Review of Origin: Spirits of the Past (2006) by Arnaud L — 03 Dec 2010

For some reason when I was buying The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on DVD this anime caught my eye. The artwork on the Blu-ray looked stunning, but unfortunately all this film is, is a stunning Blu-ray case and is probably one of the worst films and anime I've ever seen.

Let's start with the plot or what lack of a plot there is. I would first like to say that the world in which this film is set is rather creative and fascinating, but they will didn't use the setting to its full potential. Earth is now in ruins and water is very hard to get, water is also the currency of the world and is very valuable. The forest for some reason is also evil and that is really not explained at all. The reason for the world in ruins, I think is because of a nuclear war or something like that. That's a great setting, but the story is non-excited; it seems to be about this girl called Toola who is the key to turning the world "normal" again. She is found by this boy called Agito and then the story goes all over the place, as more characters are introduced and I swear you could make trading cards with how many pointless characters there are in this film. No character in the whole film is interesting and none of them have their own personality.

Most of the events that happen in this film go through the same routine and the films failed "comedy" at the start just spells 'trouble' for the film. The dialogue is so boring. I mean all these characters seem to do, is overloading the viewer with a backstory, I swear that all the dialogue is a backstory, mainly about the world. Characters also repeat themselves and there is no movement while they talk, characters just stand still while the other characters speak and that is so fucking boring, like god put some personality into the character.

The reason I don't give this a lower score is because of the animation, some scenes look breath-taking and the attention to detail is staggering. What I don't like however is the CGI in the background; big action scenes use CGI and it looks really odd against the anime characters. The film is a bit too colourful for my liking.

Overall; this is a terrible film, anime or not it's terrible. No plot, annoying and undeveloped characters, awful boring dialogue and stupid uses of CGI. It's a shame, after watching a great anime (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and a near-masterpiece (Elfen Lied) this film is not in the same league as them. At least I was entertained by Blood: The Last Vampire, but this has no entertainment values. I strongly advise you avoid this.

2.1/10.

BBFC rating: 12A - For moderate violence.