Voices of a Distant Star is a poorly-animated, ill-devised, uncreative film. But you should watch it anyways. Why? Because Makoto Shinkai is amazing, and this was his first full OVA. And because it will give you feels.

The animation is really poor and honestly reminds me of what I doodled in middle school. Amazingly, two years later, he produced the absolutely beautiful work that was Place Promised In Our Early Days, which suggests this was mostly limited by budget …

Perhaps a fitting capstone for Hayao Miyazaki’s life of work, The Wind Rises is a visually-stunning masterpiece with far more mature themes than his previous works. Eschewing the idealized childhood which pervaded his past work and instead focusing on true love and work-life balance, it’s hard not to get the feeling that Hayao is giving us a glimpse into his own life through the lens of Jiro Horikoshi