Has it really been a year and a half since my last anime feature? I guess anime TV shows have tided me over. Well, I hope to see another one much sooner, because this one reminds me what I've been missing from TV.
Late in the 21st century, a team of scientists trying to tap energy from gravity (just roll with it) accidentally reverses gravity for a large number of people and objects. Some of the "inverts" manage to hold on, move underground, and establish a separate civilization there. Patema (Cassandra Lee Morris in the dub), teen daughter of the late invert chief, has spent her entire life underground. Bored of the cramped darkness, she visits a forbidden tunnel leading to the surface -- and almost falls into the sky. Fortunately, surface-dwelling teen Eiji (Michael Sinterniklaas) is there to catch her and slightly outweighs her once she drops excess baggage. He takes her to a shed, hoping to figure out how to get her home before less tolerant people find her.
I've reviewed other flicks not for acrophobes, but this may take the cake. It's one thing to fear falling off a mountain; it's another to have no land visible beneath you, with only mutually flexing arm muscles holding you in place. That said, if you can take it, you're in for a treat in flexing your brain. The heroes do have to think outside the box a bit for problem solving.
Not to say that the writing is consistently smart. Eiji is pretty rebellious and curious in his own right, but it's still an unlikely coincidence that he was in the right place at the right time. In fact, this movie has more than its fair share of unlikely coincidences and other contrivances.
About the intolerance: The known surface world, now called Aiga, has quite an Orwellian vibe. If Patema was sick of all the rules underground, she didn't know the half of what Eiji dealt with regularly. The fact that they speak of an "education center" instead of a school hints at something sinister. Indeed, leader Izamura (Richard Epcar) is as unsubtly wicked as Dr. Robotnik, albeit minus the humor. He might not be most responsible for the Aiga dogma that inverts are "sinners" (whether they've allegedly already sinned or were predestined for it is not elucidated), but he alone is apt to call them "filth" and "not human." Probably his only reason for not killing Patema at the first opportunity is that he hopes to find and kill the rest. I don't fully understand why he feels that they threaten his power, but his manic grin suggests mental instability.
Really, the story leaves a lot of questions basically unanswered. I'm thinking primarily of the past, but I can also hardly imagine what happens after the final scene. Maybe that's part of why the Japanese voice actor of Eiji, Nobuhiko Okamoto, wants a sequel, as I learned from an interview on the DVD.
Apart from the mind-bending sci-fi adventure, the best aspect herein is the budding relationship between Patema and Eiji. At first they're both a bit weirded out, begging to differ on who's "upside-down." But having to hold tight to each other for dear life sure can foment a strong affinity in a short period. And while Patema spends the bulk of the 99 minutes in need of help, I don't see her as a damsel in distress; she's just as competent as Eiji and sometimes comes to his rescue. No, you won't see a Spider-Man kiss, but you may well hope they work things out despite forces literally pulling them in opposite directions indefinitely. As little as we know about them, they seem a cute couple.
PI exhibits the colorfulness and emotion that drew me to anime in the first place. That's more than enough to make up for its flaws.
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