the animation was beautiful the story just confusing and the ending very unsatisfying

Production I.G delivers an amazing spectacle of animation as you would expect, along with fantastic sound design. Yuna is very cute, and one moment got a single, manly tear out of me that was worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, the film does more things wrong than right. The fantasy world is never fleshed out, the motivations behind political tensions and back-room deals are never explained, and the characters change wildly for seemingly no reason. Worst of all, the ending is terrible. Imagine The Last of Us but Joel gets to the hospital room where they're operating on Ellie and decides to just leave instead of saving her. Very very strange stuff. Everybody sat in the theater once it was over like there must've been more to the story, and it definitely felt like there was no payoff at the end. I overheard somebody say "they missed 2/3 of the story" as I was heading out. Idk what story this is adapted from, but apparently it's missing a lot of the detail, and it shows.

The film is tenderly wrought and brilliantly animated, with transitions that emphasize the communion between the land and the human body.

Concepción de León

The New York Times

Genre fans may eat this up, but it’s not anything I’d call a “must see” film, despite its obvious ambition.

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

These images tantalize, but without satisfying, like a trailer for a narrative that would work better as a long-form series.