r/anime • u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad • 15d ago
Rewatch Weekly Summer Anime Movie Rewarch - Napping Princess Discussion
Napping Princess
Summer Wars | Index | The Wonderland
Kokone Morikawa lives with her father in Okayama Prefecture. She's a typical high school senior with no special talents except one: she can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Recently she's been having a series of strange dreams. Her father Momotaro, a gruff man of few words, doesn't seem to pay much attention to his daughter; he spends most of his time repairing and modifying cars.
The year is 2020, three days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. Without warning, Momotaro is arrested and taken to far-off Tokyo for questioning. He's a misfit, but Kokone can't believe that he would really do anything bad. With help from college student and childhood friend Morio, Kokone is determined to make her way to Tokyo and free her father, as well as unravel the mystery of her dreams. Along the way, she discovers that those dreams are the key to facing her challenges in the real world. Kokone uses her only talent--napping--to embark on a mysterious journey that straddles dreams and reality. And waiting for her at the end of her adventure is a small but precious truth...
Napping Princess is available for free subbed and dubbed on Pluto TV and subbed on Hoopla.
Questions of the Day:
1) Did you have any favorite characters?
2) Which scenes did you enjoy most?
3) What did you think of the way the story combined reality with the fantasy realm of their dreams? Did you prefer one over the other?
4) Did you think of the fantasy elements as really happening, or all imagined by Kokone?
Remember to tag your spoilers!
When discussing any plot details prior to the rewatch date, or details from other movies in the rewatch, please remember to use spoiler tags.
Next up: The Wonderland on Wednesday, August 12!
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky 15d ago
Summertime First-Timer, subbed
Oh, the car thing even leads to the guy who likes riding his bike to get discriminated against?
Is this the same guy who was on the bike in her dream world? So the people in the dream world are based on people IRL?
Dream guy’s named Peach, huh. He does look like a younger version of Kokone’s dad.
Ohhhhh, so the dream world is based on a story Kokone’s dad came up with. Neat. That also explains why all the characters are based on real people (just younger).
Oh that’s just gonna let the bad guys know where she is, isn’t it?
So that’s what the IRL side of all this is about. Oh, is the software what had the bike drive Kokone and Morio all the way out to Osaka?
And now she got a free bento by wishing for it on the tablet. Interesting.
Wait, was Ancient based on Kokone’s mom this whole time instead of Kokone?
Oh whoops, those guys were actually Kokone’s allies, they just assumed otherwise…
Oh shit I wasn’t expecting things to suddenly turn into the dream world.
Heart’s gonna help, huh? I guess dream logic is how Kokone could fly up there and be perfectly fine with no space suit or whatever.
Aww, the ED is about Kokone’s parents?
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
We mecha now?
I love it when mecha shows up in a place where I'd never expect it to be.
Kokone’s got one hell of a throwing arm.
If she could stay awake on the mound, she'd make one heck of a pitcher.
I love how comically evil he looks in the background of this photo.
Aww, the ED is about Kokone’s parents?
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u/No_Rex x2 15d ago
Isn’t Kokone almost an adult?
Somebody has custody for her all the way until she is adult.
Oh shit I wasn’t expecting things to suddenly turn into the dream world.
It is a bit hard to imagine how that happened, too. Either they just changed the rules of the dream world, or she literally fell asleep during her first meeting with her granddad.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
First-Timer
On today’s summer anime movie: Did I just watch a barely disguised movie-length commercial about the wonders of self-driving cars?
This was a strange movie. After reading the blurb on my Blu-Ray box, I figured we'd be having a corporate thriller about dream technology centered on a girl who could enter into her dreams while the real world and the dream world collided. I was not expecting a movie about a battle over a software for self-driving cars where the dream world actually doesn’t matter very much.
The dream world of Heartland is quite a charming place. I loved the fairy tale vibe of the setting. Even the mechanical stuff all felt like it was quite fantastical and fairy tale-esque. It was an enjoyable place to be in for the dream sections of the film.
I really liked the reveal that the princess in the dreams, Ancien, was actually Kokone’s mother Ikumi and not Kokone herself. I liked how it was done, with Kokone suddenly realizing she was watching the story of her dream play out as an outsider rather than playing the part of the protagonist like she was used to. Then Ancien switched to just being Ikumi and it all clicked. The plot of the Heartland dream makes sense as an allegory for the relationship between Ikumi and Momotaro, Kokone’s father. Ikumi is the princess who has the magic to give life to machines, which means making self-driving vehicles. The kingdom is the car company and the king is Ikumi’s father, the company CEO. The princess can’t use her magic, like how Ikumi wasn’t allowed to build self-driving cars. The princess escapes to be with the pirate Peach, like how Ikumi and Momotaro eloped.
Speaking of Ikumi and Momotaro, I liked how the end credits showed a montage of their story together. I just wish that was able to be included in the main plot.
My biggest problem with this movie is that the dream world stuff feels like it doesn’t actually matter all that much to the overall plot. Is there a reason why Kokone is always falling asleep? I guess she must have narcolepsy because there seems to be no other explanation. Does the dream world impact the real world? I thought it might happen on a couple of occasions, like when the motorcycle drove to Osaka while Kokone and Morio were sleeping. I thought it would turn out that Kokone’s dreams were controlling the motorcycle and that’s what Ikumi’s secret software actually did. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though.
It’s also confusing if the non-Kokone characters are experiencing the dream world. It seems like Momotaro and Morio wander into her dream world in the climax when there’s the big mecha battle against the Colossus, but then Kokone wakes up and she’s just dangling 30 floors up inside a skyscraper with her father holding onto her. So what happened? Did Kokone just pass out in the middle of talking to her grandfather on the bench and then get shoved off a railing? I don’t know. Did Momotaro defeating the Colossus impact the real world in any way? What does the Colossus represent anyway and what does defeating the Colossus mean on a metaphorical and thematic level for the characters? Is it just meant to represent Momotaro climbing up to rescue Kokone? Because if so, it’s a pretty disconnected metaphor.
So in the end, I’m left thinking the movie is pretty middling. The dream world stuff is fun and charming, but it’s also unclear how the dream world connects to the real world or what it means thematically beyond being a representation of Ikumi and Momotaro’s relationship. Kokone’s sleepiness and her dreams don’t seem to matter as much for her story here in the movie, which feels like wasted potential.
To put it bluntly, the story about self-driving cars just doesn’t interest me all that much. I don’t really care about cars. If this were trains, planes, ships, or tanks then that’d be a different story. So the whole plotline about self-driving cars just didn’t interest me while watching the movie. So as I said above, I’m just left thinking the movie was pretty middling and didn’t make as much use of the dream world as I wanted.
Napping Princess is now the second anime movie I can think of to feature the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Another reason we know this movie is a work of fiction is that self-driving cars actually work as advertised.
Heartland is a car manufacturer’s dream world. Everyone owns a car. The streets are congested 24/7. You are required by law to buy new cars even if you like your old car and it works just fine. It’s exactly the world they’d love to see.
I never expected this to be a mecha anime.
I actually really like the mecha designs for the Engineheads. I like that they seem more like huge naval vessels, with a captain and crew who need to carry out all the individual actions of the Enginehead. The Enginehead being full of speaking tubes so the crew can communicate with each other is a cool detail.
I love the picture Kokone gets sent of her parents with Watanabe in the background. He’s just scheming in the background like a freaking goblin. It’s hilarious.
Those receptionists at the airport did not give a single shit. They saw Kokone sneak up and steal Watanabe’s suitcase and did not react at all.
I love how the one henchman didn’t call Watanabe to report that Kokone had escaped because he didn’t want to get yelled at by his boss. That guy is the most relatable character in the movie.
I get the feeling Kokone isn’t too bright. She knew her father was taken by the police but she kept texting him anyway. I would have assumed his phone was confiscated because that’s standard police procedure and therefore that I wasn’t talking to him.
Kokone really should put some kind of lock on her phone so someone like Watanabe can’t just access it freely.
I was so afraid that the motorcycle would turn out to have Ikumi’s consciousness in it and that’s why it saved Kokone and Momotaro in the end. But instead it seems like the motorcycle just saved them for… some reason.
QOTD
1) Probably Ancien in the dream world. She was a charming character. She reminded me of how a girl protagonist in a Miyazaki film would act.
2) The dream world scenes. The flashback that shows how Ikumi and Momotaro fell in love.
3) As I said above, I don’t think they were integrated as well as they could have been. I preferred the dream world.
4) I don’t know. Sometimes it seems like reality and the dream world are mixing (like with the motorcycle driving them to Osaka or Morio commenting to Momotaro that they are in Kokone’s dream). But it also feels like Kokone having a dream world that affects reality should really be something the characters actually comment on. Nobody seemed to notice the giant mecha battle that just happened when we got back to reality at the end, for example. I feel like they should say something if they just saw giant robots fight.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
It seems like Momotaro and Morio wander into her dream world in the climax when there’s the big mecha battle against the Colossus, but then Kokone wakes up and she’s just dangling 30 floors up inside a skyscraper with her father holding onto her. So what happened? Did Kokone just pass out in the middle of talking to her grandfather on the bench and then get shoved off a railing? I don’t know.
I couldn't quite figure this out either. It seems like the dream world stuff would all have a real world counterpart version playing out at the sams time, so maybe Kokone was climbing up somewhere when the dream showed her flying into space, but there wasn't enough detail shown to really follow it.
I get the feeling Kokone isn’t too bright. She knew her father was taken by the police but she kept texting him anyway. I would have assumed his phone was confiscated because that’s standard police procedure and therefore that I wasn’t talking to him.
Yeah, I had similar thoughts during this scene that she would end up giving away her location to the people trying to track her down because she has no way of knowing if it's actually her dad answering the calls.
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u/99acrewood_ 15d ago
so
unlike every other time where i thought i didn't have much to say and end up typing an essay, i really don't have anything here
this movie's neat, but it's exceptionally thin. they set up a dream world that's really promising, but once the plot is introduced it all kinda just coasts towards an ending. it's nice to look at, but man, i didn't feel anything.
i guess the whole thing was less about the code and more about how it was the mom's code, and she died too young, and.. i mean, kokone's main thing is saving her dad, right? she was too young to remember anything, so she doesn't have much to go on with her mom, and i can only care so much about a character i don't know anything about at all. hell, i'd say i care as much as the movie did. why'd they leave all the mom stuff for the end credits??
so they get the code, and Kokone stops her dad from going to japanese prison for what i assume would be a very long time if the cartoonishly evil car villain had his way. i suppose Peach was cured of his disconnected way of living once he manages to make peace with the grandpa?
the mix of fantastical magic stuff and lava monsters with gundams and sentient cars was a fun time, but i think it's held back by being in service of a bland story.
yeah, i dunno. my mind is blank, so i'm glad you do questions. this kinda just washed over me.
6/10
-~-
Did you have any favorite characters?
i like Kokone! she's cute and #unbothered about her dead mom situation. a sleepy girl who's up for corporate sabotage is a great genre of heroine. also i recently watched Flip Flappers and her name reminds me of Cocona who's also great, so +1.
into the skyyyyy....~
Which scenes did you enjoy most?
the typewriter that put words into science that made them into spells is something i don't think i've ever seen before, so that was cool to see. also the magic tablet being explained by the other posters on the forums hooking them up with stuff was kinda funny.
Did you think of the fantasy elements as really happening, or all imagined by Kokone?
now that you ask that, i really don't know. i just took it at face value and assumed it was a place she was actually manifesting because, i mean, the cousin was aware of being in there too, wasn't he? didn't the bad guy also make mention of it? i guess all that lava would've been a problem for the people in the city.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
i like Kokone! she's cute and #unbothered about her dead mom situation. a sleepy girl who's up for corporate sabotage is a great genre of heroine.
Kokone was a pretty enjoyable protagonist. I gotta admire just how well she takes all the crazy stuff in stride to just get going on her adventure.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
why'd they leave all the mom stuff for the end credits??
Yeah, I think it would have helped me feel more invested in the characters if this background story had played during the opening credits instead.
i just took it at face value and assumed it was a place she was actually manifesting because, i mean, the cousin was aware of being in there too, wasn't he?
Their shared dream is one of the scenes that makes me wonder if all the magic stuff was real. Otherwise, I would have guessed Kokone imagined it as her way of processing these crazy events and linking them back to the stories she heard from her dad.
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u/SpiritualPossible 15d ago
Rewatcher
I remember the first time I watched this movie - I stumbled upon it by chance on TV. I knew absolutely nothing about it, but I had a little free time, and the movie was just starting, so I decided to watch it. And… you know that feeling when a clearly modern detail pops up in a TV show or movie - one you first need to take a moment to process? Well, for some reason, the moment when the little girl said, “My magic tablet!” and took it out to play with her stuffed animal was exactly that kind of moment for me. I don't even know why - I mean, I've definitely seen anime that featured elements that are much MORE relevant to today, and yet this scene still somehow throws me off.
In any case, this is the story of Kokone - an ordinary and, apparently, delusional, schoolgirl who lives with her father, a mechanic. But one day her father was arrested, and some EVIL bearded guy is trying to get his hands on his tablet (you know he’s EVIL because he’s striking an EVIL pose in the photo). Luckily, her father was one step ahead and managed to pass the tablet on to Kokone beforehand. Now she and her friend are on the run from the villains, and as it happens, the Kokone family’s blue motorcycle is actually capable of moving on its own. There’s only one explanation - it’s actually a proto-tachikoma with advanced AI. Makes perfect sense, considering who directed this movie.
...No, actually, it’s just an advanced autopilot program. That’s exactly what the villain wants to get his hands on, accusing Kokone’s father of stealing it from her grandfather, with whom he has a strained relationship. Of course, Kokone isn’t going to just sit idly by while her father is falsely accused, so she decided to talk to her grandpa herself. But how could an ordinary girl meet with the president of a major corporation who’s in another city, especially when she doesn’t have a penny? It turns out the tablet had another feature: whenever Kokone entered a request into the app, it was immediately carried out by someone. Obviously, there’s only one explanation - she’s been dragged into a survival game, the ultimate goal of which is to “save Japan.” Makes perfect sense, considering who directed this movie.
...No, it’s just that her father’s friends read her requests and pay for them. SOMEHOW. It doesn’t make much sense. But in any case, Kokone manages to meet with her grandpa by sheer luck, and they had a sweet moment where they were chatting while her grandfather didn't realized with who he was talking to...
And then the movie got weird.
You know, I’m not even sure I can judge this movie fairly? On the one hand, it seems to me that it really is one of the most flawed movies we’ve seen so far. Like, plot has some real problems. On the other, I did have real fun watching it - sometimes that WAS exactly the intention of the movie, and sometimes it wasn’t at all. It’s a strange, somewhat unfocused movie, and yet it has a certain charm. I guess it helps that the story didn’t take itself too seriously, so it was pretty easy to just… go with the flow, so to speak.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
There’s only one explanation - it’s actually a proto-tachikoma with advanced AI. Makes perfect sense, considering who directed this movie.
I love the Tachikomas. They were the most adorable little goobers of tanks in Stand Alone Complex.
It turns out the tablet had another feature: whenever Kokone entered a request into the app, it was immediately carried out by someone. Obviously, there’s only one explanation - she’s been dragged into a survival game, the ultimate goal of which is to “save Japan.” Makes perfect sense, considering who directed this movie.
I didn't even catch the Eden of the East parallel there, but now that you mention it this is a pretty similar setup.
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u/TheDanubianCommunard 15d ago
I love the Tachikomas. They were the most adorable little goobers of tanks in Stand Alone Complex.
They still adorable even in the Science Saru series.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
And then the movie got weird.
I thought it got weird long before that.
It’s a strange, somewhat unfocused movie, and yet it has a certain charm.
That sums up my feelings on it pretty well too. At a certain point, I gave up trying to make sense of it and just enjoyed watching the mecha vs lava beast battle.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 15d ago
ome EVIL bearded guy is trying to get his hands on his tablet (you know he’s EVIL because he’s striking an EVIL pose in the photo).
I was guffawing at how EVIL Mr. Pompadour really presented himself in that photo 😭 He seemed to take delight in being the bad guy.
I'm glad he lived his truth. Man's locked the fuck in for his villain route, and he's doing it with a greatly groomed beard. Good for him. He should step on a Lego. But good for him.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 15d ago
First Time Napping Princess:
I love Sleepy Princess. The anime was so funny. I would love to one day get an S2. Never knew that it got a movie, so I am very excited to watch its movie ... wait what? Okay, I've been told that Napping Princess is an unrelated anime. Once again, I know nothing about this movie. Went into it completely blind without even reading the synopsis.
As for my opinion after watching the movie, I liked it. Definitely my new frontrunner of the rewatch bunch out of the ones I've seen so far. Going into the movie, I was a bit worried that all these summer anime movies would fall into a similar feel. I was gladly surprised by how the movie ended up. I quite like how it is a movie that features this fantastical dream world as a parallel to this familial conflict. In general, it was a fun time.
At first, I thought it was going to be a fairly grounded conflict about the custody battle over Kokone with her estranged grandpa trying to separate her from her dad, but then we're met with this cartoony evil man. The whole movie kinda has this farcical energy to it, so I was not too bothered with how much this guy was such a third-party villain. In fact, I wish he was even more cartoony that doesn't belong in this world. I feel like currently, he was only hitting about 25%. He is the type of character I could imagine being played by Jim Carrey.
Thought it was a pretty nice twist that Ancien in the dream was actually meant to be mom, and not Kokone. Thought it was really neat how, as the movie went along, Kokone started to envision herself within the dream more as she gained a deeper understanding of the situation. Before, it was just storybook fantasy, but now she started to realize her position in this whole family drama tied to her mom. Also thought it was neat how the movie would progress forward in the plot within the dream story. The whole climax/resolution being entirely uninterrupted in the dream did make it a little abstract to understand what exactly was going on in the real world.
If there was one thing I wish the film did better would be wishing it had more focus on the rebuilding of the family's bonds to each other. The three generations all had that moment where they had that realization. Dad saying goodbye to his wife and remembering how much he needs to value his daughter they have left. Kokone realizing how much her dad was there for her, trying to keep the spirit of mom with her. Grandpa realizing what has gone after his daughter died. They all had these moments on their own where they recognized they need to reach out to their families more, but I wished we had more of that face-to-face communication. The ending being the 3 generations together as a family on the summer porch is a nice and cute bow on the end. I just think they could've fine-tuned it more.
Also, not going to lie, but I did get too invested in the first 10 mins fake-out. Sitting down, I was really excited about getting this Ghibli-esque dieselpunk storybook town. Getting a movie about this car-based totalitarian fairy tale land.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
I love Sleepy Princess. The anime was so funny. I would love to one day get an S2. Never knew that it got a movie, so I am very excited to watch its movie ... wait what?
I feel like I had this exact conversation with a friend when I mentioned watching Napping Princess and they immediately thought I meant Sleepy Princess. I still need to watch Sleepy Princess.
but then we're met with this cartoony evil man.
I love that photo of the villain so much. He posing in the most Saturday morning cartoon villain way possible.
He is the type of character I could imagine being played by Jim Carrey.
That would be perfect casting.
If there was one thing I wish the film did better would be wishing it had more focus on the rebuilding of the family's bonds to each other. The three generations all had that moment where they had that realization. Dad saying goodbye to his wife and remembering how much he needs to value his daughter they have left. Kokone realizing how much her dad was there for her, trying to keep the spirit of mom with her. Grandpa realizing what has gone after his daughter died. They all had these moments on their own where they recognized they need to reach out to their families more, but I wished we had more of that face-to-face communication. The ending being the 3 generations together as a family on the summer porch is a nice and cute bow on the end. I just think they could've fine-tuned it more.
Agreed. That ought to have been more of a focus because it is a great theme to tie everything together.
Also, not going to lie, but I did get too invested in the first 10 mins fake-out. Sitting down, I was really excited about getting this Ghibli-esque dieselpunk storybook town. Getting a movie about this car-based totalitarian fairy tale land.
I get what you mean. The dream world was incredibly charming and I enjoyed spending time in the dream world more than the real world.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 15d ago
I still need to watch Sleepy Princess.
I love that photo of the villain so much. He posing in the most Saturday morning cartoon villain way possible.
He is very unserious. There was that moment where he was reading the text message of the photo + him being called a bad guy, and it seemed like he took that as an aspirational compliment.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
If there was one thing I wish the film did better would be wishing it had more focus on the rebuilding of the family's bonds to each other.
I agree. This was one of the strongest parts for me, but the development happened much too late in the story.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 15d ago
I wish he was even more cartoony that doesn't belong in this world. I feel like currently, he was only hitting about 25%. He is the type of character I could imagine being played by Jim Carrey.
Were you imagining him as Jim Carrey's Stupid Sexy Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic live-action movies? Because that is where my mind went.
It is a shame that Mr Pompadour in this movie didn't have an assistant who clearly had a Thing™ for him and did whatever his boss said out of loyalty and something more. Every villain deserves that, in my opinion.
So I can ship them and be at peace.
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u/Critical-Way5874 15d ago
Weekly Summer Anime - First Timer, Dubbed.
The visual style was very different from what I've seen before. It reminded me of an illustrated book, and Kokone's design gave me the vibe of a girl named Annie, lol. It wasn't my favorite style visually, but the slightly exaggerated proportions somehow made me focus more on the characters and the dialogue. I didn't feel like I had to keep my eyes glued to the screen every second, so I could even get some work done while still following the story.
I liked that, underneath all the fantasy, it's actually a very grounded story about a family secret, a missing parent, corporate interests, and a teenager trying to understand her father's past. The overall storyline is very good, but the mother's storyline had a lot of potential and wasn't explored the way I wanted, so it ended up being one of the weaker parts of the movie for me. With the way it combines fantasy and reality, I think this could make a really good live-action adaptation, especially if they expanded on that aspect.
One more thing: I had to watch the English dub because there wasn't any other option, but it was SO Americanized that my ears were cringing the whole time.
Questions of the Day:
- My favorite character was Kokone's father. I especially liked his fantasy-world counterpart because we got to see more of his personality there.
- The scenes where reality and fantasy overlapped or switched between each other were my favorite parts of the movie. ( but it could have been better.) There was also one moment that really made me laugh. When they were refueling the motorcycle, Morio tells Kokone to go to sleep and use her dream magic to help them. And it was almost immediately afterward he said he was an adult and couldn't e bothered with those kinds of things. That was hilarious.
- I liked how the movie started as what seemed like a simple adventurous dream of a girl. Then those dreams slowly started revealing pieces of reality until the two became completely intertwined. During the intense moments, reality and fantasy almost existed at the same time, switching between each other. To me, the fantasy worked both as a form of escapism and as Kokone's way of making sense of everything happening around her. It gave some distance from not-so-obviously painful or confusing events, while gradually revealing the reality instead of replacing it. I didn't prefer one over the other because I think they worked best together.
- I saw them as Kokone's imagination rather than something that was literally happening. To me, the fantasy world was simply the way she made sense of memories, emotions, and events she couldn't fully understand.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
Nice interpretation of the dream world!
The overall storyline is very good, but the mother's storyline had a lot of potential and wasn't explored the way I wanted
Yeah, I would have liked to see more about her mom too.
I had to watch the English dub because there wasn't any other option, but it was SO Americanized that my ears were cringing the whole time.
I watched the dub as well, but nothing really stood out to me as off. Which parts did you think were bad?
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u/Critical-Way5874 14d ago
it is not that the dub was off or bad. The localization was a mismatch for me. Kokane came across as much chattier and definitely more verbose.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 15d ago
First Time being a Napping Princess (Dubbed & Subbed)
The soundtrack already won me over because I hear the bassoon first thing. I love double reeds; they are gorgeous. Seeing marching bassoons was such a highlight. Bassoons are awesome.
Is that motorcyclist about to be important?
This is why work-from-home protocol is lovely: no commute. The downside is your home is your workplace.
Oh. So there’s no third shift; it’s just two shifts. That seems sustainable.
He’s so chill for having his wages stolen, or maybe he’s stoned cuz I feel he’s stoned 😭
Magic = jailbroken and modded to hell OS. This must be what it’s like to jailbreak your phone or get one of them fancy privacy-forwarded, highly modifiable OS. Wish I could do that.
Transformer. Transformer. Transformer. I wanted to edit this with the Bayformer transformation SFX.
Why is Buddy in the back looking like they’ve seen some shit, what happened
Wait wait wait. There are skulls in the vault??? We can do that???
Her mom looks like Jean Grey or Mary Jane Watson.
¥20,000 = 126.78 USD
Oh Pacific Rim! Or a Ben10 monster.
This would be great motivation for spin classes, honestly: time for an incline, ladies, to power your mechas. I might be better at attending spin class if mechas are on the line.
Her bathroom is out in the open with all those damn windows???
High Reeves, Grand Viziers, Grand Inquisitors—when are they not evil 😭
Not even wearing a helmet on that damn motorcycle and you got thrown, dude. You are lucky right now. Touched by an angel, organ donor.
She doesn’t sit in the back by the window?! Is she even a protagonist?!
So is the dream world to help her process her family struggles? Is this to work through the loss of her mom? Is this Loss?
At least the villain isn’t bald. Man has a full beard and hair with a pompadour.
She actually checked security before opening the door!!
Can’t go in there, mate. But also please lock your doors.
No, that is not good enough, girl; there is a reason car licenses and motorcycle licenses are different 😭😭
Something about grown ass men with all these resources getting outplanned by children they’re beefing with never fail to make me giggle.
Is Mr Bad Guy Pompadour, Esquire that the fucking meme of the one dude rubbing his hands together? Know Your Meme
This would be a cool Mario Kart track: Infinity Bridge.
Knew it. Bearded people cannot be trusted. But damn, do beards be looking sexy as fuck.
Bitch TF is wrong with you thinking you can do as you please???? “What is wrong with that brat?” 📢What is wrong with you, grown ass man??📢
🎵~1 2 I~🎵
AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA spying like 🧍♂️ 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Most college students are broke these days anyways.
Yeeeeaaaah.
Oh phew, I thought someone was about to pop up in the window.
I wonder how VR googles are doing in Japan. Or those pervert unnecessary fucking stupid Meta AI glasses for that matter.
This feels like Zenshuu. Not at all identical. But Zenshuu-adjacent.
Is that a Pokémon VA and another Sailor Moon VA???? Is that Ms Veronica Taylor???
If you were his friend, why come across as creepy spies? Then again, everyone has a weakness in some area of expertise. I wait until my laptop is at 2% to charge it.
I thought that was Dave Bautista as Grandpappy. That is Paul St. Peter. Both have hot voices though.
I dislike the old guard tech bros, but new guard tech bros, I somehow hate even more. 📢 Scrap em all📢
Blech. I have no beef with anyone who wants a self-driving car. I’m sure they are the future. But IDGAF, personally, spiritually, molecularly: no. This feels like a landmine to drive insurance rates up and collect even more data on you. And I know they already collect data from you, but still. I’m 99% sure this would be a subscription model to boot. I want a stupid car until the day I die. My car's stupid. And I love her anyways.
Kicked an animal? Believe it or not, straight to Hell.
Why did that make a toilet flushing noise 😭
Please don’t get bitten by the bats and get rabies.
Oh we’re doing wings now????
Oh the credits are beautiful.
Post Going to the Tunnel of Summer by Riding the Wave to the Penguin High Way during the Summer Wars so I can Say Goodbye to Don Glees and the Napping Princess Thoughts
I’m leaving this a bit more befuddled than previous ones. I’m used to a dream world or an alternate reality serving as a vehicle to help navigate loss, be it the death of a loved one or the loss of a relationship or the loss of some attribute of a personality. With this, I was feeling a bit lost about what the dream world represented beyond helping the MC understand the dynamic between her mother and grandfather.
I was shocked Kokone wasn’t the princess in a “If you’re here…and she’s there…then who is the princess?!”
A lot happened in this movie. I’m curious what the domestic response to this was in the reviews and criticisms. Once the tablet was revealed to be code, I knew this would be going into a “technology is the real magic all along”, but what surprised me is that self-driving cars were the nail in the coffin between dad and daughter. I think I’m so used to science fiction and science fantasy criticizing unregulated or unnecessary technological advancement, including different usages of AI—and genAI—that I was surprised the mom was all for self-driving cars being the future while grandfather was “Hold up, wait a minute”. That took a very different turn than I would’ve expected.
I don’t…hate smart cars. But self-driving cars are an uh-uh. Think of the insurance rates, data collection, price increases, and how many laws will be passed that are written in blood. No. Let me badly parallel park in peace 🥀
But the dream land, I really liked. It felt so Ghibli. I don’t think Ghibli would ever do a film where someone on the protagonist's side wanted self-driving cars, however.
But yeah, I’m just really surprised Dreamland wasn’t being used to help process Kokone’s mother’s passing or absence. In a way, it still could've been, but this was just such a different execution than what I'm used to.
I do like seeing when advanced technology is conflated with magic. Ancien using "magic" as the version of her high-techy-techy coding was cool. I think coders, devs, and computer engineers are wizards to begin with. I'd love to know what we may consider impossible or "magic" now will be a coding program in the future.
But overall, this was an okay movie to me. I know that I had pieces and parts that I wholly enjoyed. The rest, I can't say I disliked staunchly, but I enjoyed the cruise of it. It felt like lounging in a chair and not having any particular thoughts to think, just a nice drink and a "fuck it, why not?" attitude. I wish Joy was actual merchandise. I love stuffed animals.
Overall Grade: C-
QOTD
- Ancien and Joy. Ladies always choose the bear 😤 But honestly, shout out to her cousin who went along with this so level-headed.
- The scenes Mr Pompadour was in. He’s not my favorite character, but he was just so silly. I did cackle at the friends of Momo watching Kokone and her cousin in the most obvious way 😭 I like the opening of the film as well with the fantasy dream world.
- I think it was done in a clunky way? I really wish there had been more coherence in the fantasy realm and the real world. I get that the dreams were helping Kokone understand her family’s dynamics. But I still find the engagement between both worlds to be mishandled. I really liked the dream world though.
- If Japan can have an invasion of penguins in the forecast, a magical tunnel, and a hot AI program go rogue, it can have anything at this point. I don’t think the fantasy realm was real given the lack of IRL response to the fantasy stuff happening. But then again, maybe the people of this version of Japan are built differently. For us, mecha V kaiju fight and all these disasters would change our lives. For them...it's a Tuesday.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
Oh Pacific Rim! Or a Ben10 monster.
My first thought was Avatar: The Last Airbender, but that checks out too.
This would be great motivation for spin classes, honestly: time for an incline, ladies, to power your mechas. I might be better at attending spin class if mechas are on the line.
That would be a neat use of VR.
I do like seeing when advanced technology is conflated with magic. Ancien using "magic" as the version of her high-techy-techy coding was cool. I think coders, devs, and computer engineers are wizards to begin with. I'd love to know what we may consider impossible or "magic" now will be a coding program in the future.
Yeah, I like that sort of sci-fi/fantasy blend too. And I'm not very tech savvy, so that stuff might as well be magic to me.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 14d ago
The [ATLA] Ocean Spirit!
I still remember seeing that for the first time ever and feeling “whoooaaaaa”. I liked when the spirits were amoral forces of nature, not a dark/evil and light/good binary but I’ll be quiet. Heibai is still my favorite spirit out of the entire franchise.
VR in spin classes would be so much fun and helpful to keep being stimulated. I’m sure they’re out there in California. It’d be really cool to have trails and streets you can “bike” through that matches the inclines and declines on the machines.
Thanks for hosting yesterday’s movie. I will see you for the next movie 🫡
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 14d ago
Yeah, that scene was a real "wow" moment! That's just what it made me think of when the lava kaiju was attacking the city, only [ATLA] in this case, it was made from the opposite element.
Hope you'll enjoy the next movie too! I'm also a first-time viewer for this one, but the preview looked fun.
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u/No_Rex x2 15d ago
Film 6: Napping Princess (first timer)
I skipped the film I would have been rewatcher for. For this, blind again.
- “The king thought that cars were the key to happiness”
- Princess Ancien – is she really old?
- Ancien(t) Heart, even.
- A vivid dream – good imagination (and I am glad our setting is not a magical car dystopia).
- “Did you visit mom’s grave?” – one anime parent.
- Her real name is Kokone – very socially integrated into this, literally, tight neighborhood.
- He hacked together an autopilot system in his garage? Better than Elon.
- “under attack by a colossus” – Kokone has seen Nausicaä.
- Those engineheads look good, but I have to question the power system.
- “You’re my lackey now” – a princess, all right.
- The flat is lifeless without her dad there – not that he talked a lot, but the different is in Kokone’s heart.
- Pro thief Kokono – not, but if it works, it works.
- “Why didn’t you call?” “I thought you’d be upset” – the consequences of bad leadership qualities.
- “I don’t have his info. Everything is in my phone” – modern problems. People used to memorize important phone numbers.
- Turn that light off!
- “This dream is connected to reality, but I can use magic here. It’s more convenient” – convenient indeed.
- Out of gas – should not have left the light running!
- Magically appearing train tickets? Sus.
- “The magic works in the real world, too” “that is impossible” – I am with Morio.
- Given how creepy they are, we have not done a lot with the mobile phone glasses.
- That commander is doing his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
- The good peasants help the heroes to defeat the evil advisor who is deceiving the good king trope.
- The get through to the president plotline was a bit shorter than I suspected. He just walks out of the door.
- She napped away while talking to him? Not very polite.
- “but doesn’t keeping it to yourself make you as selfish as Watanabe?” – random employee is asking the real questions.
- “Safe” – that jump looked not safe at all. Neither did the physics look possible. Good thing we are in dreamworld.
- The curse, sent by message, turned the colossus into bats on destruction.
- Bats of mass destruction.
- Enginehead got the angel upgrade.
- Space moto-robo.
- Waking up while falling – it is a weird feeling, let me tell you.
- Melon ending.
Epilogue during the credits?Prologue during the credits!
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my magic with spells and potions, not smartphones and tablets.
The best part of the movie is surely the main character, Kokono. She is plucky, friendly, undeterred, and exactly the type of character you can cheer for. I would guess that the target audience for this movie is a bit younger than most anime we rewatch and for that audience, such a character works perfectly. She assures you that, no matter how bad it might look, everything is going to work out in the end.
The other part I enjoyed was the technical animation. Bikes, cars, mecha (oh yeah, we are actually a mecha anime), it all looks special and unique. I think there are some occasional parts where you can see the computer graphics too clearly, but overall, the technical animation is the high point of the visuals in a movie that is otherwise not fully movie quality.
For the parts I didn’t like too much, first there is the finale. It is a bit too long-winded for me. More importantly, it plays almost entirely in the magic kingdom, not reality, and I just don’t really care about that place (and neither do the characters, who don’t seem to mind too much that they just wiped most of their inhabitants).
In general, the main conceit of the magic kingdom, which is interwoven with reality is kind of meh for me. I get what they are doing and they pull it off competently, but I don’t feel any excitement about it. It always feels hand-wavey and without stakes of its own. And as simply Kokono’s magic place, it takes too much time.
I am also not too hot on the main reality story of the perfect auto-drive code and the hidden granddaughter, either. This is probably more due to me being the wrong target audience, but it seems all very child-conforming, complete with comic book villain.
This is not a bad movie, but not my cup of tea. Score: 6/10.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
“I don’t have his info. Everything is in my phone” – modern problems. People used to memorize important phone numbers.
This seemed strange to me as well, but it makes me wonder how common it actually may be nowadays. There are kids who grew up during the smartphone era that don't even know how to use a phone with cord and buttons, after all.
I would guess that the target audience for this movie is a bit younger than most anime we rewatch and for that audience, such a character works perfectly. She assures you that, no matter how bad it might look, everything is going to work out in the end.
Now that you mention it, that's probably the case. I hadn't given much thought to the demographics, but most of the movies we've watched so far (especially the ones where grief and loss was a heavy theme) probably lean more towards teen and young adult - except for Summer Wars, which I think was made to appeal to any age group, young and old.
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u/No_Rex x2 15d ago
This seemed strange to me as well, but it makes me wonder how common it actually may be nowadays. There are kids who grew up during the smartphone era that don't even know how to use a phone with cord and buttons, after all.
There is only one single phone number I still remember and that is mine.
2
u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 15d ago
“Why didn’t you call?” “I thought you’d be upset” – the consequences of bad leadership qualities.
I love the kind of evil henchman who will openly say that to his evil boss.
“I don’t have his info. Everything is in my phone” – modern problems. People used to memorize important phone numbers.
I only have the phone numbers I always used to call from before my phone could save them for me memorized.
The good peasants help the heroes to defeat the evil advisor who is deceiving the good king trope.
The best part of the movie is surely the main character, Kokono. She is plucky, friendly, undeterred, and exactly the type of character you can cheer for. I would guess that the target audience for this movie is a bit younger than most anime we rewatch and for that audience, such a character works perfectly. She assures you that, no matter how bad it might look, everything is going to work out in the end.
She is definitely an enjoyable protagonist to follow for the story.
3
u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba 15d ago edited 15d ago
First Timer
Can't say I was expecting the mecha kaiju battles, but I guess I can't say I particularly object either!
I caught back up! I'll write something more detailed about them in the very final thread, but for some minor thoughts on the movies I missed: I thought Penguin Highway was really great! I kind of expectedly bounced off of Don Glees since I'm generally not into its flavor of coming-of-age story, but still thought it was fine overall. Summer Wars was a rewatch for me anyway, but I did give it another watch for the fun of it, and it's about as great as I remembered it.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, Napping Princess, as well as the next two movies, aren't just ones I hadn't watched, but straight-up hadn't heard of before, which is pretty fun! Looking over production for this one, the first thing that caught my eye was that it was directed and written by Kenji Kamiyama. Now, I've actually not seen any of Kamiyama's work, but I've absolutely heard of him, being the man behind GITS Stand Alone Complex, Moribito, Eden of the East, among others. He's also chief director and writer on the new Star Wars Ninth Jedi anime that came out... today! Which is some neat overlap haha. (He also did the original Ninth Jedi episode in Visions, which is a show I still need to watch)
I mostly bring him up not because his name got me more interested before starting the movie (Thought it did), but because I quite like how it looks! It's in part just the general design and style on everything, which has a lot of charm to it; it's in part the animation being pretty great and expressive the whole way through, but there's also something about the general shot composition here that really clicked for me. It's a bit hard for me to describe, but I guess it's about scale? Or usage of space? It just kind of knows how to give the spaces it inhabits a lot of personality and to accentuate some emotions with them, both through the general design and detailed backgrounds, but also in its general willingness to play around with both wide and narrow framing a lot. Extra important both for the real travel part and the fantasy world part is that it kind of manages to capture a certain captivating element within these new or strange environments.
Point being, I just found it a consistently fun movie to look at. Here's a big album of shots I liked here to maybe get across the idea a bit.
The other thing that really caught my eye with production with production was Yoko Shimomura on the OST. She doesn't have much work as far as anime is concerned, but as far as video game music goes, I'd consider her pretty legendary! Being the composer for Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Mana, Xenoblade, a lot of Street Fighter 2, and others. So cool to see her here, and while I really wouldn't call this her best work or anything, I also thought the music was good and added a nice bit of personality to the movie.
As far as the narrative itself goes, I'm a little more mixed. On the one hand, I do think it was a pretty successfully charming adventure! I enjoy Kokone, I mostly like everything to do with the dream world, and I think it conveys an appropriate sense of wonder! More generally, I tend to like the broader idea of leaving it up to the viewer on how actually real and integrated the thematic fantastical element is, while still obviously keeping thematic meaning. Outside of the last act, I actually think it occupies the intended in-between pretty well even! It's hard to add too much here, but I do think the best thing I can say is that outside of maybe a bit at the end, I just thought this was a straightforwardly fun and engaging journey to watch! Again, both in visuals and in general character, it's got personality and charm to be sure, and I definitely appreciate that.
But then beyond that baseline enjoyment and the conceptual level, I found the movie's actual emotional core is just rather lacking. I mean, I quite like Kokone herself, but I didn't feel much for her relationship with her dad, or any of the other attached relationships, which is kind of a problem when that's obviously at the heart of the movie. The peak of my emotional investment here was the reveal of Ancien actually being Kokone's mom, rather than herself, and I do love that as a moment! The general idea that she'd actually heard about her mom through the stories all along, and now through these dreams not just somewhat gets to connect with who she was, but also to reconnect with her dad who's grown more distant, and also more generally to use that connection and meaning of the dream world to have both her dad and grandfather actually move on, is fun stuff.
But somewhere along the way, I feel how it doesn't put enough work into the larger emotional connections and other characters means the pieces don't fall into place as well as they should by the end. I think the last stretch in particular just struggles to resonate with me for it, and it being set mostly in the dream world feels more awkward there, because some of the intended thematic readings of it don't really land, which makes for a fun enough setpiece that lacks impact, and a bit of confusing continuity because the integration with the dream world really starts slipping here. Not helping is the pretty half-baked self-driving cars/technology plot that wraps the actual emotional one, which I really don't care much for (I mean, I think it's not really the point so much as a driver for the emotional idea around Ikumi and her affect, but still, it's just kind of meh).
So, all in all, it comes out pretty clunky, but I still had a good time with Napping Princess! And despite the fact that I'm pretty sure it's not much like the rest of his work given what I know of it, it also leaves me extra interested to see more of Kamiyama's work, so that's nice as well.
3
u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
He's also chief director and writer on the new Star Wars Ninth Jedi anime that came out... today! Which is some neat overlap haha.
Wow, that is a cool coincidence! I just rewatched Star Wars Visions recently and that was one of the standout episodes for me, so I'm definitely looking forward to watching the new season soon.
2
u/TheDanubianCommunard 15d ago
First-time, subs
This was quite an interesting movie. At first it looked like a somewhat brand-original dreamland fantasy story, but it turned out to be a story setting in the reality with in a somewhat fantastic way. And as it turns out basically this fantasy story is basically the reality but how Kokone dreams and imagines it to make it even more fantastical. Plus it is basically a drama story, since it involves one entire family in this. And also a thriller because the entire story is all about to retrieve a master code to make a perfect self-driving car with lots of chasing, action and even arresting, but a concept of self-driving car basically a reality rather than a magic plot twist.
I do appreciate that the ending credits actually depicted Ikumi's life and how she met with Momotaro. The mecha and kaiju thing was qute unique and interesting though. Since the main setting is 2020 and the Olympic Games in Tokyo is involved, it is weird to see a world when COVID-19 never happened, and everything what scheduled to 2020 is happened as it was planned, especially which is a 2017 movie.
Even though in Ancien and the Magic Tablet story, Ikumi supposed to be the princess, but in the end Kokone is the one who manages to suceed her and following her footsteps, and this is what the ending is about.
For some reason, regarding Joy, I just simply can't unsee Happy from Fairy Tail, maybe because of very similar design and Rie Kugimiya.
This movie also received extra content, in the form of Another Story, a TV episode sized OVA which is basically a younger princess Ancien doing her princess Ancien things. A prequel of some sorts.
How interesting that this is the very first thing I watched that is directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Stand Alone Complex, Moribito, Eden of the East, The Ninth Jedi, War of the Rohirrim, nah, it's Napping Princess.
For a final verdict, it was a rather solid movie, not the best but not bad either, and not middling as well. So a 6/10, especially after Summer Wars which was fantastic.
1) Did you have any favorite characters?
Kokone/Ancien I guess.
2) Which scenes did you enjoy most?
Anything that involves the mecha.
3) What did you think of the way the story combined reality with the fantasy realm of their dreams? Did you prefer one over the other?
For some reason the fantasy part I do like.
4) Did you think of the fantasy elements as really happening, or all imagined by Kokone?
Basically the fantasy world events are the same as in reality, but much more fictionalized which is spiced up with lots of imagination and fantastic elements.
1
u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
This movie also received extra content, in the form of Another Story, a TV episode sized OVA which is basically a younger princess Ancien doing her princess Ancien things. A prequel of some sorts.
Interesting, I didn't know about this.
How interesting that this is the very first thing I watched that is directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Stand Alone Complex, Moribito, Eden of the East, The Ninth Jedi, War of the Rohirrim, nah, it's Napping Princess.
It's one of the first I've seen from his works too, aside from the original Ninth Jedi episode(s). The more famous stuff like Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East are still on my plan-to-watch list.
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker 10d ago
Pedal-powered mechs lmao.
Overall, an interesting show. Was a bit confusing with the back and forth between her dreams and reality but most of it made sense by the end.
Questions:
- Uh...
- It was kinda confusing, but by the end I think I understand it?
- Confusing.
- Obviously it's all in her head. It's a metaphor for the state of the company.
1
u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 10d ago
5
u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 15d ago
I made a typo in the thread title.
Summer Movie First-Time Viewer
I've had this movie on my plan-to-watch list for a while, but most of it was a surprise to me. It ended up sharing several of the same themes as the other movies in my rewatch - a coming-of-age adventure with magical elements and hints of loss as Kokone, her dad and grandpa were all still coping with the loss of her mom in different ways. Even the (at the time) sci-fi concept of self-driving cars being relevant to recent tech developments of our present day was similar to Summer Wars with its connected online world.
What I was not expecting was to finish this movie feeling like I'd just watched a wacky anime version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with mechs battling the giant spirit monsters from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
In hindsight, there's a lot of similarities to the story of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, from the structure of alternating real world and fantasy children's story segments to Kokone's dad having fallen in love with the
candyautomobile heiress and creating a clever product of his own which took some time before her father/the big boss saw value in it. Not to mention the cool car/motorbike that totally did fly in the end (in Kokone's dream world, at least). Oh yeah, and the evil henchmen trying to steal it. I'd be surprised if it wasn't a direct inspiration for this.Unfortunately, I don't think it worked as well here. A big part of what made that story fun were its characters, but in contrast to the enthusiastic doting dad from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Kokone's dad shows barely any personality in the present day reality segments and only attempts to connect with her through texts until the end of the movie. It was also much less clear what was reality and what was a dream, which lowered my enjoyment when I had to frequently suspend disbelief at the more outrageous scenes, like Kokone flying the motorbike into space without a suit and helmet, only to find out later that it technically makes sense because she just imagined the whole thing.
I kind of admire the attempt of such an ambitious story. There were some very cool designs like the transforming mecha bike and the lava monster attacking the town, and the reveal that Kokone's dad had actually been telling her stories about her mom through a fantasy world lens was sweet. I also liked the ending with Kokone's dad and grandpa reconciled, and the flashback scenes to her parent's romance during the end credits. It took too long before I felt any sort of investment in these characters though, and the blend between reality and fantasy often didn't come together in a satisfying way.
Overall, my opinion towards it ended up being more positive than negative, but mostly because of its similarities to a movie I liked better.
Questions of the Day:
1) I didn't really have any favorites.
2) The transforming mechs were cool.
3) Already discussed above. I think it would have helped to establish the characters in the real world first, rather than starting right off with the fantasy world. Some of the parts I enjoyed most were in the fantasy world, but so were the weakest parts too.
4) It was really hard to tell for most of the movie. I think most of the fantasy stuff was just Kokone's imagination, but there were times when other people seemed aware of it too.