Sol Levante

Wow, this is a visually stunning short and wow!, why are people hating on it!?

OK it is a very short SHORT at only 4 minutes, but I was mesmerised.

The animation is excellent in style, detail and creativity, the story?, does it even need one? It has a short journey to a fantastical world, it's a romantic quest, a perilous one but a beautiful endeavour.

As with a lot of shorts they are often picked up to be made into a feature, sadly with so much ignorant negativity this looks unlikely for this beautifully crafted anime.

It took longer to write this review than watching it, unlike the majority of ridiculous reviews that just blast it for being somehow pointless!?

Sol Levante I think just to be made to tell us that anime could be improved to a further level whether it's sound or animation. This is a minimal viable product by Netflix to showcase us that there could be movies and series like this 3 min mermerising video. And it's certainly build a more good image of Production IG for sure. I am a fan of the studio since Psycho Pass. They really have some amazing animator.

Low reviews seem to come from people not realizing what this is and is not: this showcases a new technology that creators can use to hand draw this gorgeous animation. Appreciate the vivid colors, the movement, the action, the fine details...that are HAND DRAWN.

It's not some deep plot, character development-which should be seemingly obvious?

Highly recommend the behind-the-scenes! Looking forward to how this will transform anime.

An animated short film that has excellent animation, a tonality of colors that makes an impact in just 4 minutes. Sequence between very radiant scenes and a level of detail for each drawing that is worthy of admiration.

This short film is very clear proof of production for Netflix in 4K HDR quality, thus being the first hand-drawn anime short in that quality.

The soundtrack is simple, it doesn't add much and it doesn't even capture the viewer beyond its animation.

There is no narrative plot that explains the why of things, but at first glance it is a woman who tries to reach her destination but has fights with spirits. There is nothing more, it is not understood, why do you want to go to that place? A particular desire?

Sol Levante stayed halfway, leaving much to be desired. Akira Saitoh tried, but he failed at the most important point of a story and that is its plot. Maybe we will have an anime with this style.

A female variant of Satoru Gojo? Xd.

After watching the behind-the-scenes artist recap (something I just came up with to somewhat describe what I watched), I now realize what this short "film" is. It's an animation equivalent to the first successful test of the first airplane, built and tested by Orville and Wilbur Wright. That plane, compared to modern aircraft, was a complete failure. But as we all know today, it was quite the opposite. It's flight only lasted 12 seconds and covered only 120 feet; but during that short time, it gave mankind a glimpse into the endless possibilities of air travel that we now enjoy as commonplace. Without going too far into a rant, I'll explain why I brought that up. This was apparently the first ever successful 4K, hand drawn and animated, anime ever made. It is a milestone in animation. While I could agree that some sort of plot would have made this short flex-of-a-film much more enjoyable (hence the 8 star review), it was not necessary, nor would it help further accomplish the goal of the creators. Sol Levante is a first ever test of the possibilities of 4K animation. To prove my point, please pause at any point in this short film (specifically the more intense scenes). You'll notice that each frame is an individual work of art; it is a moving tapestry of hard work by the visionary artists who conceptualized it. I've tried and failed to think of any other animation that has had such a successful attempt at this level of quality animation. The studio that created this is essentially saying, "Look at us. Look at what we can do. Now watch us do even better." I very much look forward to studios like this one further push the boundaries of animation and it's expressive art form to achieve their own equivalent as modern day Wright Brothers. It is a technological advancement as well as an artistic innovation. Sol Levante is a mostly successful, first ever attempt at the possibilities of animation. Appreciate it for what it is: a work of art.