Journey To Agartha [Blu-ray]

I was surprised to find this as I'd never heard if it before. I bought it immediately when I discovered it was a Makoto Shinkai film!The story is beautifully told and gripping. It handles difficult subjects well whilst also not pretending to be something it's not. I won't spoil any of the plot though! The animation is lovely to look at and the score a treat to the ear. The characters develop naturally and uncovering their individual stories that make the complete web is thrilling.Moving onto the product itself. It arrived promptly considering I only had a rough guide of 'usually dispatched within X amount of days/weeks'. The art book came in it's own little packet which was a nice detail. It has all of its pages and none are damaged. There are no English translations unfortunately but that doesn't stop the sketches being beautiful! It came with all 3 discs which are scratch free and very shiny as you can tell from them reflecting my Tokyo Ghoul:re poster! 😂 There are a couple blemishes on the edges of the case but nothing that I'm overly annoyed about.All in all a wonderful product that I would recommend to any fantasy anime fan and a great addition to Makoto Shinkai's repertoire.

Not much to say about this one. A solid fantasy adventure firmly in the tradition of Hayao Miyazaki's great animations. Castle in the sky especially. It is a departure from Makoto Shinkai's normal style so a possible pass even for a fan of his work. The trademark attention to detail result in a higher than average quality animation that could be called lush. Kept me entertained and very difficult to find flaw. By normal standards a masterpiece. But for me Makoto Shinkai's other, more original works surpass this.

Compared to some other animations on the market,this is a diamond.Asuna,the 10 year old heroine,seems to be on her own.On arriving home after school,she calls out "I'm home" but the house is empty,it was just someone had left a light on.Apparently,her Mother works late.So,Asuna cooks,cleans AND does the shopping !Her passion is to climb a local mountain and listen to sounds through a crystal radio.Asuna has even made use of a cave as her den.We soon meet a boy who sits in the same spot and seems to think it isn't safe for Asuna.He's got a crystal too.They feature prominently in the film.This is Shun,a teenager,who leads Asuna on a journey to discover the meaning of life and death and that they are both part of the human condition.It's an amazing depiction of another world where more respect was shown to our environment and more importantly,a world before GUNS !So,we're shown a film about the choices we can make and the consequences of them.It's about love,loss and friendships.Yep,the usual stuff,but done very nicely.I knew I'd spent my money wisely after only 5 minutes !I thoroughly enjoyed all 116 minutes of it.The animation is brilliant and reminds me of the Studio Ghibli films.I think the great Miyazaki has an equal here in Makoto.There are loads of extra little animations that really do add to the pleasure of watching this film.It's nice that they go to the trouble of putting them in.I'm convinced there must be a DVD's worth of deleted scenes 'cos there are some abrupt scene changes during the film.There were no extras on this DVD but there is a promo for Bleach.Not a criticism,but an observation.The film focuses on light and colour so when Asuna and her companion near 'The gate of death',it changes to rainy grey,a marked contrast to the rest of the film,that's for sure.So.I guess there's not much for adults unless you enjoy just great animation with a superb imagination brought to life.I also have the two other films by Makoto Shinkai so my expectations were high.I'm pleased to report,I'm not disappointed !

The film itself is excellent entertainment. I wont go into too much detail as it will spoil the movie. Makoto Shinkai proves he can do more than just amazing visuals (I don't feel he needed to anyway...) I thought all the main characters were compelling and believable - you want to experience their adventure, both physically, and perhaps more prevalent - emotionally. The story itself has many underlying levels. But if I were to pick a overall theme, it would be coming to terms with life and death. It doesn't portray 'good' and 'bad' conventionally (or even at all to be honest) or try to shove down your throat any one repeated message. An important thing to note is that not everything will be picked up upon on first viewing. It gets better every-time I watch it. It's just a solid 2 hour Journey...to Agartha (pun intended). The films presentation is excellent, the stand out being the visuals - just a treat to the eyes. You can tell a lot of effort was put into this (I know from watching the bonus content, more on that down below). Even everyday life is portrayed so aesthetically pleasingly - You just notice little things all the time. The style isn't solely photo realistic as his previous works but a mix, and works very well.The bonus content is quite good overall. The stand out clearly being the 'making of' and interviews with the actors and creator. I wasn't expecting both of those to be a minimum of 45mins each! One reason I'm doing this review is because, after watching both of those features, I feel Makoto produced exactly what he intended (the other reason is because some people have given this 1 or 2 star and have not even watched the damn thing... the forums/comments are below people) The bonus content is well worth a watch if you enjoyed the film. I was surprised how knowledgeable and genuinely proud of the film and their characters they portrayed the actors were. Very likeable indeed. It isn't a standard set of interview questions regarding the process of voice acting. (though that is covered). The art book is nice and gives further insight into some of the scenes visited - the small town for example or just early character concepts. The box itself opens upwards and cannot stand straight on it's on due to this. The artbook isn't secure in the box either.I've watched it twice, both in Japanese with subtitles. I do intend on watching it one day with the English dub. But I feel, after watching it with subs, that the English cast just don't reflect how the characters should sound like when I briefly switched audio track mid way through second viewing. I'm sure it's adequate and accurate, but not my cup of tea on this occasion so far.Overall; Buy this film. If you're reading this review it's likely that you're not new to anime and perhaps want to broaden your horizons. Competition is good for everyone in business, especially for the consumer. I highly doubt you'll feel or wished that you hadn't purchased and watched this film when the end credits roll. It will most likely leave some impact :)Nigel out.