Welcome to the Uchuu Show
Ever since the amazing greatness of “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya”, I think it would be appropriate to include any types of animated movies in here as well. Sometimes you can’t really make a difference (what is “A Scanner Darkly”?) and sometimes animated movies are the best out there (“Spirited Away”, “Paprika”) which I hold in higher esteem than almost everything else I have watched. So, although “Princess Arete” was such a disappointment that I don’t even want to blog about it, I think that I should keep up the anime movie blogging with this film. It deserves it.
With the earthquake going on, it feels incredibly wrong to watch movies, let alone anime. But that would be hypocrisy – it’s not like any day is better or worse to be entertained and thereby ignoring the disasters going on in the world. But… Uchuu Show is so lovely? Made by the team of Kamichu, a lot of it is reminiscent. The amazingly cute flock of little aliens presented here have a very similar design to the Shinto gods in Kamichu, and that is where its charm lies: The characters and how they cutely interact. A lot of the anime reminds me of “My Neighbor Totoro” – and this is also why I don’t understand the criticism towards the movie. Both films have cute fictional creatures, a little girl who goes missing and needs to be found/saved, and rather generic main characters. Even the tomboyish-older-sister-little-girl-pair is the same. Even the so-called slow half of the film, in which the characters are just randomly playing around, is similar (note how the actual totoros only appear very late!) The benefit of “My Neighbor Totoro” is that it’s older and, well, higher acclaimed. As for myself, I enjoyed the first part of the film very much – it was a feast of lovely alien characters, especially Ink! She is the cutest of all! Almost as cute as Itezora Konayuki… and she looks like an enhanced version of Miimu XD (Note to self: Take a screenshot.)
I think the main reason why I could potentially fail as a movie critic is the fact that I don’t tend to criticize things unless I feel like I have a really good reason. (I also go into rage mode when that happens.) I see some sort of merit in almost everything I do see or do, and sometimes I don’t like harsh criticism on a good movie which is perhaps not revolutionary but still… good. “Welcome to the Uchuu Show” is a good film. Totally underrated.