Hoshi no Koe

10 reviews - 47.0 total score (Explanation of the rating system)
avg. score: (4.7)

10. h8er13

I was surprised that a half hour production could be this good.  Two high school students, Nagamine Mikako and Terao Noboru, are separated after Mikako is enlisted in an Earth defense force battling aliens called Tarsians.  Mikako fights in a mech called a Tracer, which resembles the Candidate for Goddess mechs, equipped with lasers, missiles, and other high tech weapons.

Mikako and Noboru still communicate with each other via cell phone messages, but as Mikako travels further away from Earth, the messages take longer to reach each other.  Sometimes, a message won't be received for over a year.  Mikako feels a tremendous loneliness, while Noboru follows the adage "Absence makes the heart grow yonder."  This is a bit of a spoiler, but Hoshi no Koe still delivers a feeling of deep bonds and loneliness.

9. Qian Wan

Translated into "Stars' Voices" or the more popular "Voices of a Distant Star", this one episode masterpiece is something to look out for. This short animation is directed by an amateur director named Makoto Shinkai. Actually, Mr. One-man-army Shinkai did just about the entire package of this show, but don't worry, the quality is top notch and is fully up to par with the rest of the big titles out there.

A story about two high school students during a time of war, it reminds me of Saikano. Mikako has always wanted to join the air force, and when the time has come, she had to say goodbye to her best friend / childhood sweetheart, Noboru. The specifics of the war is irrelevant, for the story will mainly focus on the relationship between Noboru and Mikako As Mikako travels farther and farther away from Earth in a chase against an alien race, the thin fabric of time also stretched. The farther you look out in space, the further back in time you look. and the farther Mikako travels, the more time it will take for light (message) to reach back to Earth. So how can Noboru keep in constant contact with Mikako? Simple, he cannot. Noboru can only live on patience, and Mikako on her memories. It seems that space/time has pulled these two apart and not even Stephen Hawking can save them. Is there any way for one to send a message through space faster than light (300,000,000m/s)?

The ending was nicely polished and satisfying. However, the story is simply too short for it to bump onto my 'most wanted' list. I felt the anime was kind of rushed and every element dished out before I could truly enjoy them. And although Shinkai did a wonderful job giving us me of the most memorable moments in a mere 30 minutes, I have a hunch that this movie is more of a Shinkai's resume to show off his potential than the whole deal we usually get from a major production company. The full and licensed version can be found in a DVD store near you for a regular price of any other anime you see (avg. around 25 bucks,) which I think is a tad too expensive for a 30 min movie at any quality. But hey, this might be the rise of Shinkai, so investors buy your copy of his original today and look forward to more of his masterpieces in the future!

Why I have it: Tricked friend into buying it telling him it was a full movie and watched it together.
High: Very "deep". 3d graphics blended in nicely with the art. Mecha looks like it can slice up Gundams any day!
Low: Simply too short for it to be a gold medallist. Capitalist pigs made it very expensive.
Final Words: If you have the buck, go for it. I'm pretty sure one will enjoy it. While it lasted.

8. End of Hearts

Translated as "Voices of a Distant Star", the title perfectly fits the description of the show. At a mere thirty minutes, Hoshi no Koe manages to do what most anime do with their 26 episodes. Hoshi no Koe is the story of a relationship facing the ultimate test. The couple is separated by time and space and their only means of communication through text messaging. What once took a mere second to arrive, as they grow farther apart from each other, due to the girl fighting against alien creatures, traveling great distances, the time for messages to arrive grow ever more. From 1 year to 10 years per message, how will their love for each other continue? Hoshi no Koe has amazing visuals, with a great deal of CGI for the mecha and battles. The environments are vibrant and colorful, character designs unique. The animation at the beginning may remind one of Kare Kano. With the thirty minutes, the viewer is presented with an amazing story, so well told, you cannot imagine how it was possible to do with such a short amount of time.

7. Bugmaster

This is an incredible production; it is made even more impressive by the fact that it was created by essentially just one person, Makoto Shinkai, on his Macintosh. All the elements of this film -- 2d characters, 3d graphics, voice acting and music -- are top-notch in quality. What makes the anime really shine, however, is the blending of all three elements. The visuals fit the voice acting perfectly, and the beautiful music reinforces the mood of each scene, without getting in the way. It probably would have been easy to turn Hoshi No Koe into some sort of a demo for the director's technical skills; fortunately, however, Makoto Shinkai managed to avoid this trap.

It is difficult to pigeonhole Hoshi No Koe into any particular category. Is it a love story ? Well, yes, but it's completely different from the standard shoujo fare. Is it a giant mecha epic ? Well, yes, there are giant mecha involved, but they are not the main focus of the anime. Is it a space adventure ? Well, there are space battles, but once again they happen almost in the background. Ultimately, Hoshi No Koe is a simply a work of art. It manages to convey emotion in a way that few other animes can; and it is the emotion, not the space battles, technical details or plot twists that are the focus of the movie.

A note on the voice acting: there are two versions of the voicetrack for Hoshi No Koe. One of them features professional voice actors; the other one features the voices of Makoto Shinkai himself and his wife. Both are very good; however, I think I prefer the original version. The voices on the professional version seem a bit exaggerated, and thus they do not always fit the mood of the story. However, this may also be just a matter of personal preference.

6. 3rdEyeVision

This is about as touching a story as it gets. To put it simply , it is a story of separated lovers. A couple doomed by fate to be apart. Mikako and Noboru are two kids in middle school when the story begins. Mikako is accepted into the space force and heads out for duty shortly after their graduation to high school. Her unit leaves Earth and heads to Mars, Jupiter , Pluto and beyond battling a race of beings known as Tarsians. It is never really made clear what kind of threat these beings pose to humans, but the fact that we don't understand them is surly enough to justify their annihilation, right? After all , we are humans. That's what we do. The two keep in touch with each other by sending emails back and forth. As the battle intensifies, Mikako and her unit are plunged deeper into the depths of the galaxy. The further she gets from Earth, the longer it takes her emails to reach Noboru. Eventually , it gets to the point where emails take about 8 years to reach Earth, and even then, it's lucky to have made it. Imagine how much data might be lost over that amount of time.

Even though it is short, it does a great job of developing the characters. You can really feel the pain they feel of being so far apart. Mikako does not age at the same rate for some reason and is still 15 about 10 years after she left Earth. Noboru on the other hand is 24 and has been aging at the normal Earth rate. I guess it just goes to show that when you have that connection with somebody, there is nothing that can ever change that. Noboru stays a single man the whole time just waiting for emails from her. By the time emails take 8 years to reach him, getting one is an event of almost biblical proportions.

I still can't even imagine what it must feel like to get an email from the love of your life 8 years after it is sent. This is one of the best I've seen is a while, and anyone that has someone in their life that they truly love will relate to it most of all. I totally loved this show, as I'm sure you can tell by the rating, but I think anyone that likes anime will like Hoshi No Koe. It's just so well done, there is really nothing to dislike about it. There's plenty to look at and enough action to make you forget you're watching a "love story". It reminded me of a 25 minute Macross Saga, and in my book, you can't do much better than that. So go get Hoshi No Koe as soon as you can, you'll be glad you did.

5. Cross Scars

Hoshi no Koe is a particularly special anime that proves its worth by joining the likes of Miyazaki's On Your Mark by achieving a lot in a very short space of time. Hoshi no Koe is only one episode long and it focuses around the increasingly distant, at least in physical terms, relationship between Noboru and Mikako as the later joins a military expedition into space while Noboru has to stay behind on Earth.

The most striking and unavoidable thing about this anime is its animation which is simply the best out of any anime to date. It's crisp use of 3D and 2D animation side by side is excellent and the lighting and shading through the 25 minutes of the anime is unlike anything in other series or movie; the stunning sunset skies of Earth bringing out the best in all those areas. Hoshi no Koe is probably the only anime that's worth watching simply for its animation alone. It's that good.

In an anime like this it would be far too easy, as in certain computer games, to ignore the plot and characters in an attempt to make a visually impressive sight. However Hoshi no Koe doesn't fall into this category and a real sense of relationship and feeling expands over the viewing time ending on a very sincere and touching note, made all the more touching by its voice actors - the anime's creator and his wife. The gentle soundtrack that's almost always in the background further adds to the emotive feelings in this anime.

Hoshi no Koe is a very novel anime and that says a lot coming from a time when original ideas are becoming more scarce. Hands down this anime has the best animation I've seen in any series and it has a very nice story to back it up with. What makes it even more poignant is the fact that practically all the work on it was done almost entirely by its creator Makoto Shinkai. This is to the extent that there are two versions of it, the original one I already mentioned is where him and his wife do the voice acting and the other is where professional seiyuu are used. That truly is a phenomenal feat and Hoshi no Koe deserves praise for that alone as I believe it adds to the viewing experience, heightening the feelings behind it. Hence why, under these specific circumstances, I think it's fair to give this anime full marks.

4. Polaris

Hoshi no Koe is basically and independent film by Makoto Shinkai. It has two different version, one with regular seiyuu and one with him and his wife as the roles of Noboru and Mikako. Hoshi no Koe is a short movie that follows two "friends" as they part after Junior High. The story is very powerful with many emotions of loneliness and sadness. It is an incredible movie with beautiful images and music to help add to the atmosphere. My only regret is that Hoshi no Koe was not longer. I would recommend this to anyone who can get ahold of it, definitely not a movie to miss.

3. Leliel

It's difficult to describe this one at length since the anime itself has no length to speak of, but squeeze all the crap out of Gunbuster and this is pretty much what you'd be left with storywise. I'm looking forward to more independent productions if they turn out like this.

2. Yogi

You know, this actually beats the hell out of Evangelion. Of course, since this is only one episode, it does things that a TV series can’t get away with. This has a similar feel to Evangelion though the overall theme is different. It is about two lovers who are separated across both space and time, and they try to make sense of their lives. It concentrates on the two characters, and not on the mecha battles or the special effects. It’s a pity not many people know about this, it is truly a rare find and should be better known. Watch it, watch it now.

1. Tempy

Hoshi no Koe (The Voices of a Distant Star) is a rather unique production. It's fully digital, features a blend of 2D and 3D, and it was basically created by just one person - Makoto Shinkai. I'm sure he has the attention of the large animation studios now.

In the near future mankind has made contact with aliens and are set to avenge the aliens' attack on Mars. Mikako, a 15 year old schoolgirl, joins the forces and leaves Earth to battle the aliens, leaving Noboru behind. Their only means of communication is through e-mails, but as Mikako travels further and further away, the periods between messages become longer and longer. Hoshi no Koe's story is beautifully told, accentuated by gentle piano music & gorgeous backdrops. Its themes of loneliness and separation make it quite an emotional viewing experience. Of note is how Shinkai plays with time, shifting scenes out of chronological order to give us Noboru's reactions as he receives Mikako's messages. The show also feels a bit abstract in that Mikako and Noboru are the only characters we basically ever see, even though there is a war going on in space. And it works - the story keeps its focus on Mikako's and Noboru's emotions. Mikako keeps wearing her high school uniform while piloting her mecha, but I like to think this is another level of abstraction, just like the scenes of Mikako floating in space.

There are definitely some rough edges to this show though. The 3D models don't always blend well with the 2D backdrops & characters, and there are a couple of occasions where the 3D animation is just awkward and wrong. The character art isn't consistently drawn correctly, and there is actually very little 2D character animation which leads me to believe Makoto Shinkai avoided it as much as possible because it's not his strong point. Still, this is just technical nitpicking to a beautiful story.