February 8, 2025 12:27 pm
Your Name and Weathering with You are cool, but this one is a true underrated gem.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices is an early work by Makoto Shinkai, released before the universally acclaimed Your Name and Weathering with You, but after the famous 5 Centimeters Per Second.
In many ways, it seems like a search for the author's style: it is often considered the most unusual of Shinkai's anime. For good reason, of course.
What Is Children Who Chase Lost Voices About?
Asuna is in middle school. Her father died several years ago, and her mother, a nurse, disappears at work, leaving her to take care of the house alone.
Asuna's only comfort is a secret hideout in the mountains, where she sneaks away to listen to the radio she inherited from her father. In her hideaway, she meets Shun – a strange young man who supposedly comes from the mysterious Agartha.
The acquaintance turns out to be short-lived: literally the next day, Asuna learns of his death, and then – that the young man can theoretically be resurrected in Agartha. This is where her strange and wonderful journey into a new world begins.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices Is the Most Fantastical of All Shinkai's Works
The main thing that distinguishes Children Who Chase Lost Voices from the animator's other works is its fantasy nature. Most of Shinkai's works contain fantasy in one form or another, but most of them are limited to interfering with reality.
Here, Asuna is literally transported to an alternate world, which is why the animation is often compared to another famous anime, Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.
The Animation Pays Most of Its Attention to Secondary Characters
Most of the attention is not paid to Asuna, who is the protagonist, but to the secondary characters. The most important one in the end becomes Ryuji – Asuna's new teacher and representative of the mysterious organization Archangel, which is trying to find an entrance to Agartha.
Obviously, his goal is the same: to bring someone important back to life. And as it turns out, it is Ryuji who becomes the driving force behind the whole adventure – Asuna is nothing more than an outside observer.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices Is a Touching Work about Loss
The central topic for all the main characters is the trauma of loss: each has lost someone and cannot fully come to terms with it. Each experiences loss in their own way: Asuna seeks solace in others, and Ryuji is blinded by the past and unable to let it go.
The narrative is interspersed with references to the afterlife: insects, which occasionally appear in the frame, are traditionally seen in Japan as a link between two worlds – the real and the spiritual.
Your Name and Weathering with You are cool, but this one is a true underrated gem.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices is an early work by Makoto Shinkai, released before the universally acclaimed Your Name and Weathering with You, but after the famous 5 Centimeters Per Second.
In many ways, it seems like a search for the author's style: it is often considered the most unusual of Shinkai's anime. For good reason, of course.
What Is Children Who Chase Lost Voices About?
Asuna is in middle school. Her father died several years ago, and her mother, a nurse, disappears at work, leaving her to take care of the house alone.
Asuna's only comfort is a secret hideout in the mountains, where she sneaks away to listen to the radio she inherited from her father. In her hideaway, she meets Shun – a strange young man who supposedly comes from the mysterious Agartha.
The acquaintance turns out to be short-lived: literally the next day, Asuna learns of his death, and then – that the young man can theoretically be resurrected in Agartha. This is where her strange and wonderful journey into a new world begins.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices Is the Most Fantastical of All Shinkai's Works
The main thing that distinguishes Children Who Chase Lost Voices from the animator's other works is its fantasy nature. Most of Shinkai's works contain fantasy in one form or another, but most of them are limited to interfering with reality.
Here, Asuna is literally transported to an alternate world, which is why the animation is often compared to another famous anime, Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.
The Animation Pays Most of Its Attention to Secondary Characters
Most of the attention is not paid to Asuna, who is the protagonist, but to the secondary characters. The most important one in the end becomes Ryuji – Asuna's new teacher and representative of the mysterious organization Archangel, which is trying to find an entrance to Agartha.
Obviously, his goal is the same: to bring someone important back to life. And as it turns out, it is Ryuji who becomes the driving force behind the whole adventure – Asuna is nothing more than an outside observer.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices Is a Touching Work about Loss
The central topic for all the main characters is the trauma of loss: each has lost someone and cannot fully come to terms with it. Each experiences loss in their own way: Asuna seeks solace in others, and Ryuji is blinded by the past and unable to let it go.
The narrative is interspersed with references to the afterlife: insects, which occasionally appear in the frame, are traditionally seen in Japan as a link between two worlds – the real and the spiritual.
