Origin - Spirits of the Past: The Movie [DVD]

Description

Product Description Ages past the Forest was awakened and the Moon unleashed a ravenous Beast upon the Earth. Man cowered in fear...Three hundred years later the landscape of the world has been drastically rewritten. The remnants of humanity are divided as never before. Half seek a tenuous coexistence with the Forest half seek to dominate and subdue that which they cannot understand.Agito the son of an aged hero inadvertently sets in motion the destruction of all that is left when he revives the young Toola from her timeless slumber. Unable to reconcile life as she once knew it from the world as it is now Toola calls forth ancient technology to reshape the future from the ashes of the past. With the blessing of the Forest Agito must first save the girl from herself in order to rescue them all. .com Outstanding animation and a compelling environmental message make Origin: Spirits of the Past an above-average anime feature, especially for younger viewers. Despite an abundance of elements that many anime fans will find familiar, Origin distinguishes itself with a story that lends itself (like many anime features) to a variety of spectacular settings. As the fairy-tale story begins, it's been 300 years since terrible events left civilization in ruins. Now, in a post-apocalyptic setting where the crumbling remains of vast cities lie in close proximity to the encroaching forest, humans live on both sides of a brewing conflict. For young Agito, the son of an aging hero, life is relatively peaceful in Neutral City, a community built within the ruins of a once-major city. But when he wanders into a forbidden zone of the forest, where plant-like "druids" protect their world from outsiders, he discovers a cryogenic stasis tube containing Toola, a girl who's been resting in stasis for 300 years. Her father had been in charge of the "Earth Rejuvenation Project" that led to a technological disaster, and her emerging friendship with Agito is threatened when they find themselves on opposing sides of an ideological conflict, and Agito must save Toola from her potentially destructive convictions. He does so by becoming "enhanced"--essentially melding his human form with the forest, aligning himself with the powerful forces of nature. As a colorful mixture of science fiction and "green-friendly" adventure, Origin has a lot to say about preserving our planet in the era of global warming, and it's a visual treat from start to finish. --Jeff Shannon