Toki no Tabibito: Time Stranger · review
Another movie about time travel! Well like most other candidates of this genre this one is also full of plot holes and inconsistencies but it is still very entertaining if you are able to just enjoy the "ride" trough time. Story: A fugitive travelling to the past picks up a group of students and a teacher. On the run from a pursuer they visit some dangerous places of Japanese history and come in contact with the temptation to change something in the past. Since it's Japanese animation there is no surprise that most of the time it's about samurais and the famous Nobunaga... Some minorromance plot.
For 1,5 hours there is quite some diversity in the story and an interesting plot and background to this adventure are keeping the story interesting.
Sound and Art:
This movie from 1986 don't has to hide from a lot of contemporary animated movies. Good and very detailed art are very pleasant to watch. Well placed sound effects and music. Nothing to complain about the voice acting.
Characters:
The more or less known historic figures aside we have some interesting combination:
- A fugitive where we have to discover the reasons why he travels back trough time.
- A group of normal students with nothing very spectacular to say about.
- A teacher (not sure if history teacher) providing the necessary background knowledge about the current time period. (Even if you know nothing about Japanese history you will get from him everything you need to know to enjoy this movie)
- Some kind of police agents for time to clean up the mess.
All in all I liked most of the characters and even if some of the decisions are somewhat stupid they weren't annoying. I especially liked the historic characters acting like they should.
Enjoyment:
1,5 hours of a chaotic and sometimes funny adventure. It's entertaining if you are not a nitpicker getting angry over every plot-hole and inconsistency.