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shoujoboy's Hoshi no Koe Ova Review

Hoshi no Koe ova Review

Story & Playability

Do you enjoy reading reviews since you find them enjoyable on their own? If you are just reading this because you are curious as to whether or not you should actually watch this show, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This show is a whopping 30 minutes long and you'll spend more time reading me try to milk a review out of it then you would just watching the damn thing. If you are a review reading masochist, I welcome you to what I'm deeming "shoujoboy's knock the dust off review". Yea, that guy is writing again...

Mikako is just an innocent and young middle school girl who is recruited into the UN Space Army. She is to take part in a war against an alien race, the Tarsians, as a pilot of a one of the mechs known as a Tracer. Being in this war has taken her away from her friend Noboru who remains on Earth. As her distance and involvement in the war increases, the two friends find it hard to remain close when their only form of communication is texting one another. Days become months and months become years before the next incoming message arrives.

The premise is simple yet intriguing. The space war genre of anime doesn't really ever take the time to analyze the things that a viewer might not take a vested interest in. Communication with loved ones back at home is usually just understood to happen without a hitch, but the reality of it would likely be much more complicated. Voices of a Distant Star takes that minor aspect and makes it a focal point that really forces you to understand the difficulty one might face should this type of future ever become a reality.

The problem is, the story and the likelihood that anyone will ever truly be able to empathize with these characters is completely hamstrung by it's length. There is no character development, no explanation or detail to the nature of the war and it feels rushed in it's attempts to somehow pull on your heartstrings. A show like this must be able to force some kind of emotional attachment to the characters and their situation if it hopes to be considered good, but this fails at that. It likely would not make a good series but could probably make a solid OVA.

Rating: 5

Graphics

Anime in the late 90's/early 00's was in a bit of an awkward transition, very similar to the shift from 2d to 3d in video games. There was this push to adopt new technologies and new animation techniques that often created a mish-mash of the old and the new. Voices of a Distant Star seemed to have taken every possible route when it came to the animation.

The character art was not very defined, blocky and devoid of any distinguishing detail between characters and seemed to always be sitting in front of the backdrop, almost as if done as a multilayer Photoshop project. It actually feels much more like a Flash animation. The backdrops were generic and muddy. CG was used for ships, trains and for the aliens but was done very poorly and was standoffish from everything else.

It should be noted that the animation was all done by one guy though. For him to be able to do all that he did without the use of a big production studio or animators working for him is nothing short of astounding. Problem is, your eyes won't care, even if your brain can appreciate it.

Rating: 4

Sound

On the voice acting side of things you pretty much have two voices; that of Mikako and Noboru. Only for about the first five minutes is there any dialog shared between the two and it's very boring with most of Mikako's responses being "yeah". The remainder of the show consists of inner monologue delivered in a monotone way. The only instance in which any emotion is shown is during an ambush attack on Mikako while she is gawking at the rain. This is also one of the reasons you simply cannot find any empathy in your heart for these characters.

As for background music... well, unless you turn your TV up so loud that your neighbors will come and beat you to death, you won't hear squat. There will occasionally be some background music, but your brain will just treat it like that ambient noise your ceiling fan makes and completely ignore it.

Rating: 3

Fun

Voices of a Distant Star is much like a famous painting that you just don't like. You can look at it and appreciate it's beauty and the work that went into it but you simply can't find yourself liking it despite that appreciation. When you read about it on paper and understand that Makoto Shinkai pretty much made this entire thing on his own, you can't help but want to shake the guy's hand. The English localization team credits is larger than the animation, seiyuu, director, producer and screenwriter of the original release combined. So as a solo work, it's nothing short of amazing.

But, it's not my job to tell you what you should appreciate. My job is to tell you whether you'll enjoy this and if I did. Fact is, it's simply not enjoyable. It's like pulling a cake out of the oven long before it's finished baking and slamming your fork in for a bite. Left in a bit longer, it probably would have been one sweet tasting cake, but instead you are left with some undefinable goo that leaves you wondering if you put the proper amount of sugar into the mix.

If you've got 30 minutes before your pizza is delivered and you want to experience all that can be creatively accomplished by a one man show, then pop this in and take lessons. Otherwise, I'm sure there's something on Hulu you could watch, or hell, maybe you could actually have a conversation with that loved one that you've been ignoring. Your grandma would love to hear from you.

Rating: 4

Final Verdict

4.1667 (below average)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, May 01, 2011

Comments

  1. Weskalia May 01, 2011

    Ha ha, I can see why you don't like Voice but 4 is a bit too critical; oh well, your works feature some of these black sheeps. Although I like Voice, what I do know is that Shinkai's works are always complicated and didatic, and because of their depressing nature they do not fit all taste. Even I find headache trying to understand the story. But it's still nice to see you make a comeback, and I hope you won't butcher up Centimeters if you're going to review it.

  2. shoujoboy May 01, 2011

    I can understand why'd you think the score is too low for this and I really battled with myself on how exactly I should score it. If I were to score it based on ambition and potential, then it would probably get points in all all areas, but I had to base the score on the product itself and it's enjoyability.

    If you hear a song you don't like but I tell you all the hidden meaning and inspiration behind it, does it really change how much you like the song? That's how I approached reviewing this.

  3. angelxxuan Banned Member May 01, 2011

    I completely disagree, I really enjoyed voices, to me it felt longer than 30 mins, I understood it all, live a long distance relationship and trust me you will fully understand this anime and accept the fact that it's not easy. and then the aspect of other hardships faced upon each character. but that's your opinion and we all don't like the same thing, thank goodness. I wish it could have been longer, I wished more could have been produced, but the creator of this works also produced other depressing ones, like Weskalia pointed out.

  4. CyanideBlizzard Retired Moderator May 02, 2011

    I can understand what tore you so much for scoring this review. Do you score it based upon personal work and concept? Or base upon what the end product is? In my eyes, you took the right route. While I can appreciate hard work and a minimal crew, if characters aren't fleshed out I don't really care about the story and if they throw a multitude of animation styles in, I start to lose interest visually and if the voices are monotonous, I start to slowly fall asleep.

    As to comment on Xuan's comment, it's not so much that shoujoboy didn't understand how a long distance relationship works, but rather the lack of development in characters. As he commented above, he felt that the concept was one of the strongest aspects about the anime, it's just that we don't get to know the characters and as a end result, we don't really care. Considering the anime is only 30 minutes, something is going to take the hit in terms of production because it's rather hard to truly mesmerize your audience when your main attraction is simply one episode. You can reel individuals in and I'm sure it's not impossible, as there are many movies out there that are completely capable of it, but the less time you have the more of a difficulty it is to properly cover all of these important details without rushing it.

    Welcome back, Shoujoboy. It certainly appears that those review boots haven't gotten dusty at all.

  5. flyindreams Jul 23, 2011

    Haha I'm also one who fundamentally disagrees, since I loved the story, loved how it was portrayed, and loved how the short time frame gave the OVA restraint which was also very poignant. But anyways, we can agree to disagree - the main thing I wanted to ask was, you really didn't like the background music? I loved the theme song so much that I had to chase down the OST after my first viewing. I like most of Shinkai's OSTs though so no surprise there... I'll be curious to see if you like any of Shinkai's other works, since I feel like Voices of a Distant Star really embodies the the general quality or "vibe" of his work.

    Welcome back btw, I like reading your reviews ^^

  6. back07 Sep 24, 2012

    LOve the Story!
    :)


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