Origin: Spirits of the Past…Terraforming on the Moon?

Hello Everybody!

Welcome back to our weekly Anime Madness reviews! This week will be:

ORIGIN: SPIRITS OF THE PAST

GENRE: Science Fiction

DIRECTOR: Keiichi Sugiyama

NUMBER OF EPISODES: One Film.

YEAR: 2006

COUNTRY: Japan

Origins: Spirits of the Past (Which will be shortened to just Origins for the sake of the article) Is one of my favorite anime films growing up. I would watch Origins at least a couple of times a week because I love the story. Origins is an interesting look on the consequences of genetic engineering (which I am still totally for by the way) and how it affects humans over the long run.

Origins follows the story of a young boy named Agito. Agito lives in a city called “Neutral City”, a city founded by his father. “Neutral City” was carved from the skyscrapers of the old world, which was destroyed by the genetic engineering of tress on the moon. The trees gain consciousness and destroy most of humanity/mankind. The purpose of “Neutral City” is to be a division between the city-state of Ragna (a militaristic warmonger) and the forest (which I ruled by human-like Zurids). After Agito and one of his friends piss off the Zurids by violating of of the only pools of fresh water they have left, both of them are separated. Agito accidentally falls upon an underground research facility, where he accidentally revives a girl named Toola, a girl who has been in cryogenic sleep for the past 300 years. In an effort to change the world back to the way it was in her day, Toola and a Ragna general named Shunack Try to find a legendary weapon known as E.S.T.O.C. that can change the world.

Origin is an amazing story about the consequences of genetic engineering. The characters are all just trying to change the world back to how it was for them, while most of them have the condition of the people at heart. To top it off, the film is incredibly beautiful. Origins is not animated in the classical anime animation style, containing much more CGI. Although, Origins succeeds in creating a great mixture of both CGI and traditional animation.

Unfortunately, even though I like Origins, it is very hard to ignore the film’s drawbacks. Some of the characters (mainly of the supporting cast) are quite annoying. They don’t do very much and most of them are not needed in the entirety of the film. The dialogue is lacking that signature flair the most anime films have. Unless they are talking about the trees, their dialogue is quite elementary.

PROS:

• Entertaining main cast.
• Interesting look on genetic engineering.
• Beautiful animation.

CONS:

• Disappointing supporting cast.
• Elementary dialogue.
• Disappointing antagonist.

SCORE: 7.0 \ 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music for me to review, drop me a comment!

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