Sakasama no Patema

This is interesting. It's a movie, apparently by the creators of Time Of Eve (so you know it's good). I can't find any other info on it though, and only the first ten minutes have aired ("Beginning of the Day" parts 1 and 2).

It's about mankind living in an artificial world underground, which provides some very unique vistas, actually quite different from those of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Batman is in it...well, sort of. You'll see.

edited 30th Apr '12 8:11:13 PM by Ruise

I enjoyed what I saw, but I didn't see much

I'm gonna wait for a high-quality version, because I know it's worth it.

Two more parts were aired while I wasn't looking, and the full season is now the equivalent of a regular episode of anime in length. Things have gotten weird.

The title of the series is entirely appropriate, and "sasakama" ("inverted") will be repeated many times.

Apparently, the people living below the earth are actually upside down, and will fall into the sky if not contained. We receive a male supporting character, Eiji. Schools in the aboveground world teach absolutely nothing, only repeat the same old propaganda. And people are lazy and lethargic.

edited 21st Oct '12 7:40:51 PM by Ruise

This film has a brilliantly simple concept, it handles its fantasy physics very well and gave me a real sense of disorientation and vertigo. Those jumps and falls, the desperate scrambling, the fear of where to put your feet, the attention to what should fall which way all build up to make the danger and mystery real. Though among its flaws, the character design is uninspired, the surface world feels small and bare (is there only one shed?) and there is no real character growth or romance; all Eiji/Age learns with regards to Patema is how afraid she is. It would work as a metaphor for something deeper to them, but not on its own.

A few small violations of the physics lie around. Those rocket-launched nets cannot be man-portable unless they change weight, and the couple seem to control their flight at times (just when it could have been justified by picking up some sort of propulsion device from the flyer). And is it really possible to hold your own weight by your arms for that long? (At one point Patema is holding them both.)

I also can't help noticing the conventional gender roles. Patema is something of a damsel in distress and it's Eiji who has to change by the end.

What really puzzles me is that everything written is in (perfectly correct) English. Were they angling for the international market? It seems odd for a fairly small production.

But what the ending doesn't show: what will these two's love life be like?

Recently managed to watch the movie.

It felt like it should have been a series, to set a slower pace. The characters are underdeveloped, with little depth. The world would have been fun to explore, but worldbuilding is hardto cram in one and a half hours.

That said, I enjoyed it, if only for the brilliant execution of the premise, as RJ Savoy noted. It's disorienting, but the physics are consistent. And there's something to be said about a movie that can trigger a fear of heights in two directions. The characters also exhibit the most depth when they're trying not to fall— clinging to whatever's there, taking leaps of faith, etc.

edited 23rd Jul '14 4:25:02 AM by fillerdude

This was so amazing! But kind of confusing!

Finally got to see this... very much worth the wait! I found Time Of Eve painfully dull and heavy-handed, but fortunately this is more along the lines of Pale Cocoon (to which there is a sneaky reference at the end).

The characters are very straightforward (especially Lord Evil McEvilpants The Magnificent), but it's really more about the bizarre setting, so this isn't much of an issue. May have even been intentional to keep things, er, grounded.

At first, this is true, but the interesting thing is how it gradually reverses. Eiji/Age tries to rescue Patema, but they end up rescuing each other. Then she gets to try some heroics in a later confrontation (at the bottom of the "Danger Zone"). In the end, their relationship is literally inverted because Patema has been right-side-up the whole time, so Age needs her help to move around without flying into space.

edited 27th Dec '14 1:26:45 PM by Kotomikun

Ah, I watched this earlier this year. I quite liked it, although most things which could be said about it already have been.