nborer - 2013-08-08 11:28:08

Vivid, intense and often exaggerated, like our emotions, Nerawareta Gakuen's (NG) focus relies solely on displaying those properties. Its artistically crafted scenes and unconventional use of what might seem like a regular plot deepens and strengthens its story and characters by mere emotional display. Using methods and devices which are all so familiar to us, and misdirecting our instinctive focus away from these things towards the importance of underlying motives brings out an entirely new layer of storytelling, which is often left covered up by other works of the genre.

Setting
The setting is rather undefined, it takes place on Earth yet with some fictional elements, and most aspects foreign to our own world remain largely unexplained. It is striking however that it are exactly those aspects that always seem to be of lesser importance, never clarified but also never really shown when put into practice. They merely play a symbolic role and are displayed using some suitably exaggerated and colourful visuals.
The locations are modern, yet with a clear focus on nature as well. They are tied together through various successive scenes and can occasionally be seen on the background from other places, making the connection between recurring locations very clear. These various locations are meaningful, beautiful and often highly atmospheric, whether it be caused by recurrence, lighting, background elements or the amazing soundtrack.

Plot
The plot spends a generous amount of time on building a world in which the situation, relationships and connections are made clear. Symbolism and characters are necessarily explored for much of the later developments to make any sense. The story grows from an oddly executed high-school drama, sprinkled with some science fiction and an interesting underlayer, and flourishes as it explodes into symbolic complexity. The ending relates back to many of the carefully explored elements of the first half and brings it together to bring the moral and emotional aspects to the forefront, dropping much of what you'd expect to see regarding explanation and confrontation. The end result is a plot that is really of no importance, it serves as a stepping stone for laying bare the essence of the story, but remains carefully unexplained making it highly speculative, ambiguous and confusing. Yet it manages to do this without losing focus on what it is initially trying to show, allowing the story to manifest itself as an emotional exploration, coming-of-age drama and a critique on society and technology.

Characters
NG's characters are not very complex, mainly causing the character interactions to remain somewhat shallow. Conversations and relationships are inherently given, not so much understood from the characters' perspectives or thoroughly explored. They still maintain some subtle details however which breathe some life into them, and fortunately those details appear to be persistent. Hence the characters remain true to themselves and don't act in ways that wouldn't fit their personalities.
The characters are mostly formed by their surroundings, that is to say; they don't take shape by themselves, but rely on the way they are shown and portrayed to give them a proper personality. It is watching them do things, noticing the articulate and carefully choreographed movements and seeing the characters' reactions which they express on the surface which hints of a deeper level to their person, and them being able to appear less superficial overall.

Development
The pacing is fast, inconsistent and chaotic, yet manages to be spot-on with its highs and lows. Going right against what is to be expected, and at times building up perfectly to achieve what is necessary. The development is not subtle, using crazy plot-devices and jumping from intense to mellow, or from comedy to drama within seconds. Yet all elements are executed brilliantly, solid directing makes it all come together despite its disparities and though its jumping from one thing to another is crazily sudden at times, it is overall incredibly entertaining.
The only foothold the development has are the characters, they are who you can rely on for stability and which you can recognise within the varying circumstances. Their development is more subtle and suggestive than it is properly construed, though their personalities are believably conjectured within the string of events. With all the things going on around them their responses are often surprisingly mild, and instead of concerning themselves with those silly things they only really care about their seemingly insignificant personal issues, holding true to the way the plot was constructed in the first place.

Immersion
The quality of the art and sound alone would be enough to maintain your full attention, the amount of elements and variation present in each scene makes watching an almost exploratory effort. The colours, music and movement all combine into an audio-visual "painting" with new strokes being constantly applied, always presenting something new to look at; often framed by a carefully timed and eloquent dialogue.
But besides being pretty, the film gives us a variety of subjects flowing into one another, each of which lack explanation at times, forcing you into a position in which attention to detail gives us a unique insight into the sub-layers. Coupling various aspects together, contemplating the meaning of events and trying to get a grasp of what's happening makes you focus not only on every detail but as well as on the film as a whole, making the term 'interesting' an understatement. It is a thought-stirring experience combined with a quick pacing, resulting in a film which won't allow you to look away.

Emersion
The interesting motifs of the film provide plenty of food for thought and touch on anthroposophic and moral philosophy, as well as more personal psychology and emotional aspects. It has a certain reflective value, perhaps making you question yourself and society, and probably having quite a few recognisable elements. It is a rather insightful film, yet leaving most of the thinking up to the viewer and merely providing a foundation for you to work with, allowing one to draw their own conclusions and make their own deductions from their personal viewpoint.
Besides being thought provoking the film is also not without its fair share of drama. The drama does a good job working with its concise characters, yet moves them along a predictable path of romantic disposition. Framed by other theatrical and supernatural elements however it's far from being dull, and is mostly just as gripping as the rest of the film by having been given a proper place and execution. Like many other aspects of the film, the drama reaches out towards other goals than simply being dramatic. It seems to attempt to give more depth to the emotional and romantic conceptions of the film, yet doesn't manage to do as good a job as some other more symbolic elements.

Voice Acting
A noticeable amount of care has been put into getting the intonation of the character's voices just right, and though it doesn't always fit the characters' frantic movements, they are very befitting of the situation as a whole. The dialogue is more careful than the visuals make it out to be, and subtly refers to things other than the immediate conversation, thus sometimes seeming out of place when being spoken by its respective character.
Usually though the subtle details in their speech are impeccable, and provide the characters with even more of a suggestive personality. The voices are befitting and carry plenty of emotion, making it believable that those talking are actual people instead of hollow shells.

Art
The art is insane, colourful and vivid; filled with lens flares, stuff floating across the screen and constant movement. The lighting and colour palette are magnificent, and the backgrounds consist of faithfully coloured strokes put into great perspective. The more detailed CGI effects tend to contrast with the painted backgrounds however, which don't contain as much precision and motion.
The animation was already brought up, being exaggerated, properly choreographed and very lively. Though body movements and lips are often way out of synch, maybe suffering from their exaggeration in the end. And yet again the effects seem to disturb more than they add sometimes, often blurring big movements more than necessary, perhaps covering up missing frames and detail. In the end though, the effects bring much to the table in the more intensive scenes, and are pleasantly subdued in the calmer ones.

Sound
The classical score is absolutely magnificent, nearly always present, providing the film with amazing atmospheric guidance. Playing, or not playing, exactly at the right moments, perfectly in line with the events displayed and spot on with volume and timing. The OST flows throughout the film, providing a foundation for expressive and emotional displays to build upon, and carrying over the right mood to the viewer.
Yet besides the OST, sound effects and voices have the same perfect volume and timing, the right sound and location. Sound effects are intense and overpowering when needed, with a wide frequency range befitting of what they accompany, and the background noises are brought in subtly whilst floating across the imaginary space.

Overall Personal Experience
In the end though, NG is a total hit-or-miss; you have to be a fan of the absurd, crazy and bizarre. Seeing the way it exposes its core-concepts, whilst disregarding anything not immediately important with sometimes ridiculous methods, should be something you enjoy. Looking for the details, references and symbolism is what matters, classical methods of storytelling do not apply; it's not an easily comprehensible and straight-forward story.
A lot of what I've used as an argument for why I think it's great might be used by others to argue why it's bad. And it might be bad at certain aspects considering the norm and what has generally proven to work properly, though it is exactly because it doesn't attempt to do things the way it's 'supposed to' and still manages to make things work so well, which makes the absurdity into a magnificent new way of doing it right. It turns a romantic supernatural high-school drama into an expressive display of philosophical concepts and simply messes with a lot of what classical story-telling has imposed over the years.
It lays bare the essence of story, disregarding layers of rules and restrictions, and throws a load of ideas and intentions on the table. Emotions, relationships and people are what's important, and showing those things to the viewer is what matters more to the creators than having the film tell a story. It shows us about the necessity of others, the difficulty of relationships and how we should better ourselves and make an effort for protecting those things. And it is understanding those things that brings the ultimate satisfaction, not understanding the plot, characters or how the hell Natsuki pulls off those amazing back-flips.

Comments
Story (setting, plot, development), Animation (art), Sound (sound, voice acting), Character (characters) and Enjoyment (immersion, emersion, overall experience) were split up into more manageable portions so I could remain focused on 1 aspect of the series in an attempt to remain objective and spoiler-free. Also no unnecessary synopsis, and the OP and ED of a series aren't an actual part of the anime! Know that all feedback is appreciated, please use the helpful button as intended, and thanks for reading!

morton.koepp - 2013-08-07 12:03:48

STORY: 7/10

Everything started when the fire nation attacked a transfer student came. Personally, I'm fed up with that kind of starts but I can't blame the producers much. Only changes can start a new story after-all. In a school, that change would be a transfer student for sure.

Story itself is actually realistic - if you put aside all that physic stuff. Teenagers loving each other but hesitating to confess it and a love triangle. What made me watch this movie was the supernatural part. Time travelling and physic powers are sure interesting. This movie's story gets my points for that part.

ANIMATION: 10/10

Animation was really good. The way light added was a masterpiece. Colourful and vibrant colouring was used to create a magical atmosphere and it was beautifully done. If this movie's colouring would be done in a different style, it couldn't give the same impression and feel. Seriously, even if you don't like this genre, watch it for graphics. You won't be disappointed.

SOUND: 10/10

Soundtrack was really nice and well-done. When the story isn't that great, this movie wins by its great graphics and music. Characters' voices are also very fitting. They've used the perfect voicing cast in my opinion. Soundtrack was pleasant. The opening song is done by the famous supercell and the song was very good. I also liked the ending song but I think the opening song beats the ending song.

CHARACTER: 6/10

Characters didn't have much originality. Typical high-schoolers. But maybe this movie's difference is those too normal characters.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10

I really enjoyed watching this movie. I even rewatched it like 2 times. Personally the graphics are a big deal for me and this movie gets me. It also has funny scenes which is good.

OVERALL: 9/10

Seriously guys, watch it now.

fiona.roberts - 2013-07-01 05:38:18

If you don't care for reasons why I rated how I did skip to the bottom.

Sound: The Ost was amazing. The opening song was by supercell, which can only mean that its amazing.

Characters: Let me get this off my chest. I gave the characters a 10/10 because Hanazawa, Kana plays as Kaho. The Characters are all your semi-normal characters in love and childhood friends. The voices fit the characters perfectly and make up for the hard to understand story.

Animation: Animation and art was VERY beautiful as you would expect from a modern anime movie.

Story: The Story was very confusing and gave this show a low rating. Being a review I can't explain the story without spoilers.

Enjoyment: The whole story was a mess BUT, the story kept me intrigued i was waiting for things to happen and nothing really did happen until about halfway though the movie but, what did happen was good.

THE REAL REVIEW

The Characters and their relations is a tad confusing having absolutely no back-story whatsoever the only time things get explain is later on. The story is as the name suggests: Psychics, School, and War. The story begins with a transfer study who everyone falls in love with. Kenji, the main character, is out walking the dog when he meets up with this transfer study who seemed to be displaying a psychic power. Having his headphones on Kenji could still somehow hear what Kenji was saying even though kenji himself knew nothing about psychics. People soon later begin to fall under the transfer students spell but, only one person is unaffected - Kenji.

ADVICE

Pay attention to every detail and write down character relations

zulauf.elmore - 2013-06-30 02:05:43

Nerawareta Gakuen

One of the best drawn Anime (Movie) I know!

The Anime has some quite nice aspects of drawing in it but it isn't quite perfect. Even the scenes are looking gorgeously, especially the landscapes, but often the light made it hard to see the people actually. That's one major issue that were seen throughout the anime. 10 out of 10 (+4)

The story, I think, is a good one. Perhaps the reason for my scoring of 9 (+3*), is, that I don't look such movies very often. But from time to time I watch these movies and this is an outstanding one. I don't see such a story-line often nowadays, because I either drop the anime or movie or its so generic I cannot give the story more than 5 out of 10 (0)

The characters are well written, but I don't think, they are as outstanding as the animation or the story. 6 out of 10 (+2)

The sound is nice and most of the time it fits to the current scene. Although I personally like Supercell, the song played twice in the movie makes me think, it just don't fit in the first time, it was played. Therefore I'll give it a 6 out of 10 (+2)

I don't give scores for enjoyment so I'll copy the number from the overall score. The movie is well made so i can recommend everyone to watch it.

Therefore I'll give it a 9.44 out of 10 - One of the best scores I ever gave a movie or an anime.

* I personally score each aspect with a number between -5 (Extremly Bad) and +5 (Masterpiece) usually, I don't like giving an aspect more than +3 or less than -3 so, don't be confused.