Ame wo Tsugeru Hyouryuu Danchi

vampirevore

~~~

This review is, as per usual, largely spoiler free, but people have different thresholds for this stuff, and what I consider non-spoiler content may be a bit too far for you, so consider this your sole warning if you wanted to go into the movie completely blank, if you still want to know the score and/or get a tl;dr of the review, then you can skip to just after the last rainbow breaker. img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)

_Drifting Home_ is a movie that was just released on Netflix the other day, and in true Netflix fashion, I only happened to come across it by chance on my home feed rather than seeing any trailers or promotional material for it. That meant that I of course went into it mostly blind, with zero real expectations or idea of what kind of story I would be in for, since I didn’t even read the synopsis before letting the Netflix app queue it up. What I got was a movie revolving around a fairly small cast of characters, all children, pretty much just trying to survive and find their way back home after getting unexpectedly stranded in the middle of the sea. A core part of the story, if not the core part of the story, is the relationship that some of these kids have with the past, as they learn how to let things go in order to be able to find happiness in the present.

As a consequence of the rather personal journey that some of the cast experiences, the story feels like one that entirely lives or dies on how much you’re able to connect to its main characters. Natsume and Kousuke are the ones that get the most fleshed out throughout the roughly 2 hour runtime of this movie, with all three of their arcs being tied directly to the apartment building they lived in together as children, and which is itself a physical remnant and reminder of the time that they spent with Yasuji - Kousuke’s grandfather - before he died. While the two have different reactions to their grief, the paths they took prior to the start of the story ultimately led them to the same outcome - a complete inability to move on. Being stranded together forces them into direct confrontation with this fact, and with each other, forming the basis of the interpersonal drama and tension that keeps the movie grounded even as it becomes somewhat more fantastical in its latter portions. In the last act of the movie, they try to take a physical manifestation of their past back home with them, and their failure in that endeavour reflects the message that you can never truly live and be happy in the present if you keep tying yourself to your past memories, even if those memories are happy ones. Not every character here has something to reflect on, though, and a couple of them in particular - while certainly still notable presences in the story - aren’t memorable enough for their names to have even registered in my mind at any point while I was watching. If you don’t care for any of these characters and their arcs in the first 40 minutes or so, though, I don’t personally think there’s going to be much value for you in seeing it through to the end, because there’s not much else going on.

It would probably be a fair criticism to say that the movie drags on a bit longer than it needs to. While I did care for Noppo and Reina, the way things unfolded towards the end felt drawn out just to try to wrap up their arcs in particular when it wasn’t quite necessary, and they had already gotten a reasonable amount of growth and progression. This is an example of a broader pattern that pervades this movie, whether we’re talking about the last act or isolated moments scattered across its run, it builds and rides atop a wave of tension, and seems unable to let itself take off even as the crest of that wave declines. There’s moments that by all rights should be emotionally impactful, but just aren’t, as a consequence of how it keeps trying to go for a 10 on the tension scale over and over again. These kids had their lives at risk so often that when one of them did actually get seriously injured, I didn’t have much of an emotional reaction at all, though it’s definitely worth noting that the way it was animated was uncomfortable enough to watch that I did at least wince. Sticking with the negatives a little longer, the pacing issue also affected the dialogue, insofar as characters ended up circling around the same conversation and conflicts. It wasn’t repetitive enough to be actively annoying, for the most part, but it was tedious at points with Reyna in particular, and with how much the movie seems to want us to remember that Kousuke and Natsume played football together. Speaking of those two characters, though, the subtitles near the start of the movie were a bit confusing because while the voice actors kept referring to Natsume as a she, the subs had a line about her and Kousuke (not) being brothers. This mixup in pronouns doesn’t happen at any other point of the movie, so I have to assume it was just a mistake. Yes, I know that gender and pronouns are not synonymous, but there’s literally just nothing else to work with in the text of the film.

From a technical perspective, _Drifting Home_ is simply phenomenal. The soundtrack is consistently on point, the animation is not only flawless but inventive in its use of 2D and 3D elements, the art makes what should be a bleak and dreary environment still manage to feel immersive, and equal parts wondrous and terrifying as and when the situation demands it. I have absolutely nothing but praise for what the director and animators and everyone else involved in the production managed to pull off in these aspects of the film. What I do have a minor comment on, which is really just a bit of a weird tangent, is the fact that Bryce Papenbrook is the English voice actor for Kousuke. With how recognisable his voice is as Eren Jaeger from Attack on Titan, I thought it would be a major distraction for me when I started watching the movie, but after long enough I actually almost forgot. On the whole, really, I didn’t have high hopes for the English dub, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well literally all of the voice actors did, not a single one of them felt out of place or stilted, and that may have contributed to my enjoyment of the overall work. img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)

Overall, then, this is a movie that - as long as you’re able to resonate with its main characters - is an enjoyable watch, with reflections on grief and personal growth helping to keep its interesting and visually immersive world grounded and engaging for its audience. Even with the issues that stem from its relatively poor pacing and its approach which risks everything on its characters, _Drifting Home_ is probably still worth checking out, and earns a respectable score of __75 out of 100__. ~~~

heychrisfox

The biggest issue with this film was mixed messaging and missed expectations. img(https://fictionhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Drifiting-Home-anime-movie.jpg) Given the premise of this film, it seems like it's going to be a band of crazy kids stuck on an apartment in the middle of the ocean. I interpreted that as a fun little romp, a silly adventure where the kids struggle, but bond, grow up, and have a unique time in their lives. That... is not what happens. This film is surprisingly dark. It's more akin to a less dense version of Lord of the Flies mixed with Life of Pi than a cute, fun adventure movie. The kids are actually struggling here. They have to ration meals, struggle to survive, use their wits, and strain against the stress of their situation. Injury and chance of death is very real in this world. People's heads get bashed, people fall into glass, or slip off metal sharp metal poles. Starvation looms, tensions flare, life is on the line. img(https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/EN-US_DriftingHome_Teaser_Vertical_RGB_PRE.jpg) Look at the pictures and all the promotional material for this show. Would you say that description above matches it? This is the core problem: what looks, at first, to be a lighthearted and fun adventure is actual a survival story. And if your expectations aren't aligned with that, you're going to be a bit confused by the genre division. But there are other issues at play. Namely that the screenplay is exceptionally convoluted and bloated. The reason for this seems to be that they came up with the core concept for the film, and had a strong idea of the ending, but had no idea how to fill the second act of the film. This film has it all. Of course the survival aspects are present, including all the struggles that come with that genre. But there's also shintoism, fantasy magic, light romantic tension, character drama, childlike joie de vivre, ghosts, nostalgic drama... there is so MUCH in this film, so many things that the film wants to say and address. And the problem with Drifting Home, just like other films that want to say a lot, is that it's hard to fit so many different, disparate topics and ideas into one film and make things cohesive. img(https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XniONyJBlBvTWJvvEoUBWd7TwCo=/0x0:1920x872/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x872):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24029185/05_DriftingHome_sub3.jpg) At its core, Drifting Home is a character drama. It's about the kids doing everything they can to survive while also straining against each other's personalities. The problem is, the screenplay is a bit incompetent in this regard. The way Drifting Home interprets drama and conflict is through arguments. A problem will arise ("we're running out of food"), so the kids start to argue. The argument will talk about how there's no food, someone will say "we'll make it work," and then a third-party will say "we have to work together." Then everyone agrees to do their best. But then, hey, no food again, and the exact same argument happens, in the exact same way, just featuring different characters; then the argument gets resolved in the same way, everyone goes back to normal, until the next thing spawning an argument. The arguments also don't really change a lot; it's not like there are new problems that the kids argue about, it's the same core problems of trying to survive that always inflame tensions. This makes the arguing itself extremely repetitive and annoying, because you remember this same problem being resolved 10 minutes ago, but now they're just fighting again. It becomes nonsensical. There's also an issue that the cast is quite large as well. Seven is a crowd, and although everyone has a foil to bounce off of, trying to characterize and give everyone a valuable arc in the film is a struggle within the screenplay. There's a whole lot of talking, yelling, brooding, etc., and much of this is inconsequential to the broader plot the film is delivering. This muddies everything, making delivering conclusions on everyone's arcs difficult. There's a scene near the end where all the characters have this emotional moment regarding themselves as characters. The problem is, it happens so suddenly, that it's over after a second, and feels extremely unfulfilling, because it doesn't feel like we had enough time to learn about everyone's personal situation for the moment to really pay off. img(https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/drifting-home-movie-review-2022/drifting-home-movie-review-2022.jpeg) This is because a deeper core of this movie is the relationship between the two protagonists: Kousuke and Natsume. They're childhood friends, and childhood sweethearts, but also straining under the shared relationship of Kousuke's grandfather who passed away many years before. But because this film is a survival film, that core premise takes a back seat to them working together to survive. As such, we don't get enough time to see these characters emotionally bonding in a way that doesn't involve tension or conflict. The present day has left them both emotionally fraught, so it's difficult for them to act like real friends, especially in a survival situation; but we, as viewers, WANT TO SEE THAT, because we know they care about each other, and never get the opportunity to experience that outside of a couple scenes here and there, or outside of flashbacks. img(https://www.slashfilm.com/img/gallery/drifting-home-release-date-cast-and-more/l-intro-1651070654.jpg) That isn't to say the film is all bad. It nails the visual aesthetics, and all the character designs are amazing. The animation is stunning as ever, which is to be expected from Studio Colorido and Ishida himself. There's also quite a lot of expertly crafted CG, which is rare in anime. But a few good compliments and a nice initial vibe cannot combat the weight of a messy screenplay, which inevitably drags this film down from being better than it could have been. It's an unfortunate sophomore slump for an otherwise ultra talented director, and is a strong example of "telling not showing" and how a bloated screenplay can really drag down an experience. If this film had focused on its core ideals: nostalgia, drama, and character bonding, this would have been a fantastic experience. Unfortunately, it throws everything including the kitchen sink into the mix as well, along with an overly mature and dangerous tone, which drags down the entire production.

DirToshimasa

Questa recensione contiene spoiler? Forse si, forse no. Ovvio che si. Per me ogni informazione, anche minima, è uno spoiler. Ho visto questo anime senza nemmeno guardare i trailer che sostanzialmente rovinano l'intero film perché sono pieni di spoiler. A me questo film è apparso davanti e per curiosità l'ho guardato, avevo scarse aspettative, anzi scarsissime, pensavo "ora lo apro e vedo dopo quanti secondi lo chiudo" invece l'ho visto fino alla fine. Ti consiglio di vederlo prima di leggere qualsiasi recensione e/o vedere trailer, non te ne pentirai. img(https://occ-0-325-1567.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/E8vDc_W8CLv7-yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8/AAAABV1tDJfwnX4jaFnblJF-IdBCNlIQPbXmpfqzppifBMqBlSFFy8eCXouAc1cr9nLFO4ryMEpEXtYAC5ynHUfsZ35R1ItGjGhhkTmT.jpg) __La casa tra le onde__ è un anime con una buona animazione, buone colonne sonore, bei disegni e soprattutto una bella storia scorrevole però non è solo una simpatica avventura, come si può pensare guardando la copertina colorata e sgargiante, perché non è troppo infantile ed è leggermente "cupa" con una leggera presenza di sangue ma la visione rimane adatta a tutti. I protagonisti sono dei bambini delle elementari che durante una pericolosa lite sul tetto di un edificio abbandonato, destinato alla demolizione, si ritroveranno a navigare su questo edificio in mezzo al mare e dovranno cercare di sopravvivere per tornare dalle proprie famiglie. Il messaggio rappresentato attraverso questa lotta alla sopravvivenza, secondo me è che il mare in cui navigano, rappresenta "il mare dei ricordi" e l'edificio su cui navigano è uno dei ricordi dei due protagonisti che non riescono a staccarsi di dosso per via dei bei ricordi andati che non torneranno più e vari tormenti dovuti a rimorsi. Il "navigare troppo in mezzo ai tormenti" può uccidere per questo motivo quando questo ricordo a forma di Palazzo si imbatterà in altri brutti ricordi o bei ricordi che vogliono rivivere, alla lunga si scontreranno e la loro "nave" rischierà di affondare e se cadranno in mare rischieranno di essere inghiottiti dall'oblio senza poter riemergere in superficie e morire. I tormenti vengono rappresentati con una tormenta e il malessere è raffigurato come un ombra nera in fondo al mare pronta ad afferrarli e ucciderli. I protagonisti combatteranno se stessi per superare questi brutti ricordi/tormenti e anche quelli belli (spoiler immenso) ~!si salveranno "dall'affondare" (sia metaforicamente che letteralmente) proprio "agganciandosi" a un bel ricordo che li farà riemergere e una volta che si saranno liberati dal peso che si tengono dentro "alleggerendosi" voleranno verso la salvezza.!~ Potresti pensare che La casa tra le onde doveva essere fatto meglio perché vedere bambini di 9-10 anni trasportati in un mondo in cui affrontano i loro ricordi da cui non riescono a staccarsi di quando avevano 3-4 anni dicendo "ah quando ero bambino", come se ora fossero degli adulti, o vedere una ragazzina a caso all'improvviso fare cose che anche chi fa parkour non sarebbe in grado di fare, dopo che per tutto il tempo l'anime non sembrava staccarsi troppo dalla realtà, potrebbe farti strano ma ci può stare. Comunque La casa tra le onde non mi ha annoiato è sicuramente un buon anime non solo per il messaggio. Per me è priorità "9 su 10". [English]( https://translate.google.com)

GreenRevue

As reductive as this statement is, and as off-base as it likely is in many different ways, the magical realism present within this film and what I have seen from Colorido and Ishida, as well as their sense for character designs, make them feel like in some ways a post-Ghibli force. I hope they can keep up their strengths (namely their stellar aesthetics) and improve further in the future. Drifting Home opens very well, with a relatively charismatic cast, yet also considering they are kids and thus act as such emotionally at several points, a suitably frustrating one. Though ultimately some feel underdeveloped but not in a way that I found particularly reductive to the quality of the work overall, it works. Drifting Home, also early on creates a gorgeous opening(ish) sequence I really want to note, utilising Ishida's tendency to create free flowing dynamic shots, with editing a time-lapse of sorts, an aesthetically pleasing nostalgic filter (looks like chromatic aberration), and charming character animation. It shows happy memories in a happy way. It's dynamic, but not distractingly so, just the right amount, creative and free. The film as a whole looks great, not just in its overall aesthetic (colours, backgrounds, character designs), but in its measured shot choice/ storyboarding, and charming animation. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/13b74c988915d7b11ba9037b0373f59a.mp4) The sequence near the start I mentioned ^^^ ~!webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/b6e2ad896c5e95c82320b8e0a96739cb.mp4)!~ For just a few examples of this looking good using some moments in this short scene spoiler tagged above. ~!0:00 to 0:04 has a great sense of scale, 0:04 to 0:09 impactful dynamic camera movement, and 0:18 to 0:23 strong three dimensionality and an impactful movement of a character from the background into the foreground.!~ Continuing on, after the opening sections, the story delves into it's main setup, the drifting section, which suffers in my opinion from feeling a tad repetitive in drama, overlong in pacing, and predictable in one of the plot beats in a way that felt it mildly took away from later events, but not hugely so. As a result of these notions, I felt my attention and entertainment lagging throughout a large portion of the middle section, but the interesting world, and impressive aesthetic, kept my attention in the end. While I definitely still wish this middle section was less frustrating and shortened, with some jarring tonal shifts in places as well, the frustration that came with the character drama at least, if not the pacing, felt arguably necessary in ways to the emotional climax. As I said earlier, when we are kids we act in ways driven almost solely by emotions which can be frustrating, as much for us as others, which provided some repetitiveness in the middle and irritation, compounding on my pre-existing struggles in places with the pacing, However, this drama ultimately felt natural in ways, and the build up of frustration led to an emotional explosion near the end, where great dialogue is screamed out in a very anime melodrama way, though not unrealistic in my eyes. It hits hard and caused me to shed a few tears, in a large part due to the way it resolves and builds off the previous structure of drama. A great scene. Overall, I really enjoyed this, it has great aesthetic sensibilities, and while I struggled to stay fully engaged with its pacing and structure, and found some plot points (mainly Noppo) a bit irritating, it ultimately hits hard with its ending, and justifies some of its earlier frustrations in the process. I found this very good as a whole, around a 7.5/10 I think. Drifting Home understands the emotional frustration that comes with not only blaming yourself, but also blaming others, and the difficulty that comes with doing both separately yet very much from trying to do both at the same time while your emotions scream at you, unable to get a full hold of them and move forward. It pushes forward the importance of memory, and asks you to remember and keep dear the positives of the past, but also urges a movement forward, past the flower covered but decaying lands of the past ~!(good and poignant world design there)!~ and into the future. It asks you to both take responsibility but to understand where it ends, and where the future should not be shackled to the past. Ultimately, Drifting Home becomes a powerful meditation on multiple emotions, and a strong coming of age story that paints Colorido and Ishida as (hopefully) more and more powerful forces in the anime industry going forward.

Juliko25

Man, Studio Colorido's been on a roll lately, what with all the good stuff they've been churning out in recent years. They mainly do a lot of key and in-between animation for other shows made by other studios, and a lot of their own output consists of shorts or web series. They have started transitioning to making movies, with their first being _Penguin Highway_, which I haven't seen. I mainly know them for the _Pokemon Twilight Wings_ and _PokeToon_ web series, both of which are absolutely amazing, with one of their PokeToons, _Yume no Tsubomi_ being my absolute favorite Pokemon anime of all time. I did see their second movie, _A Whisker Away_, and I thought it was kinda meh. Thankfully, their newest film, _Drifting Home_, which just dropped on Netflix, fares a lot better in both its concept and execution, and is just a really nice, delightful kids movie. Kosuke and Natsume have been best friends since early childhood, and they often spent a lot of their time at Kosuke's grandfather Yasuji's apartment. Unfortunately, Kosuke and Natsume got into a fight at one point, and Yasuji dies shortly afterward, leaving their relationship strained as a result. The apartment complex they spent so much time in is now abandoned and due to be demolished soon. One day, Kosuke and Natsume, along with four other kids, find themselves in the abandoned apartment complex...and wind up getting magically transported to what appears to be the middle of the ocean, completely blocked off from civilization. Things get even stranger when they come across another kid, Noppo, whom nobody but Natsume recognizes. With no sign of civilization in sight, the kids have to band together to survive, dealing with all manner of dangers like food shortages and the already dilapidated apartment complex gradually crumbling around them. So yeah, as it turns out, _Drifting Home_ is a survival anime, and a damn effective one, surprisingly enough. Having just come off playing _Digimon Survive_, which tackles very similar themes, _Drifting Home_ is basically a kids version of that, but much lighter in tone and without an actual antagonist, though that doesn't make the movie any less engaging and heartbreaking when it needs to be. _Drifting Home_'s biggest strength is how much it commits to its themes of survival without skimping on details or trying to make things more convenient for itself. For one, when characters get injured, they stay injured, and their wounds stick around for the entirety of the movie. The characters' clothes get torn and don't get magically fixed like some other shows tend to do. _Drifting Home_ takes absolutely nothing for granted, showing the characters actively trying to find ways to survive, like finding food or boiling rainwater to make it drinkable, things that most anime only tend to show one or two scenes of. Because of the main characters being a bunch of children, there's even more danger to it because their actions could easily either save them or get them killed. One scene later in the movie shows Natsume trying to save a girl from falling to her death, but her method of saving her, while preventing her from drowning, winds up giving her a serious head injury that could either have killed her or made her sustain serious brain damage, even though realistically, Natsume literally had no other options. Hard decisions are made, and the movie is fantastic at really giving everything a real sense of palpable tension and serious stakes. The same amount of detail is in the animation as well: One thing I noticed in a lot of Colorido's portfolio is that their animation is heavy on fluid, dynamic movement. The characters move realistically and very few corners are cut in comparison to your average anime. The colors are vivid and bright when needed, the setting is down to earth yet surprisingly full of life considering the characters spent all their time in one location, and said location actually looks like a decaying, aging building, with cracks and dirt on every surface, with weeds growing in places they shouldn't. The character designs also toe the line between being cartoony and realistic, similar to a lot of the older _Digimon_ anime. I don't have as much to say on the soundtrack, but it does its job nicely, and the few songs it has are okay too. Even the characters and their development is surprisingly down-to-earth in spite of the slightly fantastical situation they find themselves in. Now, keep in mind, the characters are all elementary-aged children, and depending on your tolerance for certain archetypes, you're guaranteed to find one of two of them annoying. Reina especially is designed to get on your nerves. But the movie does well in developing them over the course of its run time, and they all manage to find ways to make the best of their situation. Plus, the movie is careful to remind us that these are just children, not super OP isekai protags who get everything handed to them on a silver platter. They're not always going to make the best decisions, and they're all engagingly flawed but still relatable. That being said, I really didn't like Reina's constant complaining and blaming Natsume for everything, even though the only reason Reina is in this situation with them is that she herself willingly went to the abandoned apartment just so she could she could have an excuse to hang out with Kosuke. Really, Reina, you only have yourself to blame for this. Plus, I wish the movie had bothered to mention Juri's name earlier in the movie, not wait until an hour into its run. Of course, Reina's whininess isn't the only problem the movie has. It's biggest issue is that it's very...blunt in its themes and messages. It makes absolutely no secret of the fact that it's a story about grief, letting go, and moving on, and often times its visual imagery and symbolism have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. Granted, this is a little understandable since _Drifting Home_ is obviously aimed at a younger audience, but it could have benefited from trusting its audience a bit more. The lack of subtlety also results in the movie dragging a bit near the end, when it starts getting bogged down by its desire to explain its own subtext. That being said, I can forgive this because the movie still manages to be a pretty engaging and thrilling survival movie without trying to be the epic of the year. _Drifting Home_ knows what it is, commits to its ideas, and doesn't give a damn about putting its characters in legitimate peril. I can definitely see certain overzealous parents freaking the hell out about the situations the characters in this movie find themselves in. Others might claim the movie is bogged down by emo melodrama, though I've seen other stuff that's way worse about this (*coughcough_VampireInTheGarden_coughcough*). But yeah, I honestly really liked _Drifting Home_, and I really recommend you watch it if you're looking for a survival movie that doesn't feel sensationalized or like it's only caring more about special effects. Also, I really hope Studio Colorido gets to do more things, like more movies or even TV series. Considering their repertoire so far, I can't wait to see what else they come up with in the future.

C00kieMaster

First of all a little comment regarding the recommendations for this movie ~!THIS IS NOTHING LIKE [SONNY BOY](https://anilist.co/anime/132126/Sonny-Boy/) NO NO NO NO NO!~ Ok back to my 2 cents about this movie. It is pretty good. I don't think it has any major flaws and it handle its animation and writing pretty well. Drifting home follows the adventures of a bunch of kids finding themselves stranded in an alternate world through mysterious circumstances. In order to return back to their original world they have to work together to survive and find a way to escape. I watched this in the mandarin dub on Netflix and find the quality of the voice acting pretty good. Comparing with the English and Japanese voices in the movie, I think the Japanese dub is superb as expected but the English voice actors sound like damn adults and not kids as depicted which really took me out of it. The mandarin voice actors definitely sounded like their age which is a huge plus despite not on the quality of the Japanese. Studio Colorido's animation is a visual treat to behold as usual. Their art style is distinctly cute, clean and full of aesthetically perfect colors. I like their character design a lot, each of them are really easily recognizable. The dynamic feeling of the animation is really consistent and it really feels like I am watching _an animation_. This is something that I feel Studio Coloridio really stands out from other studios. Just like the previous work that I watched from them: [ A whisker away](https://anilist.co/anime/114963/A-Whisker-Away/), scenes always feel dynamic even on mundane scenes such as having simple conversations, sitting around or walking. This is something that I really appreciate as it really keeps my focus because things are actually moving instead of the usual single image pan or cropping the legs so they don't need to animate the walking. Studio Colorido is a really hardworking studio that does not cut corners in depicting movement on screen! In terms of the writing it does suffer slightly on the pacing. I don't think it needed to be almost 2 hours long. There are some unnecessarily dragged out events in the earlier part of the film that felt repetitive and long. This is a minor issue tho because the other half of the movie is well paced in my opinion. The way they handle tense moments in the rising action is done really well, I am actually worried about what is going to happen to these poor kids when I was watching. The story is nothing too complex and I believe it is in the design to be that way. It is easy to follow and they really develop the 2 main characters really well. The side characters did not feel unnecessary as they do a good job as supporting characters in the story. A really simple and straightforward message and narrative about what family means and the sentimental attachment one can get from a loving home. Overall a really cute and heartwarming experience. I love the warm fuzzy feelings it left me.

TheBlueBoxGuy

__Quickie Review #2__ >"One day, two now-estranged childhood friends, Kousuke and Natsume, stumble upon their old apartment which is about to be demolished, and out of nowhere, find themselves transported alongside other companions literally drifting across the sea. Residing in the apartment complex as a base, they gradually unravel the truth of this strange phenomenon as they journey to survive in this fantastical and unpredictable adventure." That's the immediate premise of Drifting Home. Off the bat, this movie is the child of a typical Ghibli film (gives off "Ponyo" vibes) and the dazzling animation of "Your Name" - a Shinkai movie. It most definitely is, carrying those elements compressed in an endearing fashion. Still, I never knew a Netflix-co-produced animated film would concoct such emotion, but here we are at a strange time. Speaking of strange times, I was sick at the moment that day, so what was something I can do to pass time in hopes I could get better? You might screech out, "Rest, of course!" And looking back, that should have been what I should be doing, but nope. I was binging through the Netflix catalogue when I first found it, face-to-face, no, eye-to-screen. Sure, I was oddly intrigued with the premise of a "lost at sea" movie, and noticing its alluring visual charm observing the now-being-played snippet, I clicked play. What came next, however, was something else. You know that feeling when someone recommends you a very obscure show and you're like, "Psst, there's no way it can be THAT good." In this case, that's exactly what I was expecting from this ONA movie but, reality proved me otherwise, for the most part at least. ~~~img(https://media.tenor.com/2ClQHdOdyKgAAAAC/drifting-home-ending.gif)~~~ Directed by Hiroyasu Ishida ("Penguin Highway") ("Rain Town"), who has experimented with the visual flair of simply, the art of water, and animated by animation Studio "Studio Colorido", they have managed to assemble a perceptually breathtaking movie - the art of anime as a medium enriched comparable to a Makoto Shinkai film ("Your Name") ("5 Centimeters per Second"). Yes, the animation is prosperous, solid and surprisingly fluid. The stillness of one frame, enhanced by the sharp glare of lighting, illuminating a montage expressed with utter silence - the narrator's role is passed onto the visuals, conveying the adolescent struggles adrift in an expansive sea of sunken waste. There are moments like these that permeate and radiate emotional beauty - sympathy and empathy for the characters, who move, act and feel truly alive and human. These instances of character bonding and development frequently occur in the first and second acts, shaping the groundwork for what is to come. However, the movie does not shy away from flipping a complete turnover, displaying the characters' fragmented and distressed behaviour at their lowest of lows. Of course, your lives are at stake here! Still, said moments does not feel overblown, and the movie does a good job of spacing them out. Not to mention, some moments the characters undergo when journeying into the unknown are filled with tension and dread, full of them due to the ONA's unpredictability of twisting things. (Don't worry, it is never too extreme - but it can come out as shocking for some.) The third act further exemplifies this, which I would not spoil, compelling the aforementioned cinematic techniques with dynamic camera angles and movements - the perfect seasoning for a jaw-dropping climax. Ishida and the animation team behind Studio Colorido clearly dedicated their time effort, and conjoined passion to rendering this spectacular animation and fluidity, well done. Well done. Aside from the undivided praise for the visual fidelity, let us move on to the narrative. It is nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, and on the contrary, it is simply charming, sometimes gleeful and at times painstakingly emotional at its core. Unlike many other media, it actually manages to capture my immersion for the most part albeit the pacing was slightly rough for the first half, and overall, the movie felt like it lasted a tad too long, but whatever. What I took away from this was its themes - adolescence and maturity. Adolescence is a significant thematic force within the narrative when the main cast is comprised of middle school children: the bickering, the vulnerability of one another, and most importantly, their friendship - all of which are, but most importantly, the one I find the most compelling is: growth. The impact is relatively rudimentary, but it sticks the landing. Perhaps it is the inner nostalgia reflecting the time when we, the audience, were twelve sprouting back to life is that hidden trigger - who knows? Meanwhile, there are also other thematic forces scattered around, but I'll let you discover and find that for yourself. However, there is one concerning nuisance following the narrative, its plot, - the bizarre third act. Oh god. What could be interpreted to most as the emotional gut punch came to me as a generic shlock. The mysteries of certain aspects were left unexplored, bothering me; the character's actions and narrative direction were questionable, also bothering me. It is not too over-the-top or challenging to follow. However, it felt the writers were desperate to tie the plot into the end, thereby finding a rushed excuse as "so that happened, well here take this breathtaking animation as compensation!" Honestly, it was a massive letdown, a massive, shameful painful letdown. It was going so well, and all you had to do is tie the knot. But somehow, they forgot to tie it together, and somehow, made the whole story worse? Oh boy, a massive letdown indeed. Welp, let's move on to a different department: characters. To have a moving narrative, you will need to write unique and memorable characters. But like every other day in a movie of this calibre, the characters were going to be hollow, and generically bland, right? Well, my answer: not really (to my surprise). They do a decent job establishing the leading characters' arcs (Kousuke and Natsume), but in my opinion, they are pretty forgettable. One whines a lot, one quarrels a lot - already a terrific cast, excellent! However, as the linear narrative commenced, showing signs of character progression and boom - flashbacks started to unwrap more of their past, I was frankly interested, craving for more in hopes this might actually be it, this film actually cared for its characters, unlike [another Netflix-produced/distributed anime film flick released in the same year](https://anilist.co/anime/142455/Bubble). But nope, somehow the writers left it there: just stagnant, untouched. I was waiting for more, but nope, they stopped being relevant. At least they aren't executed terribly such as said terrible Netflix-produced/distributed anime film flick, but it felt like a major disservice with all the previous build-up. Still, to make things up, the writers crafted another character to mingle alongside the aforementioned two disappointments, this character named "Noppo", and when translated, his name is now "Tall". Just like that. No, literally you can look it up. I'm not kidding. _And yes, he's the tallest of them all, so props for symbolism, I guess?_ Well... Noppo itself is the pinnacle of the assemble cast, and by the far the most "crucial" to the overarching plot. But, without spoling anything, he's just a plot device in the end, and it just raises a lot of my eyebrows about him. Meanwhile, the secondary characters were a fun addition, but in the grand scheme of things, they didn't really add anything to the plot; they were just hanging out in the background, just y'know stereotypical background characters. Also, don't expect a montage documenting their future selves, everyone who was isekai'd, at the end of the movie, it never happens. The sound is another key highlight which I adored. The soundtrack was not the greatest composition-wise, but it necessarily served the visuals justice as an accompanying piece. The voice acting was one of the film's greatest strengths and elevated the sheer emotion for me. But what stole the movie for me was its sound design, which was hauntingly stunning. Funnily enough, after initiating some research, this film's sound director, Eriko Kimura, has sound-directed Ponyo, another whimsical, charming sea movie with a typical child being the leading character. Go figure I suppose. ____ Overall, I think Drifting Home can be viewed by anyone who wishes to nosedive deep into their twelve-year-old selves for nostalgic reasons. It definitely surprised me going in. It is charming, and bittersweet and captures that peril all at once, boasting its terrific, dazzling and spectacular animation from Studio Colorido following a beautifully orchestrated sound keeping your attention at bay. The narrative has its problems, yes, and the potential is moderately wasted, and its duration is irritably stretched out, but the message, its moral, is surprisingly impactful, albeit its telling and execution might come off as familiar for some. Shame it would be forgotten any time sooner in the Netflix catalogue, but for all it is worth, you should give it a try. I'll give this one a seventy-two. Sounds about right. ~~~img(https://64.media.tumblr.com/7867da9c9e96aaff369a5e62ee250fc7/db4f6817301578d4-bd/s540x810/63500954eef9c0337378da791a52e89461bdc73e.gifv)~~~ _This is an old review, actually my first review, it was originally posted on MAL, but I decided to put it here after me feeling burnt out over after writing the [Chainsaw Man review](https://anilist.co/review/19897) a few days back. I did rewrite/edit some things here and there, but it shouldn't deviate too much from its OG counterpart. Anyhow, that's all folks, thanks for reading._