aka Hoshi no Koe

Voices of a Distant Star is a ~30min OVA by by Makoto Shinkai. It’s a typical romance anime. Visuals aren’t very good. But what makes this anime OVA so so damn special is this: This anime was made by Makoto Shinkai ALONE. That’s right. He wrote, directed and produced this anime ALONE, armed with only his Mac. Reference here. (He had help from his fiancee for voice-over and a friend for the soundtrack)

Now that we know that this was a solo job, all of a sudden, the graphics in this anime looks so damn awesome. It looks like crap compared to pro studio productions (that can make even crappy anime look good). But it is way beyond what you expect one man to achieve.

The background, the environment, everything is so drawn so richly and vividly. There isn’t any skimping on the art. The hand-drawn computer-enhanced art gives this anime a unique flavour. My only gripe is that the characters look a bit…weird…

The romance story is really sweet and beautiful. It’s about 2 young lovebirds communicating via email after 1 gets sent out to fight a war. As the war pushes further away from Earth, their emails take longer to reach each other. Their last messages took years to be received. Very touching. My younger sister even cried.
This anime is absolutely recommended for anime fans (especially those who love creating fanart) as it sets itself apart from typical run-of-the-mill animes. Work hard and you may one day create anime as good as this!
7/10!
Download it here.