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Reviewer: Tom (Webmaster)
Based
on: Full Anime
UK Distributor:
ADV Films (DVD)
Made in a bedroom? Surely not I hear
you say. But Voices Of A Distant Star (VOADS) was and you
will have to keep pinching yourself whilst watching it just to remind yourself
of that fact, because the animation in VOADS is quite impressive.
Set in the year 2046 during an interstellar war, the storyline of VOADS
focuses on the relationship between the young Mikako and Noboru, which is just
starting to get serious when Mikako is drafted as a pilot for the war. She
must travel to the far reaches of space to fight the alien enemy and her only
way of communicating with Noboru is via text messaging. The further apart
they are though, the longer it takes for each message to reach the recipient
and, due to the laws of physics, Noboru ages faster then Mikako whilst she is in
the depths of space. The two strive to remain in contact as the gap
between them grows ever larger.
As I mentioned in opening the animation in VOADS is impressive and is
certainly it’s strongest point. I found the lush backdrops jaw-dropping
throughout and although the character design was not particularly stylised, it
was well above what I expected from this homemade effort. Unfortunately
the mech design is where VOADS falls down as the movement is jerky and
does not gel well with the backdrops, but I could have forgiven VOADS for
this if it were not for the most important aspect of all – the story.
Although the story of VOADS seems promising enough from my above overview
you have probably noticed that the characters communicate with mobile phones,
which would be ok if VOADS wasn’t set in 2046 and all other technology
has moved on except for mobile phones. It is laughable that in the world
of VOADS it is possible to travel vast distances in space but no-one
seemed to equip these machines with a decent communication device to Earth and
they instead decided to rely on mobile phones older then even the one I own
myself! Ok, I know you are probably thinking: that this is a fickle point
to make and that VOADS is really a tale of love between two people across
a vast distance and that their story is all that matters, and you would be
right. However, VOADS fails to convince the viewer of this as we do
not see any other characters other then Mikako and Noburu, therefore not
witnessing any other aspects of their life and instead left to assume. Due
to this Mikako and Noburu are mind-numbingly shallow as the viewer simply sees
them pining for each other, rather then seeing other aspects of their life which
would have given them both just a little more depth. All the viewer would
have needed is for one of them to have a quick conversation with a work
colleague to show if their working life gave them more reason to pine. We
never even hear the characters say anything happy to each other, its just all ‘I
miss you’ followed by the reply ‘I miss you too’ time after time. A little
more creativity would not have gone amiss!
Before watching VOADS it is obvious that the whole film is a metaphor for
the current technology of the world which allows you to communicate across vast
distances even though you may never see that person and that actual human
contact will never be bettered by any technology. By the end of VOADS
it is painfully obvious as it is all the film chooses to focus on in its
dialogue, as it just chooses to shows the characters depression of not having
face-to-face contact. This point is repeated throughout, with the
exception of a short action sequence and the end which is unfortunately not
enough to rescue this boring and depressing film.
I was full of expectation for VOADS but no matter how hard I tried to
like it I just couldn’t. I won’t deny that it is an impressive short for
someone to make single-handedly and it would be interesting to see what Makoto
Shinaki produces in future as the great animation of VOADS does show
promise. VOADS itself though is an overrated film that sadly does
not deserve the classic status some have labelled it with.
Feature:
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