The visual part is pleasing to the eye – many beautiful landscapes, magic and unusual animals, attention to small things – everything that we love about Miyazaki’s creations is here. Sometimes the cartoon just wanted to admire, not paying attention to the plot. As a children's fairy tale it is very good, but for adults it will be boring. This is the first reason why anime is just good, not chic. The second is the unambiguity and lack of elaboration of secondary characters. The attention of the creators to the details extended only to the visual part, and did not touch the plot at all. The volume character is only the main character, the rest embody only one certain feature. A kind grandmother and the same aunt, an evil sorceress with a crowd of indistinct students and monsters, a good guy Peter. And the students of the magical school or the inhabitants of the city generally appear as inconspicuous scenery. It's good for a children's fairy tale, but you expect something more from the people who worked at Ghibli. And these high expectations, as I did not try to get rid of them, still influenced the viewing.
Another thing that spoiled my impressions – dubbing, which for some reason included in the dialogue all sorts of Rusisms, a kind of “lady” or “due”. Against the background of European names and a plot based on a fairy tale by Mary Stewart, it looks rather ridiculous and inappropriate.
In general, the anime was not as chic as I expected from it, but at the same time not as bad as the audience and reviewers said about it. This is a simple children's fairy tale, which does not have the depth of Miyazaki's creations, but still capable of giving pleasure to lovers of fairy tales.
7 out of 10
Original