Rating: 
Summary: Inspires an Unfamiliar Feeling
Review: When this began I was skeptical; the animation wasn't too terrific and the dialogue seemed simplistic.
What a difference 15 minutes makes.
For some reason you find yourself gaining empathy for both of the characters, who are realistic, kind, and strong. The more they exchange words across their phones and the time between each message lengthens, the more you want them to be together. They are children, and at the same time, adults. I'm not sure that I would recommend this short film for a single feeling, but that feeling...I'm not even sure what it was. Almost bittersweet, not quite melancholy, close to comfort. What I think it may have been was passion for the human race--their strength when inspired by love.
I'd say to rent it first but, if you can't, then you may want to spend a few dollars for some newfound hope.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning Work by a Sole Artist
Review: I first picked this title up in a video store becuase of the great art on the DVD box. I am a shameless Japanese animation fan, so I would have probably taken it home to view anyway. Still, the art was fantastic.When I got home and started viewing, I was not only amazed at the quality of the art but how fast I was drawn into the story; you get bits and scraps of the plot here and there in a manner that keeps you wondering what the whole thing is leading up to. In the end, this is a love story. But, there are enough mecha images and beautiful weaponry to fascinate anyone. They serve to tell a story though and are not meant to be the central theme of the movie. My only disappointment is the fact the DVD's main feature is 25 minutes in length. I know this is still a herculean task for the movie's sole artist, but I wanted more. In fact, the whole thing ends rather suddenly. You are left to wonder the final outcome of the story. I guess it is a sad ending, for the transit times involved in this title mean the two main characters are likely never to see each other again. The video was produced digitally and, of course, transfers flawlessly to DVD. The music was quite nice. I wish I had the score on MP3. I hope this title inspires other, one-person studios to extend the medium and come out with feature-length films. The tools are now in a lot of very talented peoples' hands. Good DVD. I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Idea poorly executed
Review: While the Animation is visually rich and the basic concept of lovers separated by the realities of Spaceflight are a good start they have not been used effectively. What there is of a plot is told rather than shown. Despite the characters occasional claims to the contrary there is no real character development. In all this made for a rather dull 30 minuets of viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: 30 minute emotional rollercoaster
Review: Comming from a single artist with nothing more than basically a Power Mac as a workstation this is quite an excellent piece of work. I admit that it is centered around love and drives the characters throughout the show. Seeing past that it shows the hardships of war and how fragile the human race really is. I don't believe some of the events could occur in that day and age but I'm not here to pick on things that may be the future. The ending is rather sad but shows the cruel reality of life for the two main characters. I think this anime would have to be catagorized as an element of its own, very unique! About the time of the movie, It is short but I think its for the best that you don't get too attached to the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: eye candy
Review: The story counts for something, but overall this DVD is straight-up Anime eye candy. Which is not a bad thing at all, many of the moments inside this work are stunning, to say the least. However, it was very short and was riddled with anime stereotypes. It was also, in many ways, a shameless (though subtle) ad for cell phone crazy teenagers to gobble up before they rush out the door for yet another cell phone. Or, perhaps the cell phone has become such an integral part of asian society that this animation inadvertently came across as an advertisement to an American viewer. Regardless of my ad issues, this is still a "must-see" modern anime DVD. It is one of the best instances I've ever seen of taking computer animation and blending it seamlessly into hand-drawn anime cells. The result is at times very beautiful, from a purely visual standpoint. Eventually, movies like this will be very commonplace. So, you might as well catch a glimpse of the future today with "Voices of a Distant Star." Go ahead, rent it.
Rating: 
Summary: Short, interesting, mixed in quality
Review: This is a 30-minute work made by a single artist. The story is somewhat reminiscent of Haldeman's classic SF novel "The Forever War." The artwork is variable... the characters themselves tend to be poorly rendered and at times almost grotesque. On the other hand the imagery of the fighting mechs are very well done and fascinating. The story itself is reasonably satisfying although very angst-filled. The DVD also includes some very interesting extra material including an interview with the artist and one of his earlier works which is quite good. Overall you wont get much for your money. But if you are an artist interested in seeing what can be done by a single person with passion and drive this is as good an example as there is.
Rating:
Summary: Monolithic Virtuous Prestige Filled Wonder. My God!!!!!!!
Review: Okay I was at my local Blockbuster looking for something to rent, bored out of my skull and then out of nowhere all of a sudden I see Voices of a Distant Star. Just like the man who finds a diamond and doesn't even know it's worth I rented this film, and I am exuberantly glad I did.
All right the back-story first, in the not so distant year 2039, an expeditionary force of NASA is sent from Earth, this survey unit discovers an alien city on Mars. The Tarsian City begins to be explored, but something goes wrong, someone fires first, it is unknown who did it, the humans or the Tarsiars, but the Tarsiars end up killing off all of the explorers, thus a giant galactic war begins.
Come eight years later, two middle school lovers, are trying to figure out their lives, as the U.N. Space Force is getting ready to send massive space ships, and robotic killing machines called Tracers, to fight a fleet of the Tarsiars. This is the beginning of our story.
Flash forward to this awesome OVA (Original Video Animation) Voices of a Distant Star DVD is not just an anime, it is the best film I have ever seen, and that is saying it mildly; if a live action two hour film like this came out here, it would have easily won all the Oscars, again putting it mildly. It captures more emotion, drama, history, and beauty than any movie, series, or even novel has been able to do, in but thirty minutes, I'm not kidding.
It gets even better because one guy did it on his Macintosh G4/400 computer. Do you know what this film is? A masterpiece! In the way of Leonardo Di Vinci's Mona Lisa or Michelangelo's Sixteenth Chapel.
This film really puts to shame companies here who spend hundreds of millions of dollars, with thousands of people working on a film, it makes them all look like idiots, because none of their films could even come close to this. As for Disney they should just close their animation studios, they haven't come close to making something like this and you know what they never will. Looking at all the horrible garbage that people call films here, we've missed out on the greatest things, it is like we do not know any better than the garbage we get fed, heck I'm so fed up I'm just going to watch anime for the rest of my life from now on.
So what the hell are you waiting for, would you skip out on the love of you life? Go out all ready and buy it.
Rating:
Summary: This is Beyond Anime
Review: I would give it less stars if I looked at this DVD and was disappointed by it's short lenght, which is about 30 mins. It's not a big epic story anime with great character development or that much of any plot or action at all. I am only looking at the film for what it is. It's a short indy anime film with gorgeous art work and sheer poetic expressions of the creator. The film was almost all entirely done by one person. "Voices of a Distant Star" and it's DVD extra called "She and her Cat" are two beautiful stories of unconditional love that transcends beyond the loneliness of time, space and even words. Definitely touching and worthwhile to own.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD
Review: I bought this DVD a couple days ago, not expecting much, but boy, was I surprised. This has to be one of the best animated film-things I have ever seen. It had a great plot, animation was decent, and the music fit it perfectly.
So....What is it about, exactly? Well, there are two teenagers in love, though they haven't admitted it yet. The girl, Mikako, is chosen to be in the U.N Army. She has to leave Noboru and go out to space, but she him e-mails a lot. The distance between the two grows larger, up to the point where it takes 8.6 years for a single e-mail to get back to Earth.
Well, I'm not going to say anymore. If you really care, you should go buy this DVD now.
Rating:
Summary: Good things come in small packages
Review: It was only through the advice of a good online friend of mine that I managed to watch this movie a year or so before the DVD came out here in America. I immediately and whole-heartedly fell in love with this piece of amazing work crafted all by one man one his own personal computer.
One comment you will hear again and again when asking others for their thoughts on this particular piece is "It was too short." Many allude to this and also add that it seemed stifled, that there was a lack of a good ending because of it.
However, I think many let the ideal of such a short movie get in the way of their actual judgment of the contents. It's easy to look at a movie, see that it runs for a mere 25 minutes and thus say, "Well, it must be a bad movie if it's /that/ short."
Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) doesn't feel like a small movie. The storyline moves rapidly but not at a pace to leave one confused. While the fight scenes do get a little complex and, at times, confusing, the overrall result of the movie is one of a beefy, intricate plot that could have been told in an hour long movie or in a 26 episode series beautifully condensed into 25 minutes.
It is a very simple story with a simple lesson to be learned and thus may detract some viewers. But, at the heart and core of the film lies a story that hit straight to one's soul. We love no matter where we may go, even into the stars.
Even if you may be skeptical, you owe it to yourself to at least give this movie a chance. It may, as it did me, change some of your perspectives on life, love and the manners in which we take distance for granted.
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