Gedo Senki, Tales From Earthsea

[Whizbang]

My wife and I watched this last night after we had dinner. A good movie but confusing a bit. The way the movie started left you a bit confused and wondering if it would all tie up by the end. But the fact that it did very little to explain the reason why things occurred sort of left me wondering if this movie was meant to be a chapter out of the novels or if it was meant to be a stand-alone. The animation was wonderfully done and the artwork was very stunning. The characters, while intriguing, had very little explained about them with the exception of key bits here and there to sort of give you back story and an understanding of why people like Ged and Cob knew each other. I also feel like the ending was not fully tied together and left you wanting to know more.

All in all, it was enjoyable and entertaining. But I feel like this was not the best way for Miyazaki's son to make his mark in anime. I think this was intended to be a one-off but they failed to do enough to make it stand without needing to understand the bigger picture and accept the world and characters without question. If there is a chance, I'd like to see this develop into a series to support the storyline that was developed in the novels so that we might come to appreciate the world and its characters on a deeper level.

I gave it an 8/10 on MAL but could see some as giving it a 6 or 7.

[M.Steiner]

But I feel like this was not the best way for Miyazaki's son to make his mark in anime.

Was just going to ask if this was the movie done by his son hehe. I remembered the movie name as this is one of the Ghibli films I've yet to see. Mebbe C4 over here will air it in the near future, they've already aired Porco Rosso recently (or it might have been Pom Poko...) and just this week have shown Kiki and Nausicaa <3.

He's doing http://myanimelist.net/anime/10029/Kokurikozaka_Kara atm but if there's a chance of him returning to the Tales from Earthsea world I'd think it more likely to be in the form of another film rather than a series. I've yet to be disappointed by a Ghibli film but will have to see how I find this when I get to it. Some are way better and deeper than others of course (Grave of the Fireflies & Nausicaa for instance are amazing) but even Whisper of the Heart etc I found pretty decent personally. Will have to remember to post once I've seen it.