[totoum]

Well this just got shown at scotland loves anime and I simply loved it.It seemed to go over well with the audience as well, a few people I talked to seemed surprised at the amount of feels.

It is real UFO in not only the anime landscape but as the director said in the interview it's a story not told so I could have enjoyed it just based on the novelty but it's also a story really well told.There's just one scene I found over the top but to me the whole rest hit home quite deeply.
One reason it hit home is I feel that the story is very much a human story with no politics thrown in, it's the story of kids (and adults!) caught up in something beyond their control, there's something universal to that. Even if there's scenes showing rivalry between the two countries there's reconciliation later on

Spoiler for very minor, but in case you want to go in blind:

For example early in the movie there's a "battle" between the japanese classroom and the soviet classroom with each one singing traditional songs of their country and trying to be louder than the other.
The movie ends with some of the japanese kids now adults dancing with russians to the same music

The other reason is that I feel that it was really elegantly told, how do you show people connecting together without language?The director found some really cool solutions to that.My favorite scene of the movie is maybe the brothers connecting with the girl for the first time, yet it's done without them talking to each other. Also the music by itself isn't shattering but I found it very well used, the director says use of music is something he really works on and I feel that shows, a lot of anime could learn from this movie.

And yes , Night on the Galactic Railroad is all over this film but I don't feel it felt gimmicky and even if I havn't read it it didn't take away from my enjoyment.

The audience was told before the film was shown that 80% of it is real, I hope the girl Tanya is part of that 80%, the world would be a better place with more Tanyas around.

Spoiler for big big spoiler:

I sure hope the kid calling himself Campanella isn't a death flag.

It is , the sole comfort is that at least the family got to keep the body by smuggling it into the ship rather than the body being thrown out at sea like others in the movie.