Beyond the Clouds, the Promised Place is an anime movie I actually came across quite a while ago, but I watched it again a few nights ago and suddenly had the urge to do a quick write-up about it. The Japanese name for the movie is Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (雲のむこう、約束の場所).

Beyond the Clouds is set in an alternate timeline, where Japan was divided after their loss in the Second World War. Hokkaido (the northern island) was annexed by a group simply known as “the Union” while Honshu (the main island) and other southern islands fell under US dominion.

A mysterious tower was constructed on Hokkaido, and in 1996 three junior-high friends made a promise to build a plane and fly to the tower. However, on the day the promise was made the girl, Sawatari Sayuri disappears without a word and the two boys, Fujisawa Hiroki and Shirakawa Takuya lost contact after entering two different high-schools – abandoning the project.

Three years later, Hiroki, going to school in Tokyo, discovers that Sayuri had been in a coma – her consciousness seemingly linked to the tower – and he enlists his old friend’s help in order to complete the plane and fulfill the promise made 3 years before.

I have quite a bit to say about this movie, but I’m pressed for time, so I’ll have to shorten it a bit.

The music wasn’t particularly memorable, as a matter of fact the only song I can associate with this movie even after watching it again was a song used for an AMV – which I included below in an attempt to deliberately distract you :)

The animation and artwork was topnotch, the story was beautiful and gripping and the characters were well defined and portrayed. All in all, if I had to give this movie a score (which I usually don’t do), I’d probably give it a very solid 9/10 – but that’s just me. You’ll have to make up your own mind on this one.

Now, for the AMV – it’s titled “Waking Hour” and the song is Gravity by Vienna Teng. The video was produced by Koopiskeva from Random Destination Studios. Its an awesome AMV which won two awards for Best Romantic Video in 2005. Enjoy!!