Tales From Earthsea

This is the lowest star rating i've ever given a Ghibli film and it's such a shame as I was expecting so much. The actual animation is up to the high standard of most of the output from the studio. You get the lush backgrounds and detailed rendering Ghibli is renowned for, but sadly it's not too original. The characters look like those from Nausicaa and this film uses the black goopy effect widely used in 'Spirited Away' and 'Howls Moving Castle', you'll know what I mean if you've seen these films. The music has a celtic, almost medieval, feel to it and roots the film firmly in that period of history, especially with all the talk of wizards and the evil wizards castle. The story was disjointed and pretty incoherent at times and leaves you feeling unsatisfied at the end (hence the 3 stars). It is a long film, with not much substance. This film could've delivered so much more, but it was unoriginal and laboured, which is a great shame coming from such a renowned studio, and a studio, incidentally, I've loved every other film from. Worth a viewing if you're a fan of Ghibli or Anime, but you could miss it and not lose any sleep over it.

really good

love studio ghibli films (spirited away and the amazing princess mononoke) and this is no exception. fantastic animation, wonderful characters and the dub was perfectly fine in my opinion. the story is so original and with characters like totoro and the catbus you won't be disappointed. the family will love this one.

A fairytale theme seen through fresh eyes

The theme of Spirited Away is the timeless one of a good and courageous child who is put to many tests and subjected to terrible ordeals. If she can overcome her fear, resist temptation, not give in to greed and remain pure and loving, she will survive and emerge unscathed. The way to purposeful adulthood is then open to her. Chihiro,the central character of Spirited Away, is supported, like many another fairytale hero, by helpful beings and animals of one kind and another, some appearing in the most unpromising guises. She accepts all comers, even the most freakish, unless they prove unworthy of her trust.

An age-old theme, given fresh new treatment by Hayao Miyazaki, whose animation creates a fascinating world that is sometimes beautiful, sometimes nauseating, sometimes bizarre. This, coupled with a dreamy soundtrack and a setting that combines dream, nightmare and a quirky oriental charm, makes for an animated film that is hard to forget.

A Visual Feast!

You wil never EVER see an anime as beautifully crafted as this. The penwork is eye-achingly beautiful, the CGI intergration seamless, and not only that, but the character development and story-line are well thought out. This series, as well as it's predecessor, are brilliant examples of anime. You'll have to go a long way to find as good as this. As well as the original film (I'm not too big a fan of Innocence) they go to show that cartoons aren't just for kids.

Howling over"Howl's moving castle"

I had high expectations for this movie, particularly as the movie's creators were those responsible for"Spirited Away". Unfortunately my high expectations were not met with this movie and I found the storyline and characters extremely weak and disappointing. I had to take breaks from the movie because I found it at times, rather dull and a tad boring. It failed to capture my attention as"Sprited Away" had done.
Although I consider this film worth watching, I do not think that it deserved the credit and positive publicity it received.
"Spirited Away" is a fantastic movie and in comparison to"Howl's moving castle" it is in an entirely different league of quality. As long as viewers do not expect"Howl's Moving Castle" to be of the high standard of"Spirited Away", then they should not be too disappointed.
I would give"Howl's Moving Castle" 3/5, while"Spirited Away" deseves 5/5

Section 9 Returns...

Whilst this is viewed by many as the third GitS film, it is - in actuality - the third installment of the highly successful Stand Alone Complex series.

SSS follows on from SAC 2nd GIG - if you haven't seen that then stop reading and watch it - and follows Section 9 two years after the events of the Individual Eleven case. After the events surrounding Kuze, the Major has left Batou and the rest of the group, and Secion 9 has - as a result - fallen into the responsible hands of Togusa, who has developed greatly in his skills and experience since Motoko's departure.
The story now revolves around a new enemy to Japan: an unknown Hacker named the Pupperteer - for those of you who have seen the original film and are thinking that this is just a rip-off on the Puppet Master, you're mistaken. Section 9 is presented with a series of suicides by military refuges and must search for the Puppeteer before a civil war breaks out within Japan. However it would seem that there is another unknown presence that is watching over the work of the Puppeteer.

Whilst Solid State Society is, more or less, a third installment of the SAC series it is presented more beautifully than the two GIGs, with much improved CGI imagery and excellent voice work. Mary McGlyn returns once again to perform as the voice of Motoko, and Origa (the singer who sung the intro themes from the first two SAC GIGs) is back to sing the intro and ending themes for SSS.
On the topic of the music, Yoko Kanno is once again back and creating greatly atmospheric and emotional themes that accompany the action on-screen perfectly.

Solid State Society continues to follow GitS's perfectly complex and political issues, but seems to have followed SAC 2nd GIG more than the other films or series, as it maintains a realtively dark atmosphere throughout it's duration; that said, no GitS film is really all that light-hearted.

The film itself is worth buying, as it's a great addition to the SAC universe, however there are also a couple of great extras packed onto the second disk of this set - although Amazon has only stated there's one disk there are actually two. On the bonus disk you get the interviews with the director, designer etc. just as you did with the two SAC GIGs. However you also get a nice bonus with an extended episode of Uchikomatic Days - the Tachikomatic Days from the SAC GIGs obviously cannot continue due to storyline purposes.

The overall quality of SSS is very high, with it's only real downfall being that you don't get the same kind of feel for the Puppeteer as you did for the Laughing Man, Kuze or Ghoda. However that was always to be expected due to the fact that this is a film, not a 26-episode series.
All the characters that you've grown to love appear in SSS, and unlike GitS 2: Innocence you are not left with a nasty taste in your mouth once the credits begin to role.

Overall I would recommend this to anybody who enjoys anime, and expecially to those who enjoy GitS and the Stand Alone Complex universe. However, be warned that unless who have watched the previous installments of SAC, the events that occured will be revealed in the course of Solid State Society - so I recommend you watch those before you buy this.

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE? BUY IT NOW!

A great rent or purchase

I was extremely hesitant over watching Paprika. I don't like to be disappointed by hype and lowered my expectations accordingly. Thankfully Paprika was not the erratic disjointed hot mess that I was expecting.

To start with the soundtrack is amazing. I was obsessed as soon as I heard it. It's very uplifting and catchy. Watching Paprika glide through the skies to the music was very enjoyable.

Secondly, the story is quite easy to follow. There's a bit of technical jargon (something about a DC Mini which can transport you into someone's dreams) but you don't have to pay too much attention to know that basically dreams and reality are colliding and someone evil is responsible for it. I would say the plot is pitched at a more adult level rather than for children as there are subtle hints about relationships between characters that would fly over a child's head.

Thirdly, the quality of animation is superb. It may not have the scope and epic feel of a large budget Studio Ghibli film but it makes up for that in ingenuity and creative verve. The dream sequences are simply outstanding being alternately gorgeous and disturbing.

The plot does get a little crazy towards the end but it left me with the urge to watch the whole thing again and again. Paprika makes a great rent. I wouldn't buy it on a whim unless I had seen it first though as I feel the film may not be to everyone's taste.

Finally

I love this series and its great thats it finally got a release in the UK.
I usually buy region 1 discs but this is better than the region 1 release because its got 8 episodes and is only £12.

I only watch anime subtitled so this is based on the Japanese version.
The opening and ending have english credits and disc 1 also includes a clean opening and closing.
The subtitles are yellow and easy to read.When Light writes in the Death Note it is translated and signs are too so there are no problems and its also cheap so there is no excuse for not owning these dvds!

Dub & Sub quality?

I have the 2 series saved into my wish list and has been considering buying them for a year now! My hesitation is due to the uncertainty of the subs and audio quality of them.

Please could any one have purchase the box set from amazon tell me if they have Japanese audio and English subtitle? I am not a big fan of dub (English actors' voice over). Having seen the negative feedback of the"black cover" at the sub's area I am more uncertain about these box sets' quality!

Inspiring

All of the usual colourful characters and outstanding music conspire to make this film one of the best in its genre. You can watch it again and again. It explores themes of love, sacrifice, growth and decay; the animation is consistently beautiful. Greattttt

I just didn't see what all the fuss about this movie is about!?!?

I was extremely disappointed with this film. I didn't connect with the characters very well and found the storyline a little weak. Nowhere as good as Spirited Away. :-(

now this is where it kicks off

any fan of naruto should anticipate getting this dvd and the seris second parter, this is the seris with the awesome conclusion to the chuunin exams and the 'destroy the leaf' incident, i believe it (the whole of seris 3) goes up to episode 78, which is the very begining of the anime's jinchuuriki fight but before that it contains greats such as the slightly bewildering Neji-Naruto fight, the clever shikamaru-temari fight and the titan battle between the third hokage and his former pupil Orochimaru.

none of these are fights to be missed and neither is naruto's training for the fourth part of the chuunin exams.

so i say buy, you wont regret it, even if you're just an anime fan whos thinking about it, it's basically dragonball z with a less repetative story line and a hell of a lot more seriousness (which i don't think is a word).

btw, you may be wondering why i'm so exited about it, and yet i've only given it 4 stars, well, thats because i've seen the fourth seris like so many others and i know that is five stars.

What the hell happened????????????????

What is this?? is this Final Fantasy i don't think so, this is one of the worst sequels ever to grace my eyes, which is a shame especially when Final Fantasy VII was so damn good and also my favorite game ever.

There are a lot of bad points to this film and im about to explain it in a way with out giving any spoilers.

Ok first thing's first the graphics/animation is great and is not dissapointing at all, but that doe's not make a good movie.

Okay the bad guy Sephiroth how the heck did he come back to life near the end of the film was it magic????? that part really did confuse me.

The story got confusing i mean Reno and Rude and the rest of the Shinra corp decided to join Cloud and the gang which is stupid why would the evil Shinra corp join Cloud?

The worst thing about this film is the characters can jump far too high, they may be super heroes but how can they jump high, Cloud can jump over Ben Nevis yeah right.

The story is slow, the action is boring and just plain BORING!

This film will really confuse you and thats the lowdown.

Graphics 8/10 near perfect but thats all that Square worked on in this film was the damn graphics.

Story ?/10 i don't understand? Sephiroth came back to life what with a Pheonix down lol.

Action Scenes 3/10 Quite afew but the camera angle is really bad and its a bit like Jackie Chan you can hardley see the fighting.

Replay Value 1/10 omg omg omg the replay value don't get me started on the replay value i could go on forever, many FF fans will watch it over and over but i for one will NEVER WATCH THIS AGAIN.

Overall a very bad 2/10 sorry final fantasy fans but this movie really doe's suck stick with the games not with the films.

Absolutely breathtaking!!

this is something really special that shouldn't be regarded anything near OK. When i first watched it i thought is wasn't as good as Princess Mononoke, another one of Hayao's stunning films, but when i came to watch it the second time i was blown away with its beauty! Nausicaa is the sort of film that leaves you completely inspired and it has the most wonderful ending that i wont spoil! now i have seen it over 30 times and have lost count and i STILL think its amazing. A MUST WATCH!

Really rather Disappointing

OK so it looks lovely (except the characters). All backgrounds, objects and effects look stunning and animate in a smooth and expensive fashion. Really beautiful to look at! The character designs are for the most part awful, really ugly! I kind of see the effect they were going for but it only works in a couple of scenes, for the most part it just put me off.

But the real problem with this film is the storyline. There isn't one! Or if there is only a fragment made it to disc.
I can't believe someone actually placed this above Paprika!?! Paprika was an excellent film! One of the very best ever made! I sat down to watch this film with a mate who was with me at the anime allnighter when we first saw Paprika. We were both utterly disappointed by this film. It totally failed to explain anything! Who were the bad guys? Where did they come from? Why were they doing what they were doing? And where did the elephant come from?!?
It's a long film and with the way the first half sets the scene and builds character rapport you find yourself expecting it to really go places. It doesn't. It goes precisely nowhere, slowly. At one point they even resort to a psychedelic light show that's probably supposed to convey some spiritual awakening (a la Evangellion ending), it's just bad story telling as far as I'm concerned.
Don't get me wrong there are some good scenes in this film and as I've already said it does look good, hence the 2 stars. But there's NO WAY this title is worth a 5 and ABSOLUTELY NO WAY it's better than Paprika!

To put this review in some context:
I find Ghost in the Shell (films and S.A.C.) consistent excellent. I still love Evangellion even though the end (all of them) is crap and useless. I love Cowboy Bebop and FLCL.
School Rumble is one of the funniest things I have ever watched and Death Note is probably the most intelligent story I've seen in anime or film.

jirachi hits the u.k.

i got this film in america ad when i saw it i wasnt dissapointed. the story line was very good and it had a scary edge to it. th only thing i didnt like was that misty wasnt in it. the fim had a pace and i enjoyed it you should see it if you like pokemon.

remake of an older movie

this is a remake of the original appleseed and just seem like the original to be a bit weak in the storyline but it does look a lot better than the original

Whisper of the Heart

This film has the same amazing landscapes and detail as all of the other Ghibli but seems to lack a storyline. The characters are exellent and likeable and although it is interesting nothing ever seems to happen. However, is still a great film.
By Nicole, age 15.

V.good

watch it in japanese with english subs, because the english dubs mess with what the characters say way too much, makes it way more cheesy, and dumbs it down by over-explaining stuff.

watched with the original japanese with eng subs I'd give it a 5 out of 5 but watched witht he english dubs i'd lower the score

A Truly Compelling And Beautiful Piece Of Work

I watched this becasue a friend recommened it to me, at first I didnt't think it was going to be good, but lets just say I couldn't stop watching it and finished the entire series in a day! It is just amazing, people who love anime will see its true beauty, its strength of character and one of the most emotional stories ever. People who aren't fans will love it for the exact same reasons. The show plunges you into the action right from the start and from then on its a rollercoaster ride through the 13 episodes.

It has definately earned its five stars. Get watching it now, truly breath taking work.