If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up? ~Chuck Palahniuk quotes
Genre: Sci-fi/Spiritual/Fantasy
Review Status: Complete (1 Movie/1 Movie)
Licensed: This anime is unlicensed in the US
Art/Animation: It looks older than it is, with outdated clothing and ridiculous special effects. But the animation is fairly fluid.
Summary: Ryuta and his friends from the science club visit a museum exhibit on Thomas Edison and it's there they learn about one of his proposed inventions called the "spirit phone" which would enable communication with the deceased. Later that day they bump into a shaman who claims she has a message from Edison. In an instant Ryuta is given the necessary knowledge he needs to construct the device and decides to go for it, so beginning a spiritual adventure.(Source: ANN)
Review: Sometimes you watch something, and aren't quite certain what you've just seen. This happened to be something that astounded me and made me laugh- but not exactly for the right reasons.
I want to say that the plot could have been decent if it hadn't been executed so poorly, but I'd be lying. Using a "spirit telephone" in order to gain access to The Great Beyond is a little silly. Then you have all the things that they add onto that, from the Native American who fortells their journey (in a teepee in the middle of New York, nonetheless!) to the great Spritual Revealings that occur when they've made their journey.
This is a mishmash of New Age and Pagan beleifs, given a whitewash with unicorns and sparkles, and then given a splash of Christianity with beliefs of Heaven and Hell. I can't decide if the average viewer will be offended by this or set laughing by how ridiculous it all is. There's reincarnation, alternate dimentions, Spiritual Leaders (mostly Christian and Buddhist), Atlantis, and a tiny hint of romance.
I don't feel I can give too much away about this without spoiling the movie- although I doubt most people would want to watch it anyway- but there is the typical story of a guy who is tempted by evil and the dark side, and is put at risk of being lost to it forever. This movie just adds the threat that his soul will be cast into hell forever.
Overall, this was a silly romp into spiritual beliefs.
Recommended: Ummmm.... Depends. This was actually a movie created to be a vehicle for the teachings of Ryuho Okawa, head of the quasi-religious sect 'The Institute for Research in Human Happiness'. If you take your religion/religious beliefs seriously, then I don't think you'd find it very amusing. But if you think that you can handle how they're twisted and mixed together and not take the whole thing very seriously, then go for it. You might be amused.
Other titles you might enjoy:
Ah! My Goddess (anime and manga)
Haibane Renmei (anime)
Spirited Away (anime)
Ballad of a Shinigami (anime and manga)
Kamichu! (anime and manga)
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