Watched: Brave Story

Young Children should be living in sheltered and blissful life, worrying about nothing around them, except play and school. That's the basic ideal scenario for every children to have and every adult to give.

That is the ideal scenario. Then again, is it always that way?

There's always some magical fantasy about being a child growing into this chaotic world of ours and very often it's not easy to be one so vulnerable to make an impact to change one's destiny.

Brave Story is one of the many that a young one has to venture into Strange Worlds to prepare oneself for adulthood or to change the fate of worlds. The Neverending Story, Chronicles of Nardia, Pan's Labyrinth, Jim Henson's Labyrinth, Mirrormask and to a certain extent, The Harry Potter Series of Books are a few good examples of that in the Western World. For the anime side, we been offered other examples of "a familiar person in a strange world" such as Curious Play (Fushigi Yugi), Inuyasha, Chronicles of Twelve Kingdoms and Strange Dawn.

Gonzo choose this to be their 2nd feature film and it's excellent choice, being a newcomer into the feature film business. It's hard to break into that market with the same approach they did with the TV/DVD market seeing the previous Origin: Spirits of the Past
somehow sink under the radar of every movie go-er and even anime fans.

Brave Story is a story that is shouldn't be strange to everyone.

Wataru (Somebody ought to call the lawyers? Key Wataru in wiki-search and you will see), a 10 year old boy whose family is breaking up with his father moving away and his mother in the hospital (Mother in Torment/Illness?See Mirrormask and Pan's Labyrinth). A previous encounter with a new transfer student (Transfer Student? Lol. As long as you had school you get these. See Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsuu for a vague explaination) led Wataru to a strange gate that promise "to change destiny". Desperate to hang onto his life before it went South, Wataru took the courage to go beyond the gate and entered the world of Vision.

Vision is a RPG-like world governed by magic and deities. Travelers from another world are to collect five gemstones to get a wish granted by the Goddess of Fortune (see Dragonball). Wataru, being pretty much lacking in all aspect, turns out to be on the last step of a short ladder. Thankfully, Wataru, despite his shortcomings, overcome overwhelming odds to put himself in the right directions with some help from good friends and a hidden ally. Wataru's good virtue finally come to a test when he met up with his friend/the transfer student, Mitsuru, who is driven by his own personal tragedy and do whatever necessary to get the gems (see....Digimon Season 2. In a sense it quite mirrors that way).

Brave Story uses the 2 boys to present the age old argument of "The End will justified the Means". The winner of course is pretty age old predictable as well (See all Shonen anime?).

As a result, Brave Story is pretty much a repackaged deal with having a Light novel (Light novel are pretty easy to read and to a certain extend, write and formulate) but a unique presentation irregardless. It will be irresponsible to say that the plot of the movie is LOUSY. It's a simple story that is meant to be pleasant without being candy-flossed. Something that is actually difficult to juggle with. Good things need not be complex or shoot at the balls Original.

An amusing fact is that it went under the radar that Takako Matsu is the voice of Wataru. An even more amusing fact is that we are getting about the same deal with Taiwan, getting a screening so late despite having the movie being sold on digital formats last year.

Brave Story did brought Gonzo somewhere I guess since their latest movie feature is about Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi which seems pretty rated EA (Ok for Everyone).

Ok, Brave Story is still a bit gritty just like Harry Potter, having a young girl crying over a scene late at the film (which Order Of The Phoneix might have if they didn't tone down on Sirius's Death). So please, dear parents, do go through the movie before you bring your children. Otherwise don't complain if your children are having nightmares.