Voices of a Distant Star

[Great Rumbler]

From a purely technical standpoint Voices doesn't seem like it would be that great an anime: It's 25 minutes long and it was made almost entirely by one man. It must be a low budget, fan-made project that doesn't have much going for it, right? Actually, Voices is the exact opposite.

Although the character models are somewhat crude, the animation is great. It also has some CG for added affect, although it isn't anything amazing it easily does it's job. But, what about the story? You'd think that the story would be very shallow, but in 25 minutes Voices weaves an incredible story full of details. Voices only has two characters, but they are very realistic and memorable.

The Story: Mikako and Noboru are two average high school students, but their lives are disrupted when an unknown alien force attacks Earth. Mikako decides to join the army and travel into space to fight the aliens, but Noboru stays behind on Earth. The only means of communication that they have are text messages that they send over their cell phones. As Mikako travels farther away from Earth their messages take longer to reach their destination. As years go by Noboru ages, but in space Mikako hardly ages at all.

All in all Voice of a Distant Star is a very good movie, whose only downside [if you can even call it that] is that it's short.