Patema Inverted

I used to be a fan of anime, a huge one too... but the more good live-action movies one sees, the less one is impressed with anime writing, plots and characters. I'm set for life on screaming 15-year-olds, thank you.

Then again, once in a while a concept anime comes along that just completely blows your wig off, and Patema Inverted is one of these. The main characters are a pair of 15-year- old... dang it. All right, it's not completely original, and sometimes even bad, like when it has an obnoxiously evil general right out of Gundam Wing for a villain. Fortunately, the central couple are very modest with tears and histrionics, which is all the more impressive considering the terrifying anti-gravity hijinks they go through (a "69" version of Castle in the Sky, to put it in very general terms).

The movie opens with the sight of a large city over radio transmissions. The voices begin to talk more quickly, then transition into an outright panic, and then, we see the buildings detach from the ground and fall up into the sky, in ruins.

Patema is an adolescent girl born after this tragedy. She lives in an tunnel community deep underground, and likes to explore the "forbidden zone" - an uninhabited area where for some reason, all the EXIT signs are on the floor and railings attach to the ceiling. One day, she finds a colossal vertical shaft and notices that in this shaft, dust motes travel up.

She decides to follow the motes and explore, and discovers a world outside, covered in grass and trees, where the sky is visible and the stars shine at night. It's too bad that gravity here is the opposite of hers, and she's basically clinging to the world's ceiling for dear life, with the sky waiting to swallow her as soon as her grip gives out. Then, things get wild.

Direction and visual design are superb, and exceedingly creative with the possibilities of inverted gravity, especially when two people - one inverted, one straight - clasp onto one another. In fact, maybe a little too good - there were points where I kept imagining streams of vertigo puke spew out of my face and fly into the clouds. If you're scared of heights, you will sweat more watching this than any horror movie.

Did you ever watch Memento and then spend a couple of hours thinking backwards or expecting to forget everything any second? This type of lasting head-job is something I got very strongly watching Patema. Hell, I'm typing this in Notepad right now and automatically wondering how many lines I can write before they come unstuck from the top of the window and crash down.

Without further spoilers, I give Patema Inverted the highest possible grade. I only just have one additional complaint: have any of these people ever heard of a rope harness?

Another direct-on-net release from the director of 'Time of Eve'. A very unique concept that resembles Hollywood's live-action 'Upside Down'. It should not be a reason to you to discard from watching. In fact a lot better than that and completely a different storyline. When I picked to watch it I did not think it will reach beyond my expectation, but it did. And now it becomes one of the top rated by me among a few others from the year 2013. Anime movie fans must not miss it.

Patema, a young girl who lives in the underground tunnels is curious about the outside world which is forbidden to enter. Her father, a pioneer who was disappeared trying to find a bridge between the worlds. One day while exploring on the danger zone she falls into a deep hollow pit. Wake-ups and finds in a strange world where people are upside down and to them she's. Meets someone who she can trust, and he saves her from falling further into the sky. The mystery about the inverted world and what cause it was told while Patema makes her escape while other men try to hunt her down.

''The sky eats all sinners.''

Initially I laughed because few scenes looked so funny, like a kid walking on the street having a hydrogen balloon in his hand. In the other end the story narration was pretty serious, so I put back my concentration to the movie. Falling in a hole and finding yourself in a different world is what basically inspired from the fairy tale 'Alice in Wonderland'. We could have expected that from Studio Ghibli, but this one was completely a science-fiction and that is what this director is famous for. The concept was not the fresh, the story created around it was. The animation was only a little disappointing in few parts. Art was great and I don't know what is the framerate, but the motion was not smooth, especially in the slow motions. Other than technical aspect, it can be enjoyed by anyone without age limit.

The end twist totally changes the perspective of the story that involved in the earlier. A nice solution, but it will not explain in detail the experiment that caused the world split with two opposite gravity forces. In my opinion, it is fine for not binding it to thoroughly on the science. As it now, everyone can understand it, even the common people. You know everyone can't be intelligent like who are, entertainment is the notion and this movie serves it well. I thought after the legend Miyazaki's retirement, the anime industry may fall behind, but his son and especially this filmmaker looks very promising and a few others I have noticed. We usually see quite a lot animation movies every year, but not that much anime movies. It is limited, so don't miss the opportunity if you get one for this movie.

It's an amazing movie because it's story line is incredible...

In the midst of rehashed Hollywood story lines that we have seen a million times nowadays, it's nice to see something as original as "Patema Inverted" as far as the premise and scenarios go. It is a very interesting and mind-bending take on different groups of people who are affected by gravity in a different way. It also features nice chemistry between the two leads, breath-taking and detailed animation, one of the nicest end credits songs I have ever heard and a great twist ending that I did not see coming, along with the other twist that happens earlier in the film. If you are looking for something totally new and fresh, definitely check out "Patema Inverted."

Don't read any spoilers for this movie, just watch it if you like anime. I think this is better than most other anime movies out there, including many Ghibli movies.

It does start off a little slow, and the music is pretty mediocre, but if you keep watching you will be surprised how good this movie is. Make sure you pay attention to the small details, and it will all make sense. Watching it a second or third time, you notice things you didn't the first time you saw it! That's all I can really say. Give it a try, you may love it. The story is just fantastically done.