[applejuice]

I first thought, 'oh cool. New miyazaki hayao animu!!!' and then it was makoto shinkai...

The world setting and character design was really similar to usual Ghibli fantasy movies. I can still see his mastery on breathtaking BG arts and its details, but well... What I liked about Shinkai produced animes were its portrayer of fantasy in realism; which is directly opposite to Miyazaki which is about portraying realism in fantasy. If this become something like Spirited Away rehash, I won't be amused.

I didn't really like any of his products deeply, other than admitting his graphical imagery and portrayer of theme is already at level that no-one can catch up. I hope this one breaks my bias and show that he can actually do much better with plot and pacing.