Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Children Who Chase Lost Voices (星を追う子ども Hoshi Wo Ou Kodomo, lit. "Children Who Chase Stars"), known as Journey to Agartha in the UK, is a 2011 Japanese anime film created and directed by Makoto Shinkai, following his previous work 5 Centimeters Per Second. This film is his longest animation film to date and is described as a "lively" animated film with adventure, action, and romance centered on a cheerful and spirited girl on a journey to say "farewell". The film was released in Japan on May 7, 2011. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on November 25, 2011. The film has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2012.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Amazing animation.
 * 2) The romance between the two main characters, Asuna Watase and Ryuji Morisaki, is incredbly enging and heartwarming.
 * 3) Great voice acting in both sub and dub.
 * 4) While this movie does very little that's original, everything that it does do is handled so well that it makes you forget about that.
 * 5) Very appealing art style and character designs.
 * 6) This movie takes a lot of inspiration from Studio Ghibli works, the most notable being Spirited Away, but it still has that distinctive Makoto Shinkai feel to it.  It's like if Makoto Shinkai and Hayao Miyazaki decided to make an anime movie together.
 * 7) Good pacing.
 * 8) The theme of loneliness is a critical part of Asuna's character, and it's handled very well.  You see her go from an almost perfect child in the beginning to a clearly broken and distressed person towards the end.
 * 9) Excellent soundtrack.

Reception
Children Who Chase Lost Voices has a 69% audience rating, a 3.3/5 on Letterboxd, a 7.2/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), a 7.72/10 on MyAnimeList, a 76.19% community approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4/5 on AnimePlanet.