Pluskylang Great Film overall

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ufster ufster What's not to find here that you would expect in an elaborate tragedy: War, corruption, greed, betrayal... At its core Windaria is about the journey of a boy, ambitious yet unaware of at what cost his ambitions will come to fruition. Buyer beware, true love doesn't conquer all in this, mostly unknown in the west, gem. Quite the contrary, blinded by greed, lust and the desire for self-worth through the admiration of others, love takes a distant fourth place right up until the end when our protagonist repents for his sins and decides that love was all he needed after all. As it stands, it works more of as a cautionary tale. Full disclosure: I watched it first as a young boy at the age of 8 or 9 and it had quite an impact on me so that years later when I managed to drag it from the collective knowledge of the interwebs, I had no idea whether the actual experience of it would match the memory. In all fairness, it came as close as possible.

vigorousjammer So, I just finished watching Windaria. To be specific, it was the original Japanese version, subtitled by the "Live-eviL" fan-sub group.Well, let's start with the art. For a film from 1986, it looks VERY nice. The animation is smooth, varied, and has a lot of nice, subtle touches. It still looks dated by today's standards, but is still pretty easy to appreciate. The world is also pretty beautifully realized, with some gorgeous looking background art. The character art is all pretty standard for the era, but the quality of the animation makes them stand out more than they otherwise would.As for the story, this is where it really falls apart for me. The movie starts off fine, and the characters start to develop. You start to get a feel for the world, and the story arc, and despite it being paced somewhat slowly, it still seemed pretty well put together. However, about halfway through the story, things change. Characters that were developed early-on start arbitrarily changing their motivations left and right, seemingly for no reason. Yet, other characters feel lifeless, like an empty shell, with no real depth to them whatsoever. This makes it difficult to like any of the characters, and as such, the story ends up falling flat.The pacing also seemed to get slower and slower as the film went on. There's a lot of filler shots, and it made me feel like I was just waiting for the next thing to happen. However, even when that next thing happened, I wasn't satisfied with it, because it usually involved one of the characters, who are all so completely unlikeable that anything that happened involving them didn't matter to me. The film entirely failed to be captivating, and by the last 30 minutes, I was kind of just waiting for it to be over. Then it ended, and I still didn't feel satisfied. I felt like the ending was supposed to make me cry, but it didn't, because I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters. After all was said and done, I kind of just felt like I wasted my time.Yet, despite all that, I still find the movie oddly charming. I don't think it's good by any stretch, but it has a few decent moments in the beginning and middle of it. Also, the animation probably would have really wowed me 10 or 15 years ago, and it's still good today, but it's not good enough to push everything else to the side and focus solely on that. However, that seems like exactly what this movie tries to do. It substitutes well-formed characters and a well-paced story arc for some visual flair. It ultimately ends up being far less than what it could have otherwise been, if a little extra care went into the story and the characters.I give Windaria 2 out of 5 stars.

hellraiser7 The beauty of Shakespere's stories are they are timeless, there is just more than one way to tell them and their content is as significant now as it was then. Based on a Manga mini series, this film is an underrated and forgotten anime gem that is one of my favorite anime movies. But it's also one of the saddest anime movies because it is a tragedy of manners.The animation for it's time was great, I really like how the world of Windaria is developed, it's almost a bit similar to the world in a bit of the book Keith Roberts "Pavine"where it's a mix of eras. Some things in the world seem a step into the past from the medieval period but also from some of the technology like their weaponry or vehicles making the play a step into the future. The music score is great it has an almost dream like quality which fits both the world and the emotions from the characters.The best of all is in the characters themselves and their stories. In a way we have two stories in one which were inspired by both "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth". This is a double focused format which is something I really don't see much, but it makes sense because it shows there is a parallel between two couples. We really love both these couples and it's heartbreaking when they meet their inevitable doom and it was all because of stupidity of two different forms.The first couple is the obvious Romeo and Juliet. Ahna is a princess of one side and Jier is a prince of another. You really like both the characters, Ahna is a proactive person that is sweet but has sort of a feistyness and adventurous quality to her. Jier is sort of like myself the passive aggressive type he is a bit shy but not short of courage or confidence. We really like the time they spend together because it feels right which makes it all the more heartbreaking when things get worse and both families try to impose their will I'll admit moments like this made me mad at those families, both Ahna and Jier have done no wrong except love each other. Just like in Romeo and Juliet both die because of both their families stupid prejudicial attitudes killed them. Both Ahna and Jier had aspirations in life and it wasn't fair they never had the chance to have them realized, if both families just swallowed their pride and prejudice and listened to the two then their could of been a chance for peace and they would have still been alive but they didn't and in they end both families got nothing but more death, desolation and destruction which is exactly the path of stupidity.And of course we see the other story of Izu and Marlin a bit on the "Macbeth" story. Both are a married couple, I really like the chemistry it really feels like both do have history together. Marlin is sweet likes beautiful things, Izu is fun, funny, proactive, ambitious, kinda egotistical and obnotious (like Ben Tenison in the "Ben 10" franchise) but in a harmless sense at first. This guy most of the time talks about what he desires which is mainly to be a hero of some sort as well as a bit more in his everyday existence he rants about. We do see his life and what he has and does, and we can clearly see all of those things he desires he already has from stopping a dam from flooding his town to his beautiful wife; there are those people out there who feel what they have isn't enough when in reality their lives really are great, I always think "What the hell more do you really want?" It also reminds me of what Yoda on "The Empire Strikes Back" once said on the fundamental problem of dreaming, "All his life looked away to the future, to the horizon, instead of where he was, what he was doing?" At the point he sells out and sins that when I really hate the guy and that's the point, just like Macbeth he has sold out his soul, Izu's ambition becomes his own stupidity as he lets it override his conscious, by selling out to his rivals and killing innocent people all for an ambition worth nothing once Izu is betrayed by the people he helped, and Izu in the end realizes his sins but it was too late.As an old saying goes, "You don't realize what you have until it's gone." Rating: 4 stars

Angel Meiru Normally, I cannot stand stuff that gets too romantic. Most of the time, it just gets too mushy and sappy. However, "Windaria: Once upon a Time" is not one of those movies.*SPOILERS*This movie is a beautiful Fantasy/Parable that warns of the ultimate futility of violence and war. It is told from the point of views of a poor farming couple, Isse and Marline, a royal couple, Jier and Ahnas and a lone woman named Druidess, the bride of the God of the Afterlife. The two couples in the film get torn in war, bloodshed and corruption. Isse gets brainwashed by the ruler of Palo, while both Jier and Ahnas are forced to fight each other, after Jier killed his dad and Ahnas' mother dies of an illness.*END OF SPOILERS*But just to let you all know, "Windaria" is a tragedy. It is not sugar-coated and no one turns into cutesy little SD figures. Out of the total of 6 times I watched it, I never left with a dry eye! I cried! It is that powerful.Watch "Windaria: Once Upon a Time" with an open mind.