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Children Who Chase Lost Voices
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Smoking, strong violence in surreal anime adventure.

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Children Who Chase Lost Voices
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What's the Story?
In CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES, Asuna (Hisako Kanemoto) is a young girl who spends her free time in a field searching for transmissions from the homemade radio that belonged to her late father. One day, while walking across a bridge, she's attacked by a scary beast but is rescued by Shun, a mysterious teen boy. She treats the wounds on his arm with her scarf, and is shocked to learn that he's found dead in the river the very next day with her scarf. At school, Asuna has a substitute teacher named Mr. Morisaki (Kazuhiko Inoue), who teaches the class a lesson on mythology and Agartha, aka "the land of the dead." After class, she visits Morisaki at his home to learn more about Agartha, but after their meeting she comes across a boy (Miya Urino) who looks like Shun, but she has no time to figure out who he really is because a group of soldiers and a helicopter begin chasing them. Asuna and the boy enter a cave to escape pursuit. Asuna is unable to elude the soldiers; the commander captures her and takes a crystal that belonged to her father. He uses the crystal to enter a portal inside the cave, and at the last moments, Asuna and the boy also enter the portal. The portal is revealed to be Agartha, and the commander is none other than Mr. Morisaki. Asuna and Morisaki search for lost loved ones, but the boy and others in Agartha try to stop the "top siders" from bringing chaos to their realm.
Is It Any Good?
This is an anime that represents all that defines anime in good and maddening ways. Children Who Chase Lost Voices has an interesting premise in its tale of characters who enter Agartha, aka "the land of the dead," in search of lost loved ones. There's lush animation, incredible detail, the sensitive tween/teen who doesn't fit in at school, coming-of-age angst and melodrama, and earnest emotion. There's also the all-too-common anime tendency to try to tell everything at once, with overly complicated worlds and dozens of side stories that derail, distract, and confuse from the central story.
What's easy enough to follow in the first act begins to unravel as the second act goes on, and by the third act, you just hope there's a happy-enough ending with the requisite anime ballad during the closing credits. It can feel overwhelming with all of the stories. Again, this is a common tendency in a lot of anime, but it slightly takes away from what is otherwise an adventure story in a mythical realm.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about anime movies like Children Who Chase Lost Voices. How is this similar to and different from other anime movies you've seen?
How does the movie use "magical realism" to tell the story and communicate its themes?
How does the violence compare to that in other anime movies? Was it too much or was it necessary for the story? Why?
Movie Details
- In theaters: May 7, 2011
- On DVD or streaming: June 7, 2022
- Cast: Hisako Kanemoto , Miyu Irino , Kazuhiko Inoue
- Director: Makoto Shinkai
- Inclusion Information: Female actors, Asian actors
- Studio: GKIDS
- Genre: Anime
- Topics: High School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 116 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: August 2, 2023
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