Anime: Brave Story

Brave Story is brave enough to forget about the story, yet manages to be a solid recommendation even without that.

Brave Story is by far not a bad show, on the contrary, Brave Story is a good fantasy show where you can completely lose yourself in. It has a nice fantasy world, it has cute characters, decent dialogues and a lot of the fantasy stuff a fantasy show needs to have to be successful. The only thing it fails at is to have a solid story - which, ironically enough, can't prevent this show to be an excellent movie.

Animation[/u]: Properly used CG makes an anime better.

Brave Story applies its CG mostly well, with a few minor exceptions, but overall the show gets lifted to a higher level due to the proper integration. Sometimes it's visible, sometimes it's not, but the colors definitely seem more vivid, nature looks a lot more beautiful and the characters moving in that environment don't look out of place at all.
There are not many movies who do this right, often they apply too much CG so that the characters don't fit in anymore, but Brave Story does it well.

Sound[/u]: At times beautiful.

There are moments that the sound takes over and creates an entire unique atmosphere, adding to the overall feeling of the scene, but there are also times that it is completely absorbed by the rest. One may call that 'BGM which is not interfering with the story', but one may also call it inconsistent for not being able to apply its mark on more scenes.
I may sound a bit unhappy, but I'm happy with the music and voices they used for this show - but as soon as you realize that you haven't heard any good music for a while like you did in the beginning, then I consider that a failure for the BGM, no matter how good it may be at times.

Story[/u]: Excellent flow with a story full of holes.

After a good animation and good music, one would wonder how the story is. Technically, the story follows a pretty static path: a boy who wanders into a brand new world has to pursuit a couple of gems in order to access his goal and gains friends, enemies and adventures along the way.
That by itself is a pretty standard path nearly every fantasy show follows, so that's not the bad part of this show.

Exceptionally good flow

The flow of the show is pretty neat, the pace is fast enough to drag you along with the protagonist and the world is astonishing and refreshing enough to make you look at all the new things and people. So, why exactly is the story bad then?

Cracks in the story

That would lie in the fact that practically nothing is really explained. Even important things like the gems he has to collect flow by without stopping; in most cases whenever he gains a gem, he gains it and doesn't even look at it, as if it of no meaning at all. Things like that somehow strip the show from its realism, as if the gems aren't important at all and are solely meant to follow a predefined plan since all fantasy shows follow it.
There are plenty of such examples, like how he gains his friends; at some point he has friends while you even might wonder why he has them with him, since they have only met for a few minutes and now suddenly spend weeks together. Often times I found myself pondering: "why ...?" which is not such a good thing in a fantasy show, where you take a lot of things for granted, since it's a fantasy.

Ending

I can live with unresolved issues, but I can't stand it if there are important issues, which are practically the source of all, happen to be magically solved without any explanation.
Now, I have a huge imagination, but neither imagination nor rational thinking helped me manage to understand the ending.

Characters[/u]: Likeable protagonist, realistic villain.

The protagonist isn't an annoying brat, he's a realistic kid with a simple, yet kind mind and has a particular charm which makes him a perfect protagonist for this movie. The villain on the other side is good too and feels realistic as well. Those are the main characters you need to make a good movie, so those aspects are available.

There are other characters in this movie, but they don't really mean anything and play mostly as comic relief or as companions without doing anything much. For a movie with such a grand fantasy aspect, I expected that the other characters would also play a more grand role, but they are unnaturally flat, as if they are only there to fill up the free space and make things more lively without imposing too much on the story itself.

Is this anime worth it?[/u]

That's an easy answer: Yes, this movie is worth watching.

The flow of the show is immense, the movie's pace is excellent to capture your eye and imagination, yet the story is full of holes. It isn't hard to overlook most of the holes though, since the flow of the show is excellent and the world takes you in quite well. Add to that that the protagonist and villain are two excellent characters and you have a hit.

Also a good recommendation for people who don't know any anime, yet can appreciate a good fantasy movie. If you ever see this in a cinema, do not hesitate and go watch it there.

An Epic Hero’s Journey

There’s a definition on Wikipedia regarding the entire setup of a Hero’s Journey (also called a monomyth). I shall now copy paste that definition here: In the monomyth, the hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events. If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials, and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift or "boon." The hero must then decide whether to return to the ordinary world with this boon. If the hero does decide to return, the hero often faces challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world.

Now this archetypal story may seem similar. It’s very prominent in Star Wars, the Lion King, the Odyssey, the story of Jesus Christ, and even in the scriptures of Buddha. Well, Brave Story follows the Hero’s Journey, and does so in such a fabulous way that I am inclined to write this article.

The first thing you will realize in this movie is the absolute gorgeous quality of the animation. Thought Haruhi had it all? Well, think again. This movie was budgeted at 1 billion yen, about 10 million US dollars, and every yen was well used. You see everything from splashing water, smoothly integrated CG, amazing sunsets, as well as some cool magic. The character designs are simplistic yet marvelously detailed. The alternative world that’s introduced is massive, filled with all sorts of beautiful places and gorgeous camera scans. Gonzo, for all their past mistakes, (Silver-haired Agito, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Bakuretsu Tenshi, Glass no Kantai) really saves themselves here.

The Hero’s Journey presented in Brave Story concerns a 10-year-old boy, Wataru. Certain circumstances happen to Wataru that shouldn’t be happening to a growing 10-year-old boy, and he is transported into an alternate universe called Vision to fix up these problems. The problem is that whatever Wataru does in Vision affects the real world too. Wataru has to set up his own priorities and decide what is really important.

Throughout his journey, Wataru meets up with a whole lot of other interesting characters in a grandeur role-playing-game fashion, each with their own interesting quirks. Dragons, cute furry animals, warriors, you name it, they join Wataru’s party. The antagonist is fabulous, cold and calculation. Keep in mind that Brave Story is predominantly made for children, so don’t be expecting annoyingly deep symbolism or allusions. The moral of the movie is laid out very clearly, but never overbearingly.

Brave Story keeps you guessing with subtle plot twists until the very end, when everything is made clear. To some people, the ending may seem trite and clichéd, but I ask all of you to think: How else could it have ended?

The soundtrack is also worth noting. I can’t stop listening to the theme song. It’s addictive as pumpkin pie. The sound effects are very nicely done, and my pitiful speakers can barely pump out the bass.

If you absolutely can not stand a prepubescent boy being the hero, then at least stay for the beautiful animation and the great dragon fight. That’s right, there’s a dragon fight in this show, along with much, much more.