Aliases:

Kumo no Mukou
Yakusoku no Basho
Beyond The Clouds
The Promised Place

Synopsis:

Two friends, Fujisawa Hiroki and Shirakawa Takuya, are planning to build a plane and fly to Ezo Tower, a skyscraper that extends to the heavens. Some say it is a powerful military weapon, others say it is a monument of national identity in times where world war looms and the North & South sections of Japan have been separated.

Using salvaged parts and buying the rest at their part time job at a factory that produces military guided missiles, the two inch slowly towards their goal. One day, through a conversation that led her to its discovery, their classmate, Sawatari Sayuri, is let in on the secret and the three vow to fly to the tower together. However, as summer vacation ends and the three near the realization of their promise, Sayuri goes missing.

Flash forward three years, Hiroki is in high school and Takuya is working in a research lab, both in Tokyo, both leaving unfulfilled lives after the disappearance of Sayuri. Takuya is in the field of researching parallel universes, which are described as dreams and possible future paths of the current universe. The same research is being conducted at a much more advanced level at the Ezo Tower. It is apparently possible to replace a portion of the current universe with that of a parallel one.

The key to the expansion of the parallel universe lies with Sayuri, who has fallen into a coma like state where she is in a constant dream, apparently linked to the parallel universes. Hiroki also has these dreams, but his are fragmented. He eventually realizes that his dreams may be Sayuri’s current reality and vows to protect her and fulfill their promise of going to the tower.

When Sayuri is asleep the expansion of the parallel universe around the Ezo Tower remains in check, however when she shows signs of waking, the expansion is rapid and uncontrollable. Hiroki and Takuya learn about this and have converging opinions. Takuya believes that the fate of Sayuri is less important than the fate of the world, which may be consumed by the expanding universe. Hiroki wants to fulfill his promise and bring Sayuri to the tower, by doing so he believes she will awaken. The two fight at first, but are brought together by an unexpected force, a terrorist network. Headed by the owner of the factory they once worked in, the terrorist cell plans to destroy the Ezo Tower when world war is declared. Hearing their situation, their former boss orders Takuya and Hiroki to carry out the job, in exchange Hiroki will be able to bring Sayuri to the tower, and by destroying it the expansion of the parallel universe will be halted. Everyone wins.

Unexpectedly, this is exactly how it occurs, the plan is executed flawlessly. Sayuri awakens to a new life, which she plans to use on furthering her relationship with Hiroki, whom she loves. The tower is destroyed and the expansion of the parallel universe is stopped as the war rages on in the background.

Thoughts:

I really like this movie, Shinkai Makoto is a genious, both in animation and in directing. The carefree lifestyle portrayed in the beginning was done exceptionally well and served as a perfect contrast to the events in the latter half of the movie. The drama was not over done and for once I am thankful for that, as forced drama can wreck a series. The characters were also well done, although Takuya seemed sort of underdeveloped and seemed like a background character to me. The main focus was on Hiroki and Sayuri, who were connected by their dreams and promise to each other.

There was not much action in this movie, a few battle and launch scenes, some Evangelion type computer lab scenes, and a really big explosion pretty much sums it up. The ending was well done, but rather anti-climactic, there was no drama or suspense, everything went according to plan. I thought that the two fighter jets near the end would have spotted him and we’d get a desperate chase scene going, but alas, no complications. There was also a lack of closure, as with the other Shinkai Makoto work I’ve seen (Hoshi no Koe). Questions still linger in my mind:

What will happen to Sayuri and Hiroki?
What will become of Takuya?
How will the world react to the destruction on the Ezo Tower?
Etc.

If I had any imagination I could develop theories and answers for myself, but I’m lazy and rather uncreative, and so I’m left with a slight sense of incompleteness.

The music and animation was AMAZING, absolutely perfect. The character designs still need work, but the surroundings and backgrounds were drawn and animated very well, at a level on par or possibly higher than Kyoto Animation’s work. The music was very fitting, classical piano and violin scores reverberated in the background sending a chill up my spine at crucial, tense and emotional moments. And although I believe the ending was a little anti-climactic, it achieved an excellent catharsis through the use of beautiful animation, dialogue and music.

The animation quality is simply amazing in this movie.

I wish I had enough focus and determination when I was a kid =\

His synch ratios are off the charts!!! …err, oops, wrong anime.

I wanted to put in more screenshots, but I realized that if I included everything I wanted to, this page could take a VERY long time to load D=

Victories

- Animation quality
- Musical score (OST)
- Relationship between Hiroki and Sayuri
- The few action scenes
- Physics!

Phailures

- Too few action scenes
- Character designs still feel rough
- Takuya, such wasted potential
- Lack of explanation of the war, tower, alliance, UN forces and especially what took place in the three year gap. (Though with a limited amount of time, this is inevitable)
- Lack of suspense during ending where there could have been

All in all an EXCELLENT work of art, if you haven’t already, watch it.

~ Shirukii ~