DVD Review

By sothis Published: July 31, 2005

PACKAGING AND MENU

9 / 10

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the packaging for Beyond the Clouds. The front has a large image of a scene that is pretty much the showcase of the series. It shows the two main character playing violins, with a beautiful sky behind them. Stunning, and definitely shows off the animation of the series. The back is simple but effective, with a thin rectangle of screenshots and a beautiful sunset in the background of the rest of the cover. One thing to note is that the cover is two sided, with another beautiful piece of artwork on the other side, along with a poem. It isn’t a second cover, but is interesting nonetheless. The insert, as with the reverse cover, is a gorgeous piece of artwork on one side with a poem. The other side is a writeup on the anime itself. Very well done. The disc has the same picture that’s on the insert.

The menu has one of the sunset scenes in the background, clouds scrolling by. Tracks from the movie are played on each screen. The menu is easy to navigate, though I wish a different color would have been used for the navigation text on the first page. It’s white, on top of a light colored background, making it extremely difficult to see. It works well on the other screens because there are dark backgrounds, but for the first page, it would have been better as a darker color I think.

FEATURES

9.5 / 10

Beyond the Clouds is filled with special content. Four full interviews are supplied, all of which are interesting to watch. I especially enjoyed the interview with the director. During this interview, we are shown pictures of real places, and then the movie's animated version of that same place. Very fascinating and quite frankly made me jealous I couldn't draw that well! Original trailers also included. I'd say the insert and double side of the cover count towards this score too, even though they should belong in other sections. The interviews alone are fantastic and combined with everything else, makes this an easy score to give.

VIDEO

10 / 10

The video quality in this release is utterly amazing. It’s very rare that I see such high quality and attention to detail in a DVD, making this a rare treat to watch. Throughout the course of the movie I could find nothing wrong with the video, no matter how hard I tried. Generally speaking, every DVD I’ve seen has had at least minor flaws, but none could be found in Beyond the Clouds. I can honestly say that when I am reviewing the video quality in any DVD from now on, there’s no question that I’ll use Beyond the Clouds as a comparison for what the quality should be.

AUDIO

10 / 10

First of all, unlike other anime releases out there, the English dub for Beyond the Clouds was actually quite good. As far as the audio quality, yet again this movie is a great example of what good 5.1 audio should sound like. For most of the movie, the entire sound stage was used using the rear channels for music and ambient noises such as a car screeching to a halt or a jet flying by. You definitely felt like you were right there with the characters, takng part in the action. There were no noticeable problems on the technical side of things.

CONTENT

8.5 / 10

What's implied, but not really discussed in detail, is that Japan underwent a split after they lost the war, and Hokkaido became the land of Ezo. A great tower was also built but its purpose was unknown until decades later. In the present, however, three friends enjoy a summer together. Two of them, Hiroki and Takuya, have constructed a plane over the years that they plan to fly eventually, to see the tower and the island of Ezo. Sayuri and the two make a promise that they’ll someday fly to the tower on the plane, but then, Sayuri mysteriously disappears, and life goes on for the two boys. That’s about half of the movie, with the other half being a few years later. Without spoiling, I’ll just say that the movie goes into some pretty scientific stuff and explores physics and other advanced topics.

Beyond the Clouds is not for everyone. It’s not only slice of life, but it’s really, really slow slice of life. In addition, the topics covered are very intelligent and scientific, and probably would be best enjoyed if you have a strong science background. Granted, I didn’t find this to be a bad thing. I enjoy slice of life series, slower series, and things that are intelligent, though I do admit it was a bit much even for me. Still, the story was superb, the execution was good, and the flow was decent, so I still gave it an 8.

As far as genre or mood? Well, it’s definitely slice of life as I mentioned above. Furthermore, there’s a subtle but very moving romance that occurs, which will definitely remind you of Hoshi no Koe. There is essentially no comedy, no action, and very little that happens between characters except talking, but it’s a great quiet ride nonetheless.

If you saw Hoshi no Koe, you surely were awed by how beautiful it was. Expect no less from Beyond the Clouds (created by the same person), and be assured you’ll be in for an even more beautiful treat this time around. Everything about BTC’s animation was stunning, from the beautiful panning background shots, to the close-ups, to the odd camera angles and character designs. Attention to detail was superb, lighting was amazing, and colors were rich and vibrant. Though this section is short, I really can’t say much else about the animation because it’s virtually flawless. The only reason I knocked down half a point is because the plane scenes did look a bit fake compared to the rest. Great animation all the way around.

Music was orchestral and incredibly moving, or non existent. Due to this being very slice of life, it’s ok that music was devoid a lot of the time, and the music the rest of the time made up for it. Not much else to say about the soundtrack, since it was superb in most ways. Voice acting-wise, they all did a good job.

Beyond the Clouds definitely reached my expectations as something amazing. I guess I just wish it would have been a bit shorter or had better pacing, so I wouldn’t have been as occasionally bored. The transitions also really should have been fixed. In between each scene there would be several seconds of pitch black, including after a major buildup complete with booming music. The visuals are fantastic, music is great, and story is interesting, so what can you lose by watching this? As long as you don’t hate slice of life, Beyond the Clouds is great for a viewing.