I'll just leave my thoughts from the old board:
Well the first thing I can say is this definitely felt like it was trying to be a Studio Ghibli film. If I hadn't known it wasn't going in I definitely would have thought it was one. The art style and character/creature designs were very reminiscent. And easily the best thing about this was those visuals. Absolutely stunning, though even that doesn't give them justice. Asuna was a very earnest, likeable protagonist, and the male leads both worked well enough. The plot did too, but the message behind the film about death being a natural part of life and all that fell flat for me. Not because it's untrue, or because there's no merit to that message, but rather simply because it's extremely well worn territory by this point. For me anyway. I've seen this concept tackled so much in media, from a brief Yoda scene in Revenge of the Sith to the core theme of 24/26 episode anime Casshern Sins, and everywhere in between. Maybe were that not the case I would have appreciated it more here. Instead it felt very by the numbers. Even Asuna's brief possession at the end wasn't much of a shakeup to the formula. It would be kinda nice if just once the dead loved one really did get resurrected with no consequences, but then that would send the wrong message I suppose. The world building was much stronger than the end goal in this film. The exotic creatures and locals really stood out. The stretch from Asuna helping to save the mute girl to leaving her with her Grandfather and continuing on the journey via boat was probably my favorite part of the film. The dub I thought was fine with a couple minor nitpicks. First, just the mouthflap matching was a bit spotty at times. Nothing major, but Sentai seems most susceptible to this of all the dubbing companies. Second, and again very minor, but it irked me that they had Brittney Karbowski voice Asuna's friend AND Shin's friend. She was fine, but really Sentai? Too cheap to use two actresses? Overall I thought it was good, and I'm glad I watched it, but I doubt I'll ever get the desire to revisit it. 7/10