YMMV / Voices of a Distant Star

• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack is gorgeous. Notable songs include:
  • Through the years and far away
  • Ame no boss tei
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Mikako seeing a Tarsian in front of her and it possibly communicating with her physically.
• Dancing Bear: While well-liked for its own merits, it's probably more famous for its unusual production, having been done almost entirely by one man.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Words of Love/Across the Stars has Mikako have a vision of a train cross her field of view and cause a Vehicle Vanish. This particular adaptation first came out in the original Japanese in 2006. The next year, the also-Shinkai-directed 5 Centimeters per Second would come out, and with it a much more famous and tragic train-induced Vehicle Vanish.
• Narm: Through the Years and Far Away to some, thanks to the Gratuitous English.
• Spiritual Successor: This is perhaps one of the best adaptation of Joe Halderman's The Forever War in existence, although some differences (e.g. the genders are flipped) exist. Even the aliens are called Tarsians.
• Stoic Woobie: Noboru narrates with subdued unhappiness that he worries about "becoming someone who only waits for Mikako's mail." When he receives the message telling him that she's now eight lightyears away, he resolves himself to close off his heart and move on - but as we see at the end of the film, he doesn't succeed in doing so.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Recurring Riffs call to mind Starman Leaves from Starman.
• Wangst: Noboru falls into a depression when he feels that he's been idle for too long, but near the film's end, it's revealed he's also joined the armed forces to both be actively engaged in defending their planet, in addition to the prospect of reuniting with Mikako.
• The Woobie: Mikako, who does her best to keep up a positive attitude about her increasing distance from Noboru only to finally break down sobbing on Agartha.