Hadn't ever heard of this film before Discotek Media licensed it and put it out on Blu Ray. It was such an obscure thing for them to license I just had to see it as soon as I could. Having done so I thought this movie was okay. Nothing overly special but fine in the end, so lets get into why... The Story is fairly basic (and piggy), split into two distinct halves there isn't anything overly amazing about it. The story revolves around Noriyasu, his journal, his pen, his imagination and the fantastical and somewhat bizarre consequences of this combination. I mean just because Noriyasuwrites that it rained pigs doesn't mean that it will really happen right?

It's got a great innocence and imagination to it for sure but there are few consequences and as such no real depth. This is fine, I mean it's just meant to be a young kids film mainly and for that it serves up some very creative scenarios and a few lessons are learnt along the way too. But yeah while very imaginative on the surface I didn't really get anything beyond that. I'm okay with this others might not be. I mean at just 72 minutes it certainly doesn't outstay it's welcome but some viewers may not find the time spent overly fulfilling in regards to the story, despite it's innocent charm.

The animation is really amazing, very colorful and fun and while true to the images in the original books it seems they took the animation and detail way further which really brought the whole thing to life while still staying true to the source material. Yes it's a sketchy style but it's very well done, I like the shots of the cities in particular. Also when it's Pig Time there is some really enjoyable sequences. This is definitely the stand out area of this film and I would guesstimate the part that any Anime fan older than 10 is likely going to derive the most pleasure from.

Definitely also worth mentioning the performance of the main VA as Noriyasu as it's very impressive. Voiced by an 11-12 year old Daisuke Namikawa (a prolific VA nowadays) I presume this was one of his earliest roles, if not his first? But yeah what a wonderful performance, he really is fantastic and the fact we get to hear this role not from an adult woman but from an actual young male child makes it all the more interesting and believable. Daisuke even as a child himself was clearly a great actor as he really conveys that child persona in this film. Full of life, creativity and imagination as each newfangled idea unwillingly sets him down another fantastically strange venture. The chuckle we hear everytime Noriyasu thinks he has finally nailed down what to do next or just the sheer enjoyment he finds in his imagination is just glorious and so endearing.

So yeah the film is colorful, imaginative and has a very endearing main character. But overall it's lacking any real substance and depth (at least to anyone old enough to already know the few lessons on offer). If you should watch it is based soley on how much you value 72 minutes of your life and also how far down the Anime Rabbit-hole you like to travel. I thought it was worth it but I'll leave you to decide whether you feel the same.