Ni No Kuni (2019) Movie Review

 

Ni No Kuni | 2019 | 1h 46m
Genre: Anime /Hand-Drawn Animation /Isekai /Action /Adventure /Animation /Family /Fantasy /Romance | Country: Japan
Directors: Yoshiyuki Momose, Hiroyuki Morita, Naohito Takahashi | Writer: Akihiro Hino
Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Mackenyu, Mei Nagano
IMDB: 6.1
My Rate: 7/10

Yu and Haru suddenly find themselves in a different world while trying to help their friend, Kotona, and end up saving the life of Astrid, a princess in that world. Kotona's worsening condition leads Yu and Haru to seek a way to save her, though misunderstandings lead to a battle between them.

Warning:

Contains violence.

 
Synopsis:

Haru, Yu, and Kotona are all close friends. Yu has a slight disability where he cannot walk and uses a wheelchair. Yu, who likes Kotona, chooses to hide his feelings because he knows that Haru also likes her.

One day, a mysterious man stalks Kotona and puts her in danger. Yu manages to find Kotona, but it is a little too late because the man has stabbed a knife into Kotona's stomach. Haru arrives later, immediately picks up Kotona, and takes her to the hospital. However, on the way, he is almost hit by a car but is saved by Yu.

They suddenly find themselves in an unknown city wearing strange clothes. They try to find Kotona in the city until they find someone who looks exactly like her in a pamphlet seen at a tavern. That person is Astrid, the princess of the kingdom in that city.

Haru and Yu try to enter the palace by sneaking onto a physician's carriage. It turns out that Astrid is suffering from an illness due to a curse caused by a mysterious knife in her stomach. No physician has been able to cure her, including the physician who just arrived.

Yu accidentally pulls out the knife, causing Astrid to recover. They receive lavish gifts from the kingdom. However, the next day, they are summoned again and asked to fight with the sword soldiers.

Based on the advice of his minister, the king feels that Haru and Yu are assassins sent by the Black Banner, who are enemies of the kingdom. Haru and Yu finally try to return to their world by jumping into burning embers. Upon returning to their world, Haru and Yu manage to find Kotona in good condition. However, it does not last long, as Kotona suffers from an illness that threatens her life.

Haru and Yu return to Astrid's world, but with different goals. Haru wants to kill Astrid, while Yu wants to save her.

Will they succeed in protecting everyone?

 

Review:

Ni No Kuni is a film based on the game series of the same name created by Akihiro Hino, Level 5. Although the story's narrative differs from the plot in the game, some elements from the game are retained. It takes the story from the events after Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.

This film shares a visual tone and texture with Ghibli productions because Studio Ghibli contributed to the character design and other components in the games. However, they were not directly involved in the making of the film. Nevertheless, this film is the first feature film directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who is an animator at Studio Ghibli.

The story idea is quite interesting, raising the theme of a parallel world with a fairly logical narrative. Unfortunately, the execution of the story is a bit underwhelming and could have been optimized more deeply. Many parts of the story could have been explored further to make the story more engaging.

Let's start with the foundation of the story. The foundation of the story itself is done quite well. Each character is introduced well, and their connections are shown clearly enough. Some important events that underlie the conflict are also explained well.

The conflict begins to be felt when Kotona is back in danger, which could lead to her losing her life. Even though in this conflict, Yu can provide a logical explanation for what happened to Kotona and about the link between the two worlds, the misunderstandings that occur within Haru are also quite reasonable, creating a fairly interesting conflict from these differences in thinking.

Viewers will witness various scenes that are quite tense, with impressive war and action sequences. Although the animation is a bit lacking - which we will discuss later.

The resolution of the conflict is done quite well, with the character development of each character being quite visible. The mysteries of the story and twists are solved quite well, although there are still many other mysteries that should have been explained more deeply.

Yu's identity is only conveyed in the form of narration by Haru. This scene should have been explored more deeply, perhaps by showing a glimpse of the 'reality' about Yu, such as how he could move to the human world. Was it really from a plane crash or something else?

The same goes for the old grandfather. There is no clarity regarding the identity of the grandfather, how he could possess the legendary sword? Then when he returns to the human world and brings the 'strange dog' with him, what does the dog look like afterwards?

Another question is about Yu's family. If every character in Kotona's world is related to Astrid's world, then Yu's mother should also still be alive because Haru's mother is still alive. Perhaps if the story of Yu reuniting with his family were added, it could be a quite memorable story.

In terms of animation and visuals, it is quite good, although I personally am not a fan of Ghibli's image design. Unfortunately, the animation style is inconsistent. We can see differences in the animation, especially during the war scenes when the Black Banner troops come riding animals. The image design displayed seems not to blend with the overall design and the background in the scene.

Another drawback is in the expressions of the characters. There are times when the characters' expressions look varied, but there are also those that look flat even though the scene or dialogue is quite tense. This becomes a problem if combined with the voice-over, which makes the message of the dialogue and the atmosphere of the scene not conveyed well enough, one of which is the character Astrid. Many scenes seem flat.

On the bright side, the selection of music and sound effects is quite helpful in building the story. Some voice actors also put in maximum effort to bring the characters in the story to life. One of them is Mamoru Miyano, who managed to convey Galeroth's anger from his tone of voice.

Overall, this film is quite interesting to watch. However, it doesn't seem suitable for children because the story is a bit heavy.

 

Memorable scene:

Astrid and Yu are at the lake. Astrid expresses her feelings to Yu, which is how difficult she feels to bear the status of a Princess. She cannot be herself and hides her feelings. Astrid tries not to complain and show her difficulties, as a manifestation of the expectations that people give on her status.

This scene may relate to our lives. Where often we try to hide our sadness and choose to keep it to ourselves. Because we don't want to burden other people with it or don't want to ruin people's expectations of us.

 

Memorable dialogue:

"I will protect the things I hold dear!"

 

Ending:

Happy Ending

 

Recommendation:

Worth to Watch

 

(Aluna)