Munto (2003)
Animation Production: Kyoto Animation
Released by: U.S. Manga Corps
Official Website: Munto
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

I'm not sure how I would classify Munto in the anime universe. On the one hand it shares many traits with fantasy titles and on the other hand it also has some elements in common with Mahou Shoujo anime programs, but there is a peculiar balance that it strikes between the two that makes it impossible for me to classify with certainty as either one or the other.

This is an interesting dilemma seeing as to how the duality of things is one of the themes at the heart of this feature. A rather fitting peculiarity!

Story

"Second sight is a curse for Yumemi, a psychic schoolgirl who just wants to be normal. The islands in the sky that only she can see have been nothing but trouble for her since she was little. But she’s about to discover the true value of her gift, when Magical King Munto arrives in her world, with enemies in hot pursuit!

Munto’s realm is linked to ours by a magic called "Akuto", but that power is fading, and his world is on the brink of death. Yumemi is the only Earthling with the power to restore the Akuto of his world …if she can only find the courage to use it!" -- Official Munto Website

Review

Yellow flowers are in front of us as the movie opens; they move gently as the wind makes its way through them, when suddenly, a blast is heard in the distance. As the camera moves to a better position we can see a tower fall as several onlookers gasp at what their seeing; their world is dying. This is the Heavenly World, where long ago, evolved humans, who harnessed the power of a magic force known as Akuto, moved to and lived separately from the mortal realm. Time is a concept that doesn't exist in the Heavenly World and thus it's a place that cannot co-exist in the same space and time as the mortal world, rather, it exists as a parallel universe; it is the other side of the world's coin.

Unfortunately as the power of Akuto was used and in some instances abused the Heavenly World began to unravel and has now reached a point of no return. Unless something is done this world will soon vanish from existence, taking out the mortal world at the same time with it. There is one hope that remains however, a great power that resides within a mortal girl by the name of Yumemi, but will Lord Munto be able to reach her in time to save both worlds?

All right! Now that was a fun movie to watch! Let me start with what most struck me about this film, which is the quality of the animation and artwork. Simply put Munto is one of the most beautiful anime movies I've ever seen. If I were to be the art director for an anime film or OVA this is exactly the kind of approach I would take with it.

Every scene, every shot, every moment in Munto comes to life through very bright and colorful artwork that is made up of mostly muted pastel colors. The backgrounds are very rich in color and tend to skew towards a blue and green for the most part, while the characters tend to have a more varied color palette and very sharp outlines that make them jump off the screen. This is one of those rare animated films were you could literally freeze any frame of it and be able to hang it on the wall as a decoration.

Ok, so the artwork is great, but what about the plot? This being a 50 minute film there are some limits to what the writers were able to do with the characters and overall story. In a way I think that they approached this as the first part of a bigger story (a suspicion that's confirmed by the upcoming release of Munto 2 in Japan). As such Munto does a great job at setting up a unique world and interesting set of characters that we want to adventure with through their victories and struggles.

Munto at its core is a story about self discovery and realizing that existence is not something that we should look at from one single point of view as there are many realities in our world that run parallel to each other. The theme of self-discovery runs through many of the characters in this feature, in particular Yumemi, Suzume, and Kasuya. In the case of Yumemi, she discovers that there is more to her than she ever suspected, she realizes that there is a great power in her that she should not deny or try to suppress. Suzume and Kasuya, who I think are more fully explored in the film, discover a new path in life by sharing a challenge together, overcoming it and in the process gaining a new perspective of the world.

The theme of there being more than one dimension to everything around us is achieved in a variety of ways, such as the very central plot point of the co-existence of the heavenly world and Earth as different sides of the same coin. Aside from this rather obvious example though, the staff for this project also carries forth this message through the characters' personalities, contrasting colors on opposite sides of the screen in certain scenes, and the environment, such as having the sky be perfectly reflected off of the street after a rainy day, making it seem as though the characters are walking atop the skies, in essence, giving the road a dual existence as both pavement and sky.

In addition to these story themes there are also some very teasing action sequences in this feature that leave you asking for more, much more. In particular, there is one great battle close to the end of the film in which Gus, who is defending the Heavenly World takes on Laika, one of the commanding officers of the United Army. This sequence's awe-inspiring choreography and frantic pace were too short for words and a great preview of what I'm sure will be an integral part of the sequel.

Sound-wise, the music for Munto could not be any better. The team here chose to go with a lot of piano and orchestral numbers, which to me is always a big plus. The English dubbing I thought was right on as well, with the voice cast putting in a good performance and bringing their respective characters to life.

The DVD comes with a number of extras including an art gallery, character sketches, U.S. and Japanese trailers for Munto, and previews for other releases. Audio is recorded in Dolby Digital and comes through nicely. The video transfer was very clean and sharp, with no visible pixilation or bleeding.

Final Thoughts

Munto is one of the most beautiful anime films I've seen. It does end in somewhat of a cliffhanger so if anything its a big tease for what's going to come in Munto 2, which I'm sure will more fully explore the two main characters and their relationship to each other, which wasn't really a big focus in this chapter of the story.

Also, Munto gets extra bonus points from Japan Hero by featuring an Ultraman-like character and having Yumemi ask her brother to not change the channel because Ultraman Taro was about to start! She's a tokusatsu fan that appreciates the classics!

Jeffrey Couto