2021·Animation·1h 53m
7.0
★
Following a brutal war, former soldier Van toils in a mine controlled by the ruling empire. One day, his solitary existence is upended when a pack of wild dogs carrying a deadly and incurable disease attack, leaving only Van and a young girl named Yuna as survivors. Finally free, the pair seek out a simple existence in the countryside but are pursued by nefarious forces. Intent on protecting Yuna at all costs, Van must uncover the true cause of the plague ravaging the kingdom—and its possible cure.
Directed by Masayuki Miyaji and Masashi Ando
based on novel or book
slavery
survival
tragedy
disease
epidemic
medieval
feudal japan
anime
fictious world
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Shinichi Tsutsumi
Van (voice)
Ryoma Takeuchi
Hohsalle (voice)
Anne Watanabe
Sae (voice)
Hisui Kimura
Yuna (voice)
Atsushi Abe
Yotaru (voice)
Yoshito Yasuhara
Tourim (voice)
Toru Sakurai
Makokan (voice)
Shinshu Fuji
Orphan (voice)
Tomomichi Nishimura
Kenoi (voice)
Tessyo Genda
King Akafa (voice)
Crew
Masashi Ando
Director
Harumi Fuuki
Original Music Composer
Koji Tanaka
Director of Photography
Masashi Ando
Animation Director
Toshiyuki Inoue
Lead Animator
milet
Theme Song Performance
Masashi Ando
Storyboard Artist
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Key Animation
Kazuchika Kise
Key Animation
Kenichi Konishi
Key Animation
Susumu Mitsunaka
Key Animation
Tetsuya Nishio
Key Animation
Popular Reviews
41 reviews
Ginger wife
5.0★ · 05/25/25
I don’t see a single person complaining about how terrible the ending of this movie is. It ruined the whole thing.
I don’t see a single person complaining about how terrible the ending of this movie is. It ruined the whole thing.
Hannah
5.2★ · 03/18/25
for the hundredth time: don't order ashitaka and yakul off of shein! (though, i guess this would be middle aged man ashitaka, but still)
not bad but not good either iykwim
not bad but not good either iykwim
for the hundredth time: don't order ashitaka and yakul off of shein! (though, i guess this would be middle aged man ashitaka, but still)
not bad but not good either iykwim
not bad but not good either iykwim
Danny
5.0★ · 03/14/25
44
Anther mess of a movie like come on, lore, lore, and more lore. Right from the beginning I knew I was in for a snoozefest, a ton of information thrown at me and little to no explanation for it. At its core this movie is fun and heartwarming with some heavy themes sprinkled in but is held back tremendously by what I can only call poor quality. Virtually every structural piece of this movie is crafted with such inexperience, from the poor storytelling and clustered plot, to the almost unwatchable dialogue, It just made for a pretty rough experience which I hated to see out a movie with such beautiful animation and character design. I will say one good thing this movie did was the characters, of the ones who we actually spent quality time with, they all served there stereotypes well and were charming and likeable, especially the father daughter bond, it was blissful to watch and stands far above anything else in this movie. As far as the side characters go they served to be very annoying, going along with the plot as super confusing and clustered. This may be strange but I wish Van was a little more stoic, his emotional beats would have hit harder if he held in emotions and we just got small glimpses of his past, because what they did with him did not keep me invested in him. Just wanna reiterate one more time that the dialogue in this movie is unbelievably terrible, like every sentence spoken makes me feel smarter and I felt like I had to rewind whenever something was said regarding the war, so dumb. The themes in this movie while heavy, didn’t really hold any weight because of how poor they are portrayed. There are way too many specifics in this movie and yes I did think I might just be dumb but I realized these movies are just made to be confusing, not sure why but yeah.
Forgot to mention but there is also a lot of confusion with who the protagonist is here, like yeah i’d be easy to say Van but it could really be the doctor, we get more monologues from him and seems to be the central focus for a good portion of the movie, just something to think about I guess.
Anther mess of a movie like come on, lore, lore, and more lore. Right from the beginning I knew I was in for a snoozefest, a ton of information thrown at me and little to no explanation for it. At its core this movie is fun and heartwarming with some heavy themes sprinkled in but is held back tremendously by what I can only call poor quality. Virtually every structural piece of this movie is crafted with such inexperience, from the poor storytelling and clustered plot, to the almost unwatchable dialogue, It just made for a pretty rough experience which I hated to see out a movie with such beautiful animation and character design. I will say one good thing this movie did was the characters, of the ones who we actually spent quality time with, they all served there stereotypes well and were charming and likeable, especially the father daughter bond, it was blissful to watch and stands far above anything else in this movie. As far as the side characters go they served to be very annoying, going along with the plot as super confusing and clustered. This may be strange but I wish Van was a little more stoic, his emotional beats would have hit harder if he held in emotions and we just got small glimpses of his past, because what they did with him did not keep me invested in him. Just wanna reiterate one more time that the dialogue in this movie is unbelievably terrible, like every sentence spoken makes me feel smarter and I felt like I had to rewind whenever something was said regarding the war, so dumb. The themes in this movie while heavy, didn’t really hold any weight because of how poor they are portrayed. There are way too many specifics in this movie and yes I did think I might just be dumb but I realized these movies are just made to be confusing, not sure why but yeah.
Forgot to mention but there is also a lot of confusion with who the protagonist is here, like yeah i’d be easy to say Van but it could really be the doctor, we get more monologues from him and seems to be the central focus for a good portion of the movie, just something to think about I guess.
44
Anther mess of a movie like come on, lore, lore, and more lore. Right from the beginning I knew I was in for a snoozefest, a ton of information thrown at me and little to no explanation for it. At its core this movie is fun and heartwarming with some heavy themes sprinkled in but is held back tremendously by what I can only call poor quality. Virtually every structural piece of this movie is crafted with such inexperience, from the poor storytelling and clustered plot, to the almost unwatchable dialogue, It just made for a pretty rough experience which I hated to see out a movie with such beautiful animation and character design. I will say one good thing this movie did was the characters, of the ones who we actually spent quality time with, they all served there stereotypes well and were charming and likeable, especially the father daughter bond, it was blissful to watch and stands far above anything else in this movie. As far as the side characters go they served to be very annoying, going along with the plot as super confusing and clustered. This may be strange but I wish Van was a little more stoic, his emotional beats would have hit harder if he held in emotions and we just got small glimpses of his past, because what they did with him did not keep me invested in him. Just wanna reiterate one more time that the dialogue in this movie is unbelievably terrible, like every sentence spoken makes me feel smarter and I felt like I had to rewind whenever something was said regarding the war, so dumb. The themes in this movie while heavy, didn’t really hold any weight because of how poor they are portrayed. There are way too many specifics in this movie and yes I did think I might just be dumb but I realized these movies are just made to be confusing, not sure why but yeah.
Forgot to mention but there is also a lot of confusion with who the protagonist is here, like yeah i’d be easy to say Van but it could really be the doctor, we get more monologues from him and seems to be the central focus for a good portion of the movie, just something to think about I guess.
Anther mess of a movie like come on, lore, lore, and more lore. Right from the beginning I knew I was in for a snoozefest, a ton of information thrown at me and little to no explanation for it. At its core this movie is fun and heartwarming with some heavy themes sprinkled in but is held back tremendously by what I can only call poor quality. Virtually every structural piece of this movie is crafted with such inexperience, from the poor storytelling and clustered plot, to the almost unwatchable dialogue, It just made for a pretty rough experience which I hated to see out a movie with such beautiful animation and character design. I will say one good thing this movie did was the characters, of the ones who we actually spent quality time with, they all served there stereotypes well and were charming and likeable, especially the father daughter bond, it was blissful to watch and stands far above anything else in this movie. As far as the side characters go they served to be very annoying, going along with the plot as super confusing and clustered. This may be strange but I wish Van was a little more stoic, his emotional beats would have hit harder if he held in emotions and we just got small glimpses of his past, because what they did with him did not keep me invested in him. Just wanna reiterate one more time that the dialogue in this movie is unbelievably terrible, like every sentence spoken makes me feel smarter and I felt like I had to rewind whenever something was said regarding the war, so dumb. The themes in this movie while heavy, didn’t really hold any weight because of how poor they are portrayed. There are way too many specifics in this movie and yes I did think I might just be dumb but I realized these movies are just made to be confusing, not sure why but yeah.
Forgot to mention but there is also a lot of confusion with who the protagonist is here, like yeah i’d be easy to say Van but it could really be the doctor, we get more monologues from him and seems to be the central focus for a good portion of the movie, just something to think about I guess.
Benogus
4.0★ · 08/07/24
Decent first act and good middle section but the final act doesn’t work for me unfortunately. I liked the movie when it was more slice of life than when it delved into its weak main story
Yuna is really adorable throughout
Yuna is really adorable throughout
Decent first act and good middle section but the final act doesn’t work for me unfortunately. I liked the movie when it was more slice of life than when it delved into its weak main story
Yuna is really adorable throughout
Yuna is really adorable throughout
Jacob Sternitzke
6.0★ · 02/09/24
very cute animation
very cute animation