I just saw this film, and thought it was gorgeous. A couple months ago, I asked for recs for anime that wasn’t centered around big-titted cyborg ninja babes and giant robots blowing stuff up, but instead focused on good character development, emotional stories, and quiet introspection. Nobody suggested this film, but it was the film that that OP was after, though I didn’t know it at the time. Really just plain gorgeous, sad, and emotionally involving. It took kind of a sci-fi dump about halfway through with the plot, but that only served as background for the developing relationship between the three main characters.
I just looked on IMDB and the director previous did a film called “Voices from a distant star,” which looks pretty neat and along the same lines.
I won’t revive your earlier thread , but just post here, that if you are looking for anime with quiet introspection and character development, then Figure 17 might interest you – or at least, about half of it. It’s set in rural Hokkaido, with the central character an ordinary, but very lonely school girl called Tsubasa. Tsubasa is lonely because she’s just moved away from her friends in Tokyo, her mother is dead, and her father spends most of his time at work (even if work is next door to where they live). Tsubasa acquires an alien twin sister Hikaru, who helps pull Tsubasa out of her loneliness. Where Hikaru comes from is the other half of the story, which involves aliens battling monsters that threaten to destroy this world, but if you just skim past that half of the story, and concentrate on the day-to-day lives of Tsubasa and Hikaru, it qualifies as quietly introspective anime.
I hear you VC03. Big-titted Teenage Robot Babes from Outer-Space can only provide so much eye-candy. Eventually, you start craving anime with a little bit more substance. I’m going to check out The Place Promised in Our Early Days, it definitely sounds intriguing.
If you want to check out further character-based anime I highly recommend:[ul][li]Only Yesterday, a charming portrait of a young city woman spending her summer on a farm and reminiscing about her childhood.[/li][li]Night on the Galactic Railroad, a surreal, interdimensional journey by a couple of cats. Entrancing, almost hypnotic mood.[/li][li]Millenium Actress, another bizzare mind-trip from the director of Perfect Blue but, this time, the focus is on the life story of a famous retired actress. Melancholy and regretful in tone.[/li][/ul]