Anime: Windaria

ARTSY ANIME
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

Windaria is one of those movies that really turned people to otakus back in its time. It was different, it was grim, it was sad, it was full of magic, it didn’t have a forced Walt Disney f*ing ending. It was gooood! Yet, its major problems are also trademarks of its time.

It looks aged, as technology has gone to the moon and back since then and production values were generally low for its time. So, you can’t help but think that the scriptwriters were not given enough time to depict everything smoothly and properly and the animators had to work with short scenes. The result is still superbly good and if you are not some ungrateful prick, you can easily enjoy the movie despite its years. The action scenes are almost a legend of their own as you rarely get to see armies of normal people fighting in anime. Voice acting is just decent and nothing to write about. Yet, the music and the depiction of the world are very atmospheric and quite similar to a fairy tale (a sad one). So, yes, the external shell does win your interest although it loses you in the finer details.

In the story department you get a rather simple and linear plot. There is a war going on between two kingdoms because of water reserve exploitation. In a Romeo and Juliet fashion, the prince of one kingdom and the princess of the other are in love but their families force to wage war against one another under the pressure of politics and national needs. There is also another couple, where the young male wants to become rich and famous thanks to his war achievements and secure a happy life for his sweetheart. He descends to inhuman acts in order to achieve that.

Although the premise sounds simple, it is actually quite multi-layered while watching the movie. The story involves lost ideals, tragic romances, war drama, political intrigue and lots of metaphysical symbolisms around life, harmony and happiness. The major problem is the short duration. You can’t show all the magnitude of such a story or the dramatic escalation of the characters in only two hours. It needed more. The plot moves too fast for you to bind with the characters or feel the tragedy of the story. So, although the story is masterful on paper, in practice it is running so fast that you lose the feel of the moment.

Being a character-driven story, the shrapnel damage even them, as you get the feeling everyone moves mechanically and dualistically. Although they are all quite tragic and do get plenty of character development or die by the dozens, the fast plot makes them change moods too quickly and act almost predictable.

Of course, if you don’t know the story is not a fairy tale and you haven’t watched many shock-effect anime, you are going to be surprised plenty of times; as I was the first time I watched it as a little kid. The whole setting is quite fairy-tailish and leaves plenty of room for a dozen side stories and sequels. You get huge magic trees, haunted forests, steampunk cities, beautiful running water towns, a flying fortress gathering souls in the shape of glowing birds, action scenes, war scenes, you name it. If you look at the entire world from afar, it looks gorgeous. Still, as I said already it does hurt that almost nothing is exploited further than its basic use and many things are left unexplained. What the hell was that flying fortress?

Honestly, this is a one-time to watch movie. It is so linear that there is nothing more to gain from a second viewing. Plus, it does feel somewhat similar to Romeo and Juliet and nothing to brag in comparison to other war dramas or tragic romances. Still, it is quite magical and can easily become memorable for a one-shot, quick watch (despite being about two hours long).

SUGGESTION LIST
Sirius no Densetsu
Gall Force
Choujin Locke

And now for some excused scorings.

It is my habit to go straight to the point and I hope readers can forgive me if this review lacks the often poetic and fancy language found in other "professional" reviews.

One-Liner:

There's a saying in Chinese "Tiger head with a snake tail" - this definitely sums up well for Windaria. It starts out with grand promises and ends with a whimper.

The Good:

#1 Art - Art and animation is definitely top notch considering the age of this anime. It's quite comparable to anime made in the mid 90's despite being nearly two decades old. Don't expect CGs, but the drawings more than make up for it.

#2 BGM - The symphonic music pieces can be rather emotion invoking at times and definitely attempts to heighten the mood, but it falls short because soundtrack alone cannot redeem this poorly done anime.

The Standard:

#1 Voice Acting - Decent, nothing to complain here.

The Bad:

#1 Story - The story starts out well with two magical kingdoms, a village guarded by the Windaria Tree and the appearance of a Ghost Ship. Unfortunately by the end of the show, we are no clearer than before how exactly Windaria comes into play. Both the Windaria tree and the mysterious Ghost Ship are never explained and viewers are left with a sense of disbelief: Whatever is the point of introducing these two elements?

The movie attempts to develop two pairs of protoganists, but fails miserably at both attempts. The show's only 1hr 40min and there simply isn't enough time to develop 4 main characters and still allow viewers to familiarise with this fantasy world.

#2 Characters - Character development is really lacking, there were instances where people were doing things that made no sense and viewers are left with a flabbergasted shocker. Eg, we see a naive and straight hearted villager commiting mass murder; a king who one moment was nuturing his son and the next moment tries to murder the very same son due to disagreements in foreign policy. These rather bizzare developments are hallmarks of fictional characters that are not well thought out during planning.

#3 Ending - There are technically speaking, two endings, each for the two couples. I wouldn't spoil it, but what I can say is although the concept was OK, the execution leaves more to be desired. Windaria is supposed to be some kind of tragic love story like Romeo + Juliet, but all I get is apathy, i.e. who cares?