Children Who Chase Lost Voices is a Japanese anime film created and directed by Makoto Shinkai, of 5 Centimeters Per Second fame. It has an ambitious plot that cleverly mixes fantasy with some history. In it, Asuna is a young girl who ends up meeting Shin from the underworld Agartha, along with her school Morisaki, they end up going into Agartha to bring back their loved one from the dead. It is surprising at the depth of the world that was created, and how it was conveyed in such a short amount of time. By the halfway mark, you feel that the legends of the Quetzalcoatl and of Agartha, were stories you had always known. That being said, the film takes a good part of the first hour to set up before they finally head into Agartha. With the Quetzalcoatl that Asuna encounters, along with the monsters known as Izoku and the aesthetics of the world, it truly creates a sense of awe and wonder that's rarely seen these days. The only flaw is that you know the film is trying to leave a deep impression, especially with the ending in how the Asuna and Morisaki accepts death as a whole but it doesn't quite resonate. Overall, this is a beautiful anime film that manages to succeed in crafting a deep and meaningful world that you care and want to find out more about.
