Anime: Gin`iro no Kami no Agito

Title: Can you Save the Future… Become a tree??
Own, Online Viewing, or Evade
This movie is pretty much worth Owning.

Overall Rating 3.5/5
That title comes from the trailer. I added the question marks though. The movie is basically about a guy becoming a super plant man to save his friend.

Something like that… Don’t dig too deep here, you won’t find much. It’s a post apocalypse movie with people at odds with sentient plants. How did it all happen, what’s next, what is this super plant man guy? You’ll learn some of this maybe. It’s a pretty good action movie. Sometimes making sense isn’t completely necessary…

Theme Songs 4/5
The movie had solid opening and ending songs. They fit the movie very well.

Ending 3.5/5
NO spoilers, the ending was…. pretty good. The movie wasn’t as complicated as it seems initially.

Origin: Spirits of the Past is a 2006 movie by studio Gonzo, and just like most stuff they made, it turned out nothing more than another rookie work with tons of wasted potential.

STORY
Let's have a look at the premise first:
- a post-apocalyptic world covered with sentient forest that was created during a scientific experiment and later went out of control and spreaded across the Earth, wiping out most of human civilization;
- three factions: the forest and its inhabitants; Neutral City, where people put lots of hardwork into building a new society and try to find some compromise with the forest; and Laguna, a militarized group that wants to solve the problem fast by destroying the predatory & dangerous forest (which, however, will turn the Earth into a desolate place with no clear air & water);
- finally, a heroine who awakens from slumber in a cryogenic chamber located in an abandoned facility left by her father, the head of that forest project. She becomes the key to the future of the world as Laguna try to pull her at their side while Agito (the main character) tries to stop them.
Although the premise has some very strong vibes of Miyazaki's Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, which takes some points off the originality, it still promises an exciting story because the crossover between fantasy and post-apocalyptic setting is interesting by definition, and because one may clearly see the potentially impressive action & adventure this movie could offer (not to mention the environmental themes). However, it's studio Gonzo we are talking about, and those guys are experts at trashing up almost everything that comes into their hands:
- first, this show displays some unbelievably silly examples of the so-called "anime science", like plants FLYING IN SPACE from the Moon to the Earth and penetrating the Earth's atmosphere without getting completely burned down in the process; or a volcano that moves from one point to another... and erupts in a new place as if the magma source is located inside the mountain! No kidding: the movie actually contains all this stuff, and it looks unacceptably ridiculous for a supposedly serious and ambitious work;
- second, the movie neither gives you an opportunity to explore the interesting setting nor has any substantial plot complexity, as everything happens in a rushed and superficial manner. This gets especially bad when dealing with the central dilemma of the story (whether to destroy the forest or to live with it): unlike Princess Mononoke, where you could thoroughly observe both sides of the conflict and understand their viewpoints very well, this film provides very little view from the Laguna's perspective and portrays them as typical militarists, factually making them wrong from the beginning;
- third, when Agito unites with the forest to retrieve the girl from Laguna he becomes insanely overpowered, and you watch him stop bullets and projectiles, crush trains and rip mechas into shreds, take no damage from explosions, walk on volcanic lava, scream the most shounen way possible, and meet people appearing out of nowhere right when he needs them. Again, that looks absolutely ridiculous and boring at the same time, because the guy can't lose or even get hurt no matter what.
Overall, the only good thing about the story is the premise which is executed in a rushed, unexciting and nonsensical way.

ANIMATION & SOUND
When watching an environmental fantasy, one obviously expects it to look natural & alive. Here, it looks cold & artificial due to Gonzo's traditional heavy reliance on CGI no matter how unnecessary it is. Aside from that, the movie looks quite pretty and even impressive in some ways, so the animation is very good overall.
As for the sound, I liked the ethnic chants at the beginning and the end. The rest of the music is symphonic BGM, which is alright but not particularly memorable, and the voice acting is just as lifeless as the characters in this show.

CHARACTERS
Since the story is very superficial in its execution, the characters also don't get any memorable traits, depth or development, remaining bland & soulless puppets that just do whatever the plot commands in the most convenient way. For example, when Agito obtains the forest powers, it's not like he goes through a trial and matures into a hero - rather, he simply has god mode handed to him and then crushes everything in the way. Eventually, the cast is impossible to care about, and you'll hardly remember any name except for Agito's only because it's in the title.

OVERALL
The show's value is close to zero as there are other environmental titles that cover the topic way better; and while the movie's setting & themes are interesting indeed, the premise alone can't possibly warrant a watch when the execution is obviously subpar. So, not recommended.

Animation:
Great animation, what you would expect from a high-budget Gonzo release. Good blending of CG and animation.

Sound:
Forgettable, but not bad. I don't remember being annoyed by any music, or moved by any of it either.

Story:
As someone else mentioned earlier, the story starts out decent and promising. The world is introduced and a sense of wonder and excitement develops. Unfortunately, nothing is really ever done with it and the story falls apart faster than a flee-market sweater. By the end, it was so retarded that I started to regret having watched this anime more and more with each passing minute.

Character:
Generic and/or non-existent. (I rate a 5 because it's generic/decent. On my scale, a 0 would be a horrendously annoying character that detracted from the movie)

Value/Enjoyment:
Pretty to watch.

If you want to check out your new HDTV, this (along with other similar plot-less HD anime) wouldn't be a bad choice, there's just a lot better out there too.

Gin-iro no kami no Agito

Story: In the past, Man was doing genetic experiments on the Moon with plants, one day something went wrong, duo to a genetic error, these plants gained life and a tremendous power destroying half the Moon, attacking then the Heart with a destructive power, ending the civilization as it was known.
Now 300 years in the future the forest is alive and is dangerous to the humans, it controls the existing water in the planet, but the humans managed to coexist with the forest, except one faction that believes the forest should not have such power and must be controlled or destroyed.
Agito is the son of one of the "Neutral city" creators and one day while trying to steal some water
accidentally ended in some sort of civilization ruins where he finds Toola on a timeless slumber
inside of a chamber accidentally waking her up.
Toola is the daughter of the scientist from 300 years ago who was running experiments on the moon; he also created a system to fight the forest but for some reason didn’t use it.
Now Shunack another Human from the past, an assistant to Toola's father, joined the Ragna Army whose purpose is to fight the forest, he seeks Toola has only her can find and activate the technology capable of restoring the planet to how it was before. Things won’t go as Shunack wants and Agito will receive the power from the forest to try and stop the destruction and save Toola from his hands...

Characters: There are very few important characters in this movie, as it only runs for 90m, due to the nature of the story, there’s no need for extensive character development and I already talked about the main characters and their importance; therefore I will skip this part...

Animation: This is absolutely the best part in the anime.
As soon as the anime starts, prepare for the jaw breaking sequence of the moon destruction.
The movie runs on a multitude of superb backgrounds, from the city founded in the canyons over the ruins of the past, the neighbor living forest and the desert.
The background in the city is mostly colored in a grayish mixed with orange rusty color making it look like a post apocalyptic city, during the race trough the ruins every little detail looks great, every artificial made object like pipes and constructions is drawn in 3D CG animation that blends perfectly with the backgrounds and characters, also the animation flow is so fast and rich that makes it look amazing.
As we approach the forest the green covers de rusty orange, as we get inside the forest, everything is huge; the use of colors here is great and the trees look almost real, the leaves are specially animated with great detail and is as close to real as possible, the forest is alive and has a mind, this shows during some attacks, the leaves suddenly start to agglomerate forming a huge mass at an incredible speed creating in the end a green dragon, here the animation is full 3D showing a stunning scene gorgeously animated.
The desert is similar to the city using grey colors and everything looks good.
The character design is simpler than all other animation, still, everyone looks great, and when there is action, the animation never fails to surprise.
To finish this part we will take a look ate the mecha design and particle system.
The Ragna Army, is a military faction trying to fight the forest amazing power, therefore they have
advanced in military technology. The army is composed of a dual train, basically its two trains attacked together running parallel to each other, its design is rather simple but still fully 3D animated, the train provides for a great scene when one of the compositions is destroyed, creating an amazing explosion. The train serves solely for transport, the army's strength is in the mechas, there are 2 different types of mechas the first one is a huge red machine that walks on 4 legs and has a huge canon on its bottom, its aspect is similar to a bug, great details are given while they move and fire. The other type is smaller, about one 10th maybe smaller; it’s colored blue and looks more like a scorpion with the canon coming from the rear. The mechs are in 3D, all nicely detailed and animated.
The fire explosions look great, a great particle system was using as we see the detailed sparkles from the explosion and the smoke also is full 3D, its color ranges from black to light grey...
The clouds seem to use the same system used in the smoke, maybe a little more advanced, when
approaching the city they look huge mass approaching, from close or under it, looks lime they where filming a real storm, except for lightning, its only a pacific rain, imagine a sunny day, there’s a huge mass of clouds approaching bringing a long waited rain, watch has it falls in the skies and the bright land bathed in the sun is covered with shadow and the blue sky covered in grey, that’s how it looks...
The best way to describe the animation is to watch by yourself, as it is hard to transpose its sublimity into words.

Music: The opening song is quite good, "Chouwa oto ~with reflection~" by KOKIA, the song focus on her voice while a gentle piano string plays in the background, the video sequence for the op
is the destruction that took place 300 years ago.
Overall, the music does a great work during he movie, always complementing the animation the best way and being in 5.1 all of the audio effects sound awesome during the breath taking scenes.
The Ed song "Ai no Melody" by KOKIA has a pop stile, it has KOKIA singing more melodic and the music is more complete, instead of a piano solo features more instruments making for a livelier song to appreciate while in background some scenes of after the storm are showed...

Overall: Gin-iro no kami no Agito is a 90m movie, so don’t expect a great story or a lot of character's development, instead turn of the light's, raise the volume and sit back while enjoying this light story on a rich world, where the animation is astounding and the music naturally enchants your years.
In the end you will fell satisfied with this great work.

I'll be blunt : this anime is one of the worst I've seen these last years. You may not agree with me, but I'll try to justify myself. Anyway, you should have a look at my taste in anime to see if you want to follow my advice : avoid this anime.

Animation :
Really crappy. It annoyed me all along. There are some beautiful landscapes and characters are OK, but they almost never go well together. Sometimes, it's even ridiculous, you feel like watching a drawing put on a photo. 2D and 3D are also mixed, but their colors often don't match. At first, I thought it was just an accident, as the beginning of the movie was globally good. But then the quality really went down, and watching it almost became painful. It really felt like they put together different pictures without trying to harmonize them.

Sound:
The music is not very subtle, sometimes annoucing events before you see them, but nothing shocking. The introducing song has interesting voices.

Story:
The beginning seemed promising, but it turned out to be very plain. After a few minutes, you know that the boy loves the girl, that he'll save her from the bad guy, and humans will live together with nature instead of fighting it. But the second part of the movie (after the boy leaves his town) is completly stupid. He becomes invicible, he can walk on lava, grenades don't explode when they hit him, he runs faster than trains, people from his town appear in the middle of the desert to help him. He can jump down a cliff while carrying his girl, and neither of them is hurt. No surprise, no plot twist, just a plain invicible super hero.

Characters:
They're archetypes, puppets with no life. You'll encounter the cheerful childhood friend, his young loving sister, the responsible adults, the young brave hero... Nothing out of the ordinary, no strong feelings, no real change in their way of thinking.
One example from the begining : a girl comes out from a time capsule. During her sleep, the world has completly changed, but she doesn't show any surprise. She doesn't feel lonely, cry for her family, ask what happened during all these years. Nothing, she just lives peacefully as if she had always been there. That feels so fake.

Value:
The anime only asks one question : should humanity live according to its own rules, even if it has to destroy nature to do so ?
But the forest landscapes are beautifully drawn, the people are nice, the weather perfect, whereas the city is dark, ugly, stinks, and only has soldiers and weapons. So you don't have to wait long to guess which the answer this anime will come to. It's so subtle...

Conclusion:
As the first minutes were good, I kept watching it, hoping that at least the end would be OK. But it went worst and worst.
If you're insterested in this theme, I'd rather advice you to watch Green Legend Ran. Unless you haven't already seen Nausicaa.

Giniro no Kami Agito is a strange title for this movie.
Of course the story has a silver haired boy named Agito. But he's not the only one with silver hair and he has not silver hair at the beginning.
Then the title is kind of a spoiler too...

So what is this movie all about?
Your life is supported by the nature that surrounds you. It gives you oxygen and is responsible for the existence of many other living beings that you use as food.
Now, imagine for an instance that this same nature is granted an uncanny power to think for itself as whole living being and act in conformity.

What problems do you think it would rise?
As a new living and percepting being it would cling to the things that makes it alive.
Even if that implies to destroy everything in its path.

But that's what we (humans) did... Until a certain point in history.
What we have destroyed we can no longer achieve. But what we still have, we start to respect because we can still make use of it and learn from it.

This story develops in this context. We aren't the only beings in this situation, however we're the slower ones to realize what really has to be done. The characters in this aspect, show real conflict within themselves and share with you the same questions about the new environment created. Specially Tula's struggle is really expressive.
Almost until the very end of the movie my thoughts about the new life were the same as hers and Shunack's, that is I couldn't possibly prefer the new world over the old world (our world).

A very philosophical and debatable theme in my opinion.

The animation is similar to the one that can be seen in "Hoshi no Koe". 3D CG animated creature/animal plants(the first ones that I've ever seen in anime for sure!) and mechas combined with extraordinary 2D animation. Nature landscapes mixed with ruined futuristic cities set up a fabulous environment.

The soundtrack doesn't fall behind. The first music in the movie empowers the raging war that is coming to the earth and gives you a feeling of being a mere spectator in the middle of a God's intervention. Each music fits greatly at the current situation.
This has an explanation: Taku Iwasaki. The same man who did the Samurai X OVAs soundtracks.

The value of this anime can be measured mostly by the impact that the question of new intelligence life in this world has on you.
However, if you don't trouble yourself with such philosophical matters and you like good anime design and good music, I think it's still a worth seeing movie.