For those who don’t know I enjoy anime, but so far I haven’t watched a whole lot, and this is the first anime film I’ve watched not based off a series. The first time I saw this movie was it was a commercial in one of my DBZ box sets, and I was looking for anime to watch so I actually wrote the name down. Then when I saw it on Netflix I instantly watched it. I actually thought it was a series until I saw it, but considering I didn’t have time to go through a series maybe that was best. I’ve watched the movie twice now, the second time just now, but I liked the movie enough I feel I could watch it a hundred more times. But I can see why somebody wouldn’t like it at all. I’ll start just getting the bad out of the way early. First, the characters are mostly plot pieces and one-dimensional. And although they wear a variety of outfits, they’re character models aren’t fantastic either. Each character can be summed up in a variety of lines, but in the end they serve well for the plot and I do really like the characters, but they just simply don’t develop. I still give it the character badge simply because they do more than the job and I still like them. Also there are things that just didn’t seem covered. Like Toola has this device that let’s her get calls, but of course everyone’s dead so that shouldn’t happen. But she gets a call but can’t pick up, and it never even explains who the hell called her. Although in the final resolution it does kind of feel like a moment of never found out mystery was better. You’d have to see the final shot in the movie to get what I mean. The English dub has funimation friendly voices that I thought were very well. The writing is also eh. The voice actors couldn’t really do much with the script, and for instance the line of the movie seems to be the constant use of the main character Agito calling out Toola’s name. TOOOOLAAA! Your probably going to hear that about six times. Anyway, that was just the bad, but there’s a lot of good. Let’s just start with the plot. Origin Spirits of the Past is about a scientific experiment on plants gone horribly wrong. The plants that will be identified in this movie as "the forest,” backfired and became the most intelligent beings of the world and destroyed the majority of the moon and mostly wiped clean all of human civilization. Fast forward three hundred years and you find our story starting in a dependent somewhat industrial styled village that coexists with the forest. Our hero accidentally wakes Toola, a girl who’s been in a stasis sleep the past three-hundred years. The forest is threatened by her awakening because she could hold the threat of eliminating the forest. Meanwhile another person of the past who awoke five years ago is working with the Ragna, a military organization independent of the forest, and looks to be at war with the forest. He tells Toola he can restore the old world, but he needs Toola. Toola decides rebuilding the old world would be better than coexisting with the forest and leaves with him. Agito then takes the power of the forest gaining amazing strength in order to go after Toola. While all this goes on your not sure who’s exactly right, or if the antagonist is actually a good guy with a different perspective until the end of the movie. In the end it almost seems more of a worthy plot for a short series or a video game, but I’ll take it for the movie. The plot is probably one of the best things about this movie and definitely is interesting. I hadn’t really watched a really creative movie in awhile so this was basically just what I needed. It’s hard to follow the first time, but by the end of the movie you’ll have about ninety percent of it down, and by the second time it’ll be obvious what everything is and means. Also the animation is beautiful. I’ve stated before that I’m not picky with my animation. I don’t care if it’s an English dub, and I’m not an animation freak and look for anime with the best animation. But this movie is just so beautiful even I can just stop and talk about how amazing it is. The backgrounds and vibrant colors pop out, and other effects like the water and attacking forest are really stunning. Just watch the amazing opening to the movie and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Speaking of the opening it was amazing! The song and movement of the forest move perfectly in balance and the first time I watched this movie I actually just went back and watched it again. The song alone is bad ass just for being in the film, but being used twice, once for a awesome opening? Then it’s really bad ass! And at first you don’t know what the hell is happening, but later when you know the plot you’ll actually everything that goes on. Anyway another really good thing about the movie is the setting. The town that Agito is in called Neutral City looks really interesting and although I didn’t like the Ragna areas as much it really made the setting really diverse. Also the action. Although I would be a little hesitant to call this an action anime movie cause they’re just simply wasn’t a humongous amount of fighting, the action is still very bad ass. Agito’s enhanced form can catch and move things around him that should crush him flat, and his fighting style is very jumpy and kicky which is also fun to watch. The whole enhancement thing in general is a really cool idea, and it’s fun to see which characters are enhanced by looking at their white hair. I didn’t care much for the giant machines used for fighting at times, but oh well. Anyway the movie as a whole I was going to give an eight, but looking back on it now it was really just what I needed and was simply a beautiful movie. If I wasn’t as new to anime, or I hadn’t been on a creative absence it would probably be less, and this is a low 9, but I can’t help but give call this movie an elite for what it is. I feel like I could watch it fifty times, and it uses all ninety minutes, even parts of the credits to bash in a little more story. It’s a must see for any anime fan, or even if your just open minded enough to try it. It’s not a super weird anime, it’s one a lot of people could enjoy, so I would say just watch it and you’ll probably be impressed.
Origin: Spirits of the Past gets a 5/5
Spoilers: Not a whole lot of spoilers but first I want to talk about Agito’s dad. Seeing how proud Agito of his father was even as he was near death was really something. He even wants to make his own village like this father and takes the power of the forest like his father… luckily he didn’t become a tree like his father too. Also I’m confused about the romance between Agito and Toola. At first I saw it all coming together and it was obvious they were a romance. The first time I watched the movie that was obvious, but this second time I almost feel like they could have just been friends all that time. I’m confused, but in the end I guess that for the viewer to decide on which ever they’d like. Also, creepy forest chick and her little druids were the creepy and scary. That little chick really didn’t help the movie a lot and later in the movie the forest doesn’t even seem to be used much. She was like this really powerful girl with two personalities and she was used like twice. And the druids were creepy, but still bad ass because they were silent little guys that kicked you off cliffs and ominously banged canes on the ground. Anyway, watch the movie again, if I see it for cheap I’m definitely going to buy it.
Badges
Origin: Spirits of the Past gets THE CHARACTER BADGE
Origin: Spirits of the Past gets THE "CREATIVITY" BADGE
Origin: Spirits of the Past gets THE LONG LASTING BADGE
Origin: Spirits of the Past gets THE HALL OF FAME BADGE
