Just a semi pointless titbit of information for you. I haven't seen the anime but thought it might be of interest to you that in next months Afternoon magazine in Japan a new manga series will be starting up.......that series will be Hoshi no Koe! (1st Chapter will feature 8 colour pages)
(Story: Shinkai Makoto, Art: Sabara "Mizu") They are also giving away a DVD featuring Hoshi no Koe (but to what extent I cant tell) There's something about a "long" version but my Japanese isn't good enough to translate it all. (Sorry)
If people are super enthusiastic I could scan in the page and post it here for someone to translate properly.