The Sky Crawlers
Finally watched this. Been wanting to see it because the poster for it looked nice, and I’ve heard it mentioned in many places. They even made goddamn Pinky:st figures of the main characters. Didn’t know what it was going to be about other than piloting planes or whatever.
Anyways, this movie was true to its name, at least the “crawlers” part, since that was the pace at which the film moved. There were some scenes in the sky, but most of it was on land. Too bad!
Most people would say that this was excruciatingly slow (and objectively speaking, it really was), but I didn’t really mind it since I knew it was supposed to go at this pace to…add to the atmosphere or whatever, so I just took it for what it was and tried my best not to whine about the pacing. Also tried really hard to derive significant meaning from the whole story, but it was hard to do so since everything was so sparsely mentioned and maybe too subtly done. Sure leaves room for a lot of different interpretations, and in that way it can be seen as a thought-provoking film, but others might complain that it wasn’t really concrete enough to easily derive meaning from.
The setting was well-designed and the other fictional components of it were intriguing to say the least, but I couldn’t help but think that they had a lot of unexplored potential. I understood was Kildren was, but I would’ve liked it if they gave more concrete explanations on its significance and…other points. I liked the general world view they came up with as well, the settings were really well-realized and are really quite shiny, except in my mind I was kind of going like “Wat People with Japanese names in a European-like world who communicates in English and Japanese…this mesh of east and west reminds me of Sora no Woto!” Wish they utilized the world they created more as well because it’s really quite beautiful, and the fusion is interesting. Loved the town where the language was Polish, very cool.
Character designs were pretty uncreative, and the design style reminded me a lot of Kishimoto’s Naruto people, especially Kannami’s straight hair and slightly bulging eyes. Where have I seen him before…? Really liked Kusanagi at first glance, and her character also intrigued me. Strong women are the best, even more so when they look like younger gi- Uh okay. Didn’t really warm up to Kannami since he seemed so spaced out (or “at peace”?), but I get why he’s like that, kinda. Mitsuya was by far the most interesting since she seemed to have more emotion than everyone else combined, adding some much needed life to the down-looking cast, plus she also was the only one who asked questions and provided interesting information to the audience to make us question the world rather than just accept it for what it was.
The animation was alright, I really liked the close-up scenes, especially those with Kusanagi and/or guns. The CG is really very good, and I loved the aerial fights. Well done! The 2D animation also sometimes moved pretty sluggishly, and at those times I constantly wished that they would just either hurry up or make more small, fluid movements while stalling. A lot of the frames I noticed were pretty undetailed and, and actually overall there weren’t many frames, but I don’t think it matters since the characters usually aren’t doing anything special anyways - most of the time they’re just talking, turning to each other, staring at each other, or walking. I’m serious.
All in all, I didn’t really derive much concrete, not-just-my-own-interpretation-type meaning from this film despite trying hard to find meaning and to just stomach the slow pace, but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it even though I really wanted to. I felt like I could’ve spent this time in a better place. Good effort though, it remotely intrigued me to say the least. Also that CG. Also planes. Also Kusanagi with glasses. 71/100
