosing words that fit the original beats.) Shizuku loves stories, and wishes that her life wasn't so incredibly normal. She discovers a new 'plot' in her life when she notices that all the books she checked out from the library were checked out earlier by another person - Amasawa Seiji. She's enchanted by the idea - what kind of person could he be, to check out the same books as her? And throughout meeting him and truly getting to know him, Shizuku starts a quest to find and start pursuing her life's dreams.

This movie moved at a nice, even pace; while definitely not an action movie, that fact does not take away from the grace that it exudes. Playing out the story slowly, gently, and with some light jokes and explorations into the daily lives Shizuku and Seiji lead. The plot isn't exactly the most original one, but the way that it is designed and performed leave you with a wonder of how such a pretty story could exist. However, it does tend to drag at some points, and there are some holes in its plot. The ending is rather [incredibly] abrupt, and although very sweet, created a rather large hole. Another problem is how suddenly she started liking Seiji; to my knowledge, I don't think she even told him she liked him. Although, you could attribute that to saying that 'words weren't necessary', but I rather think it's just weird. Other problems are connections with characters - I read somewhere that Seiji is the shopkeeper's grandson, but the relationship is never clarified. (Seiji calls him 'Ojii-san', which usually means grandfather, but you can call any old man that.) There were other relationships and connections that the viewer was supposed to assume, but were never confirmed.

Shizuku isn't really my favorite character, even though the movie is mostly about her. I'm fonder of Seiji, and he has half the screen time she does - perhaps that's why I like him more. Shizuku develops well over the time period, from a directionless, slightly immature (but very funny and happy) girl to a more mature person with a goal in her life, and a clearer understanding of whom she really is. However, her goals don't exactly make me happy. For some time, she declares herself 'jealous' that Seiji already has his life dream, and then decides to get her own. Quite a while is spent with her babbling on about how she's 'not worthy' and how she's horrified with herself for not doing as well as Seiji. I didn't know if she was finding her life's goal to be as good as Seiji, to be worthy of Seiji, or just because she needed a goal. It seemed that her direction was rather petty. However, in the end it seemed that her intentions were good, so I won't (and can't) say that she was a selfish character. I simply didn't like her reasons. Aside from that, though, I believe she truly grew up in this movie, which is something I rarely see. Shizuku is one of the few characters I see in anime who knew there was something amiss in her plans, and made a valiant (and successful) attempt to change that. Unfortunately, she still struck me as a rather silly girl in the end, but you know that she's more mature.

This movie has two things truly going for it - beautiful scenes in it, as well as character development. Although the plot is charming, it didn't drive the movie as well as I had hoped. Unfortunately for this movie's review, I didn't mention the scenes, as I'm not quite sure how to - and also because I didn't notice them. Although I could tell that the backgrounds and such were very picturesque and lovely, they didn't have a large effect on me, partly because I didn't view it on the best quality. [Editor's note: Beggars can't be choosers. :P] This movie put a great deal of its effort into the visual of it, and that forced it to lack a little on everything else. Much of its affect is depending on visual, and if you are like me and unaffected, then it will detract from your overall appraisal. I would recommend that anyone looking for a slow-paced, gentle anime to watch this, but to watch it in good enough quality to be affected by the graphics.