Anime Review: Voices of a Distant Star

Anime Review: Voices of a Distant Star [no spoilers]
After watching the stunning and brilliant Your Name I was curious to see more works by its creator Makoto Shinkai. So I kicked off with Voices of a Distant Star because it’s a short half hour piece and is his first anime. Reading a little background about this film, I believe Shinkai did literally everything on it single handedly. That's insanely impressive!
Just as in Your Name, it’s very strong on visual spectacle with beautifully painted views of the cosmos. Also similar to Your Name is the relationship between an adolescent male and female character and the yearning bond between them who may or may never meet again.
I love how in this story it is the female character who is chosen to set off on a dangerous mission far out in space while the boy character is left behind with not much to do and pining away for his soul mate. I also loved how, amidst all the drama of battling aliens and travelling to uncharted reaches of space, the only means of communication between the boy and the girl is through a very old 1990’s style Nokia phone. It’s a great touch that gives the film a unique style away from other sci-fi dramas.
It’s a thoughtful and sad film but you won’t cry or feel an emotional wreck like you do with Your Name. Perhaps lasting less than 30 minutes it isn’t long enough to invest in the characters, but it did make me think about the weirdness of space-time in the same way that Interstellar did. I can’t wait to see other Makoto Shinkai films. He’s an amazing artist and story teller.
8/10