Alice and Therese's Illusory Factory

I never write reviews usually, but I was compelled to this time.

I decided to watch Maboroshi because the poster intrigued me. I have no idea how this film only currently has a 6.3 rating. I found it unique, interesting and quite profound. Usually films/television shows that have a central theme of time travel/passage of time, suffer from convoluted explanatins of how the situation occurred. Whilst Maboroshi, does fall into this trap, the characters do a decent job of making us understand how the incident happend. The film also has great artwork, score and voice acting as well. Definitely worth a watch.

To my surprise this was better than its current 6.3 average would suggest. The animation is well done and the first half is quite interesting, but the ending felt a bit rushed and underdeveloped. I like that they didn't go out of their way to spell out everything leaving a few mysteries unsolved, but the final buildup just wasn't paced that well causing the narrative to miss a few important opportunities to develop the plot further and charge the twists with the necessary weight.

If you like stuff like Steins;Gate, Your Name, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I want to Eat Your Pancreas, 5cm Per Second, etc. Chances are that you'll enjoy this one too to some extent. There are a few unnecessary anime tropes, the characters are a bit flat and the story is more cliché than it should/could have been, but all in all this is a good one.

I don't like symbolism, metaphores and allegories. The movie was confusing but it is very simple in a way. Growing up, changing, love, sexuality. Japan loves making such movies. Anyway it is not what I wanted to watch, I am not a teen, I thought this was some fantasy.

Synonyms: Alice and Therese's Illusion Factory, The Illusion Factory of Alice and Therese

Alice like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I should have paid more attention to the title, no wonder the movie doesn't make sense!

I watched Suzume no Tojimari a few days ago. I liked it. I heard Suzume was nominated for the Annie Awards (Animation Awards)

MAPPA, one of the well-known and recently founded Japanese animation studios, has produced a number of popular anime such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga and more. They are known for detailed 2D animation along with a moderate usage of high-quality CGI created by talents from all over the world.

This film exceeds in every aspect whether it is a beautiful landscape in Japan or engaging characters interacting physically and sharing emotions as if they are in a live-action movie. The painstaking work and creativity are there, except the story is quite complex that some of those superb elements get overshadowed. It is just hard to grasp what is going on in the beginning that it is too late to catch up at the climax. And even if you manage to follow along the plot, there is still a number of nuances and puzzles you have to put together to fully understand the theme of the movie.

I wish they had simplified the setting and the shattering sky that separates them from the real world through clarity in dialogues. It is worth watching as the quality and striking animation lives up to the industry standard.

This movie has nice animation, interesting characters (if somewhat two-dimensional) and an interesting story all the way through until the very end, where we find yet another film that leaves the audience trying to guess what actually happened and what point the director was trying to get across.

There are several good aspects to this film. The story is decent most of the way through. The animation is fine. But the plot and story line are flawed, presenting bits and pieces but never succeeding in telling the entire story. The steel factory is central to the story but never explained. Why the town decided to follow a guy who was without doubt a loon is beyond understanding. And justifying locking a little girl inside a factory for years is simply insane. So much of the film makes no sense.

Some may feel they understand what happened, but in reality they'd be adding their own 'truth' to an incomplete plot. And while two or three different "theories" are presented throughout, it's difficult to understand the reasoning behind much of what goes on.

All in all it was an interesting but unsatisfying film. The writers and directors leave it to the audience to figure out what story they're trying to get across; that's a stunt that very seldom works. The overall low rating here (as of this posting) would indicate the majority of the viewers feel similarly.

ADDENDUM: When I first posted this review I found many other reviewers agreeing with these observations (in their own reviews). Shortly after this review suddenly-- within a very few days-- we see several negative ratings on any critical post. So one might suspect significant crew and family response rather than legitimate viewers. If a film requires such manipulation-- it really doesn't stand on its own merit.