The cliché says that Japan is technologically in the future. The truth is that the country predicts quite well the social problems that other developed countries will have in a couple of decades. This animated movie was made sixteen years ago and already presents (like many other Japanese films) the crushing alienation of the young undesired man, which, as it is (a modern) tradition, is an aspiring manga illustrator.
Nishi wants to date his childhood friend, Myon, but their impromptu and random day out is interrupted by the local mafia. Nishi gets to meet God, and back on Earth he escapes and find himself stranded inside a gigantic whale with Myon. The question is: should they escape and go back to disappointing reality?
The prevalent style is animated hyperbole, exaggeration of a situation to the breaking point of attention. The director brings the viewer to the brink and back, but often falls into overlong indulgence, as with a musical sequence inside the whale representing our characters' isolated happiness. And in the opposite side I wish that the film would have shown the history of the characters at the end at a lower speed, to better appreciate the history of Japan surrounding them.
It is still a minor achievement and way more interesting that anything that the corporate artists at Pixar could dream of.
