The Place Promised in our Early Days (2004)
Animation Production: Comix Wave
Released by: ADV Films
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Running Time: 90 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Having never seen Makoto Shinkai's previous effort, the highly acclaimed “Voices of a Distant Star”, I was curious to see what his latest project, “The Place Promised in our Early Days” was all about, especially considering that it won the Best Animated Film award at the 59th annual Mainichi Film Awards.

The promotional art looked quite beautiful and I’ve seen several plugs for the film and artwork books based on it all over the Internet so to say the least I expected this to be a good experience going into it. So with that let’s go right into it and see what the popular director’s follow up to his first film (which he completely produced and animated by himself on a Power Macintosh! ) is like.

Story

"In 1996, an enormous tower is constructed on the southern shore of Hokkaido, it's purpose-unknown. Curious, three school children make a vow to discover the mysterious tower's secrets. Will this promise have to be left unfulfilled when one of the three falls into a coma? "-- DVD Box

Review

The Place Promised in our Early Days is a surprisingly deep movie that gets started on a rather subtle note as we join three high school students who are about to begin their summer break. The three friends, Hiroki, Sayuri and Takuya pass the days working away at their summer jobs and dreaming of flying onboard their custom-made jet to the mysterious tower built on the southern shores of Hokkaido. They promise that one day they’ll unravel its mysteries, but this promise goes unfulfilled when Sayuri falls victim to a strange comma state that keeps her in a sleeping state for three years. Not a long time in the great scheme of things, but long enough to drive the remaining two friends far apart and into worlds far different from those of their care-free days of that summer past.

Now rather than spend the days dreaming away at the potential of tomorrow and what secrets the strange tower may hold Hiroki spends his days lost in his studies, life and having strange dreams about that summer of long ago. In a way the loss of Sayuri has proven to be too much for him and as a result he’s lost the energetic soul he once had. Meanwhile Takuya has joined a government agency as one of its new leading researchers in the field of multiple dimensions, which is somehow connected to the strange tower that he once dream of flying to onboard his custom-built jet. He is still the same brilliant young man he was three years ago, but now all his energies are devoted to the science at hand and a fellow researcher for whom he seems to have fallen.

Sayuri for her part has spent the past three years in a deep comma, but her path soon crosses that of Takuya’s as his research runs into information about a young girl whose brain waves seem to somehow be connected to the tower. Stranger yet, she is the granddaughter of the man behind the tower, she is Takuya’s friend from that summer three years in his past. This leads to a path of rediscovery and the eventual fulfillment of the promise that these friends made, but the journey there will be all but easy.

Set in an alternate timeline where World War II resulted in the division of Japan into two factions, Honshu and the Southern Islands under the rule of the United States and Hokkaido to the North controlled by the “Union”, this film mixes historical events with science fiction elements to form a very distinct universe in which a tale of friendship, love and an in-depth exploration of the human spirit and the power of a promise are explored to their fullest, resulting in one of the most compelling anime movies to have been released in the past several years.

At first I was curious as to what all the hoopla was about as the summer time chapter, which starts the movie off, was at best a simple tale of friends who came together for a common dream, nothing particularly innovative. However, once we move into the second part of the plot and the science fiction elements really start coming through the entire setup is mixed up in such a way as to produce something entirely different as each of the main cast members lead lives that are unfulfilled and aimless at best. Whereas they once shared a strong bond and a shared goal, they now wandered about lost in their own islands. It’s not until the third and final chapter of the story that everything comes together and makes sense. The payoff is well worth the build up and character development that we go through in the earlier stages.

There are some unfinished threads in the story and subplots that come up early on are not dealt with, such as what the connection between Sayuri and the tower is, why her grandfather helped the Union-led forces build the tower that is at the center of everything that happens in the story, or why Hiroki has such a strong connection to her, but this a minor gripe considering how well the rest of the movie comes together.

Overall the sense of wonder and the exploration of youth’s dreamful and hopeful nature set against the loss of innocence that comes with one’s growth and assimilation into adult society are well developed and told in this wonderful movie. The themes here unlike those of more typical anime fare are universal and easy to relate to, especially since the creative team ties it so strongly to impossibly -beautiful visuals, which carries forth both a strong sense of a hopeful dreams and a darker, grittier world of politics and warfare.

Technically speaking this release is a beautiful piece of art with each second of animation being worthy of being framed and hanged on an art museum’s wall. The character designs by Ushio Tazawa are great to look at and quite distinct from your typical anime character design with a style that skews towards a more realistic approach. The animation itself is silky smooth and rich in color and detail. Visual effects are deployed effectively and are mixed in with the more traditional artwork flawlessly. The soundtrack is at times spectacular, but for the most part I found it to be closer to the average end of the spectrum. Voice acting on the other hand was superb on both the Japanese and English dubbed tracks.

This being an early review copy of this DVD, it’s devoid of any of the extras and bonuses that will find their way into the final product. Once we get our hands on a final release copy of the DVD we’ll let you know what to look for as part of this ADV Films’ release and what the packaging is like.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those films like My Neighbor Totoro or Macross: Do You Remember Love? Simply, it is required watching, whether you’re an anime fan or not, The Place Promised in our Early Days is one of those movies that transcends its genre and animated films in general with a story about friends being there for each other and honoring the promises that they once made to each other.

A tremendous anime tour de force and a memorable film. Very recommended!

Jeffrey Couto