Patema Inverted movie review produced by Purple Cow Studios Japan and published by Gkids

The goal of my blog is to share the joy and love I have for unknown comics, unknown animation and underground artists.

Today we are looking at an animated movie called "Patema Inverted" created by Purple Cow Studios Japan and published in the United States by Gkids.

The dvd that we are looking at is a relatively unknown movie by an unknown directed. It was directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. A movie by an unknown director was a very fresh feel because it was a pure work of art. There is nothing to compare it to since I have not seen his other works and his works only go back until the year 2000. Because of this amazingly development, we will use strictly his merits of story telling to judge this film. It is refreshing and delightful for me to be able to do this.

This movie is about two completely different worlds. One world lives on the surface and one world lives under the ground. A scientific experiment flipped gravity for most of the world years ago and most of the people in the world perished as a result. This movie takes place some time after that situation where it is just another page in a history book. It focuses on two people. Patema is a young girl living under the surface who wants to have adventure and explore a world she never knew. Age (pronounced Ah-gee) is a young man going to school that is sick of his every day life and how routine it is. Well one day Patema accidentally makes her way to the surface and Age just so happens to save her before she flies off into the sky. The movie is about Age trying to protect Patema from a world that is scared of her and wrote her people off as sinners and evil.  

Now this movie was directed by Yashuiro Yoshiura and it gives off emotions perfectly for helplessness and reason. It dives into themes like racism (against the inverted people) and religion. It shows an equal perception of the world from Age and Patema's point of views and you start to know how it must feel to be either character. The musical score for this movie is exciting and exotic and you feel the action scenes and how terrifying it would be to float into the sky to your death. They focus a lot on their dependability on one another and how they need each other. It is a cute little movie that does not involve to much violence.

The story is decent but the real winner is the musical score and the theme. The very idea of inverted gravity was such a new concept to me that I actually had to hold my breath. It is great to see such a fresh idea coming out of a studio that I was not aware existed. They delve mainly into the characters and only hinted at the religious intolerance and racism. It has violence but not to much. They explain only a portion of the science but justify that with the time gap. It is not the best movie ever made but a good one to pick up for the weekend and the music is very addictive. It is a great start for Yoshiura-san in the United States and I hope we see even more works by him!

Score time:

Art: 8/ 10
Story: 5 / 10
Flow of movie: 5 / 10
Impression after reading: loved it

Reviewed and shared by Harry Kohles of Metairie, Louisiana. Former art student with a fetish for corny realism. Helping to share comics and mangas you never knew existed~