The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Japan - Comix Wave) impressions and pics

[kannisto]

I got this Japanese Anime title today as well. It was also released by Comix Wave Films, their first HD release together with 5 Centimeters per Second.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Kumo no mukô, yakusoku no basho) (Japan - ComixWave Films)
Amazon Japan $37.90 (¥4070)
Warning: Japanese audio and optional Japanese subtitles, no English.

Case pics:



Specs:
Video: 16:9 1080p AVC - target / average bitrate 25999 Mbps
Audio: Japanese only, Dolby TrueHD 2.0ch (24 bit) and DD+ 5.1ch (16 bit) (1920 Kbps)
Subtitles: Optional Japanese (no English)
Runtime: 91 minutes + 2 minutes of extras

Extra is: Trailer 2m:19s in Full HD with Dolby TrueHD 2.0ch sound.

HD-30 disc: 17.8 GB (19 163 873 280 bytes)

I only took a few peeks of the PQ/AQ so far. It looks very nice though on first peeks 5 Centimeters per Second made a bigger impression on me. I'll post more impressions later and I'll try to get some screenshots.
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[ahsoka]

Thanks for the info and pics. I watched this anime on DVD some time ago and it had a really nice story. Great animation as well. I pre-ordered the BD from YesAsia but it hasn't shipped yet. Anyway, I think it's identical to the HD DVD except for the audio codec.
As for 5 Centimeters per Second, I've only watched a lo-res trailer but it should look amazing in HD.

[whitefinger]

I’m so disappointed that these don’t have subs. I love Makoto Shinkai’s work, so I guess I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed for a domestic blu-ray release down the road.

[kannisto]

Finally some screencaps of this one. I still haven't watched it, but it's next on my watch-list





I had some technical trouble getting screencaps so these are all from the beginning of layer 2 on the disc as I couldn't get any from other parts.

The visuals on this one are looking very artistic and beautiful as was the case with 5 Centimeters per Second as well. Great artist at work here. Makoto Shinkai is apparently hailed as the next Hayao Miyazaki.

[kannisto]

I watched this last night. It was visually impressive, much like "5 Centimeters per Second", though I found that one to be even more refined in visual quality. The technical quality with regards to PQ/AQ was excellent. I'm very impressed with the level of detail in the visual and audio design, it makes some scenes e.g. in train stations or trains look and sound very real.

The story is quite complex and you can read all about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pla...Our_Early_Days

I found it a bit difficult to follow some details of the plot in the movie as it's very dialogue / monologue heavy and has no English subtitles, though I have intermediate Japanese skills. Reading the story description beforehand from the wiki page certainly helped.

Overall this is a fine Anime title though I slightly preferred "5 Centimeters per Second" over it. I felt the plot on this one was a bit overcomplicated with a few too many science elements that weren't really the core of the story. Both movies are in any case very impressive.

Would have been nice to have English subs on these but at least they can be found from the internet quite easily for this one in SubRip format