-Filmography
Voices of a Distant Star
(Hoshi no Koe)
(Hoshi no Koe)
History of
Voices of a Distant Star
Talk Article in Afternoon
(April Issue in 2004) #1 #2
Manga Version Overview
External Links:Voices of a Distant Star
Talk Article in Afternoon
(April Issue in 2004) #1 #2
Manga Version Overview
Japanese Title: Hoshi no Koe
Japanese Title (Shift-JIS Encode): ほしのこえ
Premiere Year: 2002
Running Time: 25 minutes
Other Main Staff
Music: Tenmon
General Information
Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a
Distant Star) is a 25-minutes-long short anime film made by 2D and 3D
CG. Remarkable points of this film are very beautiful CG arts, the
painful tale of extra long-distance love, and the fact that almost all of this film
was made by only one person, Mr Makoto
Shinkai.It was February 2, 2002 that Hoshi no Koe was premiered. Mr Shinkai was already well-known among young CG creators in Japan due to his previous work Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (She and Her Cat), and his new work Hoshi no Koe showed that he is not only a CG creator, but also an excellent storywriter and director. The film brought him up to the stage of professional anime creator.
Hoshi no Koe was shown for one month by a small theater Tollywood in Shimokitazawa (a town in the west area of Tokyo). Tollywood has only 46 seats, but many people who had watched the trailer on the web thronged there on the premiere day. Finally, over 3000 persons watched it through the month. The appearance of this peculiar newcomer became the center of attention in Japanese anime community.
Mr Tenmon (composer), Ms Shinohara (Mikako's voice actress), Ms Low (singer), and Mr Hagiwara (producer of CoMix Wave at the time) contributed outstanding effort in Hoshi no Koe.
Its DVD was released in April 19, 2002 from CoMix Wave in Japan. The sound is recorded by 5.1ch Dolby Digital, and it has two versions of sound: an original (director's) voice version and a professional voice actors (seiyuu) version.
In September, "DVD-Book" was put on the market by Tokuma Shoten Publishing (company of publishing anime magazine Animage). DVD-Book is a package of a DVD (2.0ch original sound version) and a book containing a storyboard, images, and articles.
The DVDs recorded great sales for an independent film, totalling of 50000 or more (at the January, 2003). Of course, it falls short of the sales of a major studio's work like Ghibli, but it is remarkable compared to the standard sales figures for DVDs of anime TV series in Japan, which usually range from 5000 to 10000.
Hoshi no Koe's success was a great help for Mr Shinkai to tackle new works.
Story
- We're probably the first generation of lovers
torn apart between Earth and Space -
The investigating team of NASA sent to the extraterrestrial ruins on the Tarsis Plateau of Mars were annihilated by extraterrestrial's attack in 2039. The extraterrestrials are named "Tarsians" after the place in which their ruins were found.
The UN Space Force built four space ships (Lysithea, Himalia, Leda, and Elara), and formed the investigation fleet of Tarsians (it is called "Lysithea Fleet" in this story) in 2047.
The girl Mikako, who lived in a certain prefecture near Tokyo, was selected by the UNSF and assigned to Lysithea as a pilot of Tracer (robot). She left for space to search Tarsians in the summer when she was 15 years old with 1000 or more other members of the team.
The boy Noboru, a friend of Mikako, was left alone on Earth. However, they continued contacting each other by E-mail of a cellular phone.
At the beginning, Mikako received training on the base at Mars, but she eventually travelled onwards to Jupiter and Pluto. The time for the arrival of E-mail also gradually increased. Noboru, waiting for E-mail from Mikako on the earth, spent pointless days, and he was getting irritated.
Soon, Lysithea Fleet did a super-long distance warp. Mikako and Noboru were separated by long distance and time seemd almost eternal. Only the E-mail of tiny cellular phones connect them...
Vocabular
Cosmonaute Lysithea
The space ship of UN and flagship of the Tarsians investigation fleet. In this story, Cosmonaute means a ship between fixed stars.
(Cosmonaute is a Russian word for Astronaut, so it makes sense for Cosmonaute to be a ship containing space explorer..... but why for "between fixed stars" ? I don't know.)
Shortcut Anchor
The space warp network made by Tarsians. It works like wormholes. It is possible to perform long-distance warp through them, but it is one-way traffic. Human beings have not discovered a lot of them yet.
Tarsians
The life form from the other planet that human beings had first contact with. Because their ruins were discovered at Tarsis Plateau of Mars (Ref. Mr. Ferdinand Valk's website: http://www.fvalk.com/mars.htm ), they are called Tarsians.
The first Mars investigation party of NASA was annihilated by them in January, 2041. The Tarsian investigation fleet which Mikako joined encountered the space ship size Tarsians and the Tracer (robot) size ones.
Tracer
The big human-formed robot of the UN Space Force which developed in 2044. It's detail is unspecified but it would be for anti-Tarsian weapon. Missiles, machine guns, beam sword, etc. are equipped in Tracer. It is thought that the name of "Tracer" has a double meaning "tracing motions of a pilot" and "tracing the marks which Tarsians left."
Main Characters
Mikako Nagamine
Japanese school girl. Born in February, 2032.
She was 14 or 15 years old when the story begins. She was selected (probably compulsorily) by the Tarsians investigation party of the UN Space Force in July, 2046 and left for space in spring of 2047. During junior high, she had belonged to the kendo club with Noboru.
(Ref. All Japan Kendo Federation: http://www.kendo-fik.org/english-page/english-top-page.html )
According to Noboru, Mikako "was a classmate and comparatively good friend when we were in junior high", and "her results of school are good and did well in sports."
Voice: Mika Shinohara (Original Version)
Sumi Mutou (Professional Seiyuu Version)
Noboru Terao
Classmate boy of Mikako. Born in March, 2032.
At the beginning of a movie, he was in 3rd grade in a junior high. Maybe he had wanted to go to the same high school as Mikako. Since Mikako left for the space, he had to wait for e-mail from her to reach him on the earth.
In the beginning, he called Mikako by her family name (Nagamine), but later calls her by given name.
Mr. Shinkai has said that he feels more sympathy for Noboru than Mikako.
Voice: Makoto Shinkai (Original Version)
Chihiro Suzuki (Professional Seiyuu Version)
Awards
- Award for image design (Entertainment Category) in Digital Contents Grand Prix 2002
- Highest Award (Public Offering Category) in The 1st New Century Tokyo International Animation Fair 21
- Award for Packaging in The 7th Animation Kobe 2002
- Gunbuster Award *lol* in The 2nd Japan Otaku Award
- Special Award in The 6th Agency for Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival
- Award for Best Director in The 8th AMD Award / Digital Contents of the Year 2002
Trivia
- The book has recommendation statement by the Governor of Tokyo. Even Voices- won award in the event sponsord by Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, it is very rare case for a politician to recommend an anime which contains robot battles.
Making Environment
Hardware
- Power Mac G4 400MHz
- 1GB memory
- About 300GB HDD
- Pen tablet (WACOM)
- Trace stand and papers
- Digital camera (Olympus)
- Adobe Photoshop 5.0
- Adobe AfterEffects 4.1
- Lightwave3D 6.5
- Commotion 3.1DV
- etc.
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