Five elementary school children are spending their summer break camping at a remote mountain village. While on a hunt for their missing rabbit, Pyon-kichi, they find an injured dog in a field with crop circles. After nursing the dog back to health, they are shocked when he suddenly speaks and introduces himself as Pochi Rickman—an alien researcher who has been on Earth researching its plant life.
As thanks for saving his life, Pochi offers to take the children to the moon on a sightseeing trip. When they arrive, the group quickly discovers that the moon hides a vast alien metropolis which they begin to gleefully explore. Unfortunately, after hearing that Pochi was severely injured on his mission, the government of the moon issues a travel sanction on Earth, preventing the children from returning home.
Left with no other choice, the group journeys around the galaxy in search of a way to safely return to Earth. Amidst their adventure, they are pursued by aliens affiliated with "The Space Show," the universe's most-watched production shrouded in mystery.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Archaeon
Leave any child unattended for a length of time and they will undoubtedly find themselves in some sort of mischief, even if they weren't looking to get into trouble, and all world weary parents, teachers and carers will attest to this as truth. The main reason for it is because kids are naturally curious individuals (when you're young the universe tends to be a fascinating place), and are more willing to accept as fact things that many adults would find preposterous, ridiculous, or just plain crazy. The irony is that while the "mature" population of the world will often scoff or smile condescendingly at children's talesof visits to strange worlds, encounters with weird creatures, travels on spaceships, fights with monsters, and other such flights of fancy, that doesn't stop adults from creating stories about children in exactly those situations.
Uchuu Show e Youkoso (Welcome To The Space Show), is simply the latest in the long tradition of adults stealing ideas off kids.
The movie follows the adventures of a group of children from a rural Japanese village who are attending an unsupervised week long summer camp in the local school building. During the first day they decide to search for a missing pet rabbit, but what they find are crop circles and an injured dog ...
Cue the madness.
The storyline is a rather interesting take on the whole idea of alien encounters, but there is a degree of predictability to proceedings due to the rather simplistic nature of the plot. That said, given that the movie is billed as family entertainment, it's nice to see that efforts have been made to make the whole thing more appealing to adults and children alike. Part of this is reflected in the visuals and audio, but the lion's share of focus undoubtedly falls on the story itself, so it's unfortunate that this is also the area where matters become somewhat ... confusing.
Too much effort can sometimes be a bad thing, and that seems to be the main problem with Welcome To The Space Show as it simply tries too hard to be everything to everyone. Unfortunately this is very much at odds with the simplicity of the plot, and the result is a tale that lacks the finesse of rival features. In addition to this there are a number of themes "borrowed" from other stories, and while plagiarism may be the first form of flattery, moderation is the word that director Masunari Koji and screenplay writer Kurata Hideyuki seem to have forgotten.
Now many people will automatically draw comparisons between Welcome To The Space Show and certain other anime movies, in particular Spirited Away, Galaxy Express 999 , My Neighbour Totoro (they find a strange friendly creature in the forest), and Oblivion Island, Production I.G.s 3D feature from 2009, and that's just from the East. There are also themes taken from the novel Five Children & It by Edith Nesbit (which was adapted into a live action movie in 2004), The Chronicles of Narnia, and the 1985 movie The Explorers. This rather dizzying array of influences initially looks like a disaster waiting to happen, so it's surprising that this narrative cacophony is not only understandable, but also entertaining.
When it comes to the looks though, this movie seems to shift into a higher gear.
Welcome To The Space Show is a creatively visual feast that, like Oblivion Island, easily surpasses Spirited Away when it comes to imaginative design. The opening sequence is simply a taste of things to come, and A-1 Pictures have put a great deal of thought into bringing home the idea that the children really have gone to another world. This is partly achieved through the use of bright, vivid, and sometimes clashing colour schemes that impart a slightly unearthly quality to a good portion of the movie. When this is coupled with some very creative character and feature designs the sense of not being in Kansas anymore really does come to the fore. The scenery is especially noteworthy for its detail and quality, and viewers may find themselves simply admiring the picturesque vistas from time to time. There's also a nice combination of static and layered backgrounds that add a degree of depth and character to certain scenes.
Unfortunately it's not all sweetness and light. Although Ishihama Masashi's designs are highly imaginative, consistency seems to be the problem as the quality of the visuals tends to drop from time to time, and there are occasions where the characters look more like animated cave paintings rather than defined figures. There are also a few scenes that the film could have done without as they serve no real purpose, as well as a few issues with the animation itself. While the majority of the movie features crisp, fluid movements and sequences, the drops in the quality of the visuals tend to be accompanied by actions that are almost stop motion.
Which, strangely enough, leads me on to Susan Boyle.
It's a very strange world that we live in, and one of the things that many people would probably rank as highly unlikely (if not nigh on impossible), is for a song by the "star" of Britain's Got Talent to be used as a theme tune to an anime. Truth is always stranger than fiction though, and thus her song Who I Was Born To Be is the featured track for Welcome To The Space Show. That said, she's actually no stranger to Japanese movies as the song that shot her to fame, I Dreamed A Dream from the hit musical Les Miserables, has also been used as the theme tune for the third Eagle Talon film (an animated flash movie that's the brainchild of Asahi TV's late night host, Frogman).
As for the rest of the noise, there are a variety of tracks on offer that range from dramatic classical pieces to ditties played on a banjo, as well as some very good audio effects that are often very crisp and clean. Unfortunately, Welcome To The Space Show suffers from a problem that plagues many other anime out there, and that is its choreography, or more specifically, its timing. The majority of the movie is actually very good in this department, but there are several occasions where something happens on screen a split second before the viewer hears it.
The most surprising thing about this film is Aniplex's decision to cast a group of relatively unknown 11 to 14 year olds in each of the child roles, and while the idea isn't new in anime (Ghibli have done it before), it's a gamble that pays off as only children can really act like children. The rest of the cast is made up of experienced seiyuu who play their parts quite well, but this movie is about kids having an adventure, and they really do steal the show thanks to some clever scripting and a sense that their characters really are inquisitive, curious, and pretty much everything one would expect a child to be.
Now given that this is a family movie there is bound to be some drama that forces the characters to learn and grow. The only problem is that rather than having one or two occurrences of these events, Welcome To The Space Show tries to throw too much into the mix. The movie can basically be broken up into four parts, and in each section the children are put in situations where they must learn certain lessons in order to carry on (the importance of work, looking out for one another, etc). The development verges on the formulaic for the most part, and any possible natural progression is hampered by the fact that the main theme for that section of the story never really reaches a conclusion. Instead it simply gets smothered by the next plot thread, or simply peters out, and this can leave the viewer trying to work out how the children got from A to B.
That said, the visuals do detract from the stolid, check box approach to character development, and while the storyline may contain far too many different influences and events, the obvious enthusiasm with which the child seiyuu approach the script offers some genuinely fun moments.
Welcome To The Space Show is a flawed creation that attempts to take on the might of Ghibli, and while there are areas where it clearly falls flat on its face, there are also parts that really are brilliant. The movie is slightly more tongue in cheek than one might expect, but at the same time possesses an edge to it that sets it apart from the somewhat saccharine nature of family entertainment. All of the flaws in the film can be forgiven on the basis of one fact - it's one of the more imaginative and creative anime movies to appear in the last few years. Yes, it "borrows" heavily from numerous influences, and yes, there are issues in almost every department, but it also takes the viewer on an adventure to strange and fascinating new worlds, and this aspect is probably the most understated thing in the movie.
After all, one should never underestimate the power of a good adventure story, and it's actually pretty easy to disregard the problems with Welcome To The Space Show. While an examination of the individual characteristics will highlight quite a few issues, this is one of those rare occasions where the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. The movie may not be as slick a production as Summer Wars, Oblivion Island, or any of the Ghibli affairs, but even with that handicap it manages to convey a sense of discovery and wonderment, and when all the plusses are added together it's pretty easy to see why I enjoyed this film.
And before you ask, no, the movie isn't a glorified advert for wasabi.
Wolf_in_Paradise
I loved this movie. It reminded me of a Miyazaki Film. The story is really fun. It's enjoyable for all ages. mostly comedic with action and emotional times stirred in. It makes for a great ride. The characters are your basic mix for an adventure story. You have the older responsible one, bookworm, cute kid, girly girl, and engergetic character. Even though we've all seen these character types before they each have their own unique feel to them as the develop. Art is Great hands down, only complaint any one could have is when they fly over the moon. As i said i abosolutly loved this film, itshould get picked up in theaters. It just might be a little long for younger kids at 2 1/2 hours roughly
Psychotik
Space: the final frontier. Not many get to experience being in space or even know much about it, but many people dream. For these 5 kids, it's a real adventure. Uchuu Show e Youkoso, or Welcome to the Space Show in English, is one big adventure in space, trying to get back home. We see how much the kids are willing to do and learn to get back home in time. The story starts in rural Japan, during summer vacation where 5 kids go to camp for a week... with no adult supervision of any kind? Okay. Everything is normal until they find an injured "dog"whom they healed, but it turns out he's an alien and takes them on an adventure which involves a space show (duh), drugs (kinda) and an evil plot. I'll keep it at that to try an be as spoiler free as possible. The story's okay and quite simple. Right for kids. I like science-fiction and out-of-this-world things, but some stuff don't make sense, like why is everyone on Earth an idiot by not realizing that there's a huge city on the moon? They did mention that Earth isn't part of the Space Federation, so they probably kept it a secret. But why didn't Earth join the federation then? I know it's just a kid's movie so they keep it simple, but it would have been nice to know. About the simplicity, they keep every name simple. Space Federation, Space show, space this, space that, etc. It's like the entirety of the universe is all connected and earth, for some reason, is out of this, which makes me more curious about this. One last major complaint I have about this is that the ending is very anti-climactic. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it was very boring compared to the rest of the action in the movie. The story is simple, great for kids, but adults feel wanting more, you know, story. It relied to much on visuals and pretty colors.
Art: I loved the art, which is probably the movie's strongest point. The animation, like in most movies, is very nice through out. The art in this movie reminds me a lot of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (for the Village scenes) and Summer Wars (for the Space scenes). The village has a very calm feel to it, like it should, but it's the space scenes that are extremely nice. Many different colors and designs to keep any kid's attention. Space itself looked great as well. My one qualm with this is that some of the designs feel generic. I wanted to be more wowed by weird designs of the ships, buildings, etc. but it disappointed. Still, the art is very good nonetheless.
Sound: The sound and music is great as well. The music fits nicely and they know when to use silence as well. There wasn't a song that stuck out to me as amazing, but that doesn't matter. The voice acting does it's job well. Thta's about all I have to say.
Characters: This is probably the movies biggest downfall. The characters are boring paper cutouts. We have the strong heroine, the little sister, the perfect helpful guy, the nerdy guy, and the helpless girl. It's a real shame because I liked a lot of the supporting characters. I liked Boga, Kool-aid Tony, Ink, and even Neppo. I would have really liked to see more of the bad guys and learn about their backgrounds, which is never really clearly explained. The robot at the end gets barely anytime at all and comes out of no where. Oh well.
All in all, this movie isn't really that bad. It's a very nice adventure through space, learning about what really goes on out there. This is more of a visual/auditory experience because of the simplistic characters and story. "Welcome to the Space Show" is a very accurate title.
rpmneko
I tend to do exhaustive research on most media before I commit to watching/reading it. Many reviews of this film gave it moderately positive scores, but many also commented that it was too long (especially in the second half) and could have been edited down to be a better film. Being the crotchety old guy that I am, I just guessed that these comments were being made by people with abbreviated attention spans. However, after watching it I found myself agreeing with those other reviewers. I just purchased a new projector for my home theater and have been watching films that are advertised or reviewed asbeing very strong visually. Well, this film is quite spectacular visually in a Fantasia sort of way...lots of bright colors and a "circus in space" aesthetic that makes for fun eye candy. I would imagine that young children would be quite happy to just melt into this movie and not even worry that there is very little by way of story.
For me, the story...or lack thereof...is what caused me to give this only a fair rating. The only aspect of the story I connected to at all was when there was an effort to develop relationships between the young group of earthlings. The most successful example of this was between Natsuki and Amani, cousins who have a difficult yet ultimately tender "big sis little sis" relationship. The film as a whole tried so hard to be BIG and spectacular that it spread itself out too far and too thin for any individual aspect to attain importance. When things quieted down for a moment here and there to allow the characters to develop...then it had my interest. The rest was fun but in a somewhat superficial way.
This is by no means a bad film. I just feel it spread itself out too far and lost focus on anything to make me really care.
Werty800
When I think of the word "imagination", my thoughts immediately run towards my childhood and the experience of discovering and understanding new things on my own, without asking or needing an actual definition. It makes me remember the times when consuming any piece of media I had on my hands was immediately proceeded with imagining my own expansions for it. Nowadays, that definition somewhat changed. I feel like with age, imagination attempts to turn itself away from inspiration, trying to get to a point where only the overarching ideas remain from anything you experience. It's a natural way of things, as you go through more andmore there's less and less for you to find.
But there's always room for something different, for exploration and experiencing the originality of others, for that childish feeling to emerge again and remind you of its existence. I feel like that's exactly what Welcome to the Space show aimed to do. It tried to take overarching ideas we've seen again and again, even as children, and put them in a reality, a realm that was always an inspiration to humans - the vast and unexplored space. Not only that, but through those means it seems to give its best shot at reviving the inspiration and the imagination of anyone who watches it, giving the viewers tons of assets to work with in every minute of its runtime.
*Slight spoilers*
The story begins on Earth, where a group of friends are on their break decide to spend a week in their school all alone. We quickly get to understand their rather simplistic characters and relationships thanks to the montage proceeding the events of the movie, and a couple of scenes afterwards. In summary: we have the main character Natsuki; who is somewhat of an energetic airhead and a tomboy and her young cousin Amane, who's very emotional and caring. Then there's Noriko, a rather stock up; trendy girl who dreams of being an idol. Koji, a bookworm passionate about space; the brains of the group, their leader Kiyoshi, who's the most grown up person in the group. And finally Pochi..... a talking alien dog.
The children find him wounded in an alien-made crop shape, take him to their staying place and treat his wounds. Upon waking up they are greeted with a huge surprise. The dog that they thought is, well, a dog is actually an alien! As a reward for helping him, he takes kids to the furthest place humanity has reached - the Moon! Turns out though, that we haven't really seen the true moon. On the other, unexplored side of it lies a huge city, and the kids get the chance to explore it. From there, everything so great about the movie begins to show its head, one by one, although it's biggest strength can be noticed even before that.
Beginning with an intense, action packed scene where aliens jump around mountains and shoot each other with lasers, the movie wastes no time to flaunt it's main asset - the visuals. A-1 Pictures may have garnered quite a bad reputation as of late when it comes to character designs or lazy animation, but it goes to show that when enough talent and passion (and most likely money) is put into a project, it doesn't matter what studio makes it.
Welcome to the Space Show is more than 2 hours long, and at no point does it not impress me. No matter if it's the grassy plains of Earth, the overwhelming city on the Moon, or the grand, bright finale of epic proportions, the movie manages to find its style for each place it decides to showcase, feeling truly unique and inspiring at every angle, switching up the color pallet, the style of architecture and the alien races. This on the other hand directly ties to what is my personal favorite thing about the movie - it's structure and how it correlates with the places the characters are at.
As mentioned, the time spent on Earth is mostly used as exposition and the set up. The true fun begins on the Moon. The experience of watching the characters explore the Moon for the first time can only be explained as a total clusterfuck of ideas and designs. Every shot feels completely ridiculous, the aliens walking around look even crazier and weirder than the ones we see in the first minutes of the movie, the place makes no sense whatsoever and wrapping your head around it is not even eligible, because most disappear as soon as they appear. This hecticness makes sense however if you think of the context of kids exploring the space civilization for the first time.
Also worth noting that this is the place where the kids see the Space Show for the first time. That cut was made completely by Yuasa Masaaki.
After a while everything settles down a bit, as the kids find jobs their dreams and plans face reality, giving them a more mature feeling before we're taken on a ride to another planet inside of a big space worm. There we witness about the same amount of new things, but at this point, we as the audience, as well as the kids are more familiar with space, making for a much more concentrated experience. This is also the point where a lot of foreshadowing takes place, as well as kids planning their nearest future.
Proceeding onward they arrive on the dog planet, which heavily resembles Earth. That fact Allows for a breather. Giving a sense of familiarity, be that with the designs, seeing Pochi's family, his backstory on his own planet and the events that take place there, directly ties to the topics discussed at that time, those being relationships between the characters and the strive to help others, be that as doctors, heroes or normal people.
And finally, the big ending. Much more collected and much more focused, we follow few perspectives at once, we see new designs, but this is the point after we saw so many similarly weird things, had the time to digest it and take it in as a normality, making for a finale that, just as the rest of the places we've seen, introduces new elements to the galaxy and gives the viewer more things to work with, but at the same time is a clear picture, something you can get behind because you understand the world dynamics, the character dynamics, the themes, the ideas, and everything the movie has thrown at you, making for a fun and interesting conclusion, wrapping the story of the kids and the movie's themes up, but leaving out a lot for the viewer to just delve in it on his own. Nothing that was necessary has been left alone, that's for sure.
And isn't this the same feeling as finishing, for example, WALL-E or The Incredibles? There's a good reason for that, it was meant to be that way, stories for children live by different rules. While narratively this could be a legit claim that I can understand, the vast amounts of unnecessary information is not a good thing, of course, but I don't believe it's an actual negative when looking into the movie's themes, especially the one of the Space Show itself, the mindless aliens taking their entertainment for granted, not giving a care about how its made, not wanting anything new.
If there was a particular flaw with the movie, I would say it is the directing in the first half. The very first scene has massive problems with establishing space, the camera is often too close to the action. Later, on the Moon, while I defended it, the hecticness could've been contained more, randomness is often distracting and the weirdness factor wears off faster than it should. Luckily, the show gains its footings afterwards and is able to form a much better idea of space and weight of movement. The action can still be a bit confusing, but it’s never really hard to follow.
My final thoughts about Space Show won't be long, because they don't need to be. You're out of Disney movies? You're out of inspiration? You're running low on energy? Space Show has you covered on all sides. Everyone deserves a little kiddie movie once in a while, and one as good as this is a rarity nowadays. Pure, exciting and fresh, Welcome to the Space Show is a movie that has a huge chance to get everyone's brains going again. If you're interested, sit down, and enjoy the show, but don't forget to do so actively. You don't want to turn into a mindless alien, do you now?
As always, this is purely my opinion, I highly recommend you to develop your own.
Firechick12012
In the year 2010, the company A-1 Pictures decided to try their hand at making their first feature length movie (I think? Do correct me if I'm wrong), titled Welcome To The Space Show. It was their attempt to make a children's movie with as wide appeal as possible, similar to how most of Ghibli's movies do. Having seen this back when it first got fansubbed, I really liked it...but it never got an official home video release in the US until four years later, surprisingly enough. We can thanks GKids for eventually getting the license for it. I remember reviewing this back when itfirst came out, but having rewatched the movie this year, with the English dub, my opinions on it have changes slightly. I do think Welcome To The Space Show is a very beautifully animated and fun children's movie. It does have a lot of the cliches that usually come with the genre, but it's still surprisingly well executed.
It starts off a bit like Digimon at first glance. So basically five young kids decide to spend a week or so at a self-run camp at their school, totally all by themselves in order to induce a sense of responsibility, trust, and teamwork (though this is rather hard for two kids in particular as they got in a fight regarding a lost rabbit named Pyonkichi). One day, one of the kids finds an injured dog and they nurse it back to health. But the dog, whose name is Pochi Rickman, is actually an alien scientist who's studying plants and searching for a species of plant long believed to be extinct. To thank them for saving him, he takes them to the moon, where they're exposed to all kinds of new sights and wonders. But before they know it, the gates to Earth get closed and the kids have to find some alternate way to get back to Earth before summer break ends or else their parents will worry. But they'll find themselves getting wrapped up in a far bigger situation than they bargained for.
Yeah yeah, cliche premise, kids get taken to another world they never seen before and meet monsters, yada yada yada. Digimon-esque, I know. The premise isn't exactly new, but I don't think this is why the movie was made. Plus, you have to admit the movie does tackle a bit too many stories at once. Kids seeing the moon, being trapped on the moon, watch the space show, something about an extinct plant, aliens hunt down Pochi, etc. There's no denying that the movies does take a lot of influence from other stuff, like some of the more kid-oriented movies in Ghibli's library, with the space train parts being lifted straight out of Galaxy Express 999. It often feels like the movie switches from one storyline to another whenever it feels like it. I personally didn't mind it, as parts of it made sense in the context of the story and how it progresses, but I can understand how others would find the sudden transitions to be jarring and make the movie as a whole a big mess. Though I have seen worse in that regard, so I'm not going to diss Space Show for doing it the way it did.
Honestly, the best thing about the movie is the graphics, and A-1 really went all out here. The colors are bright and imaginative, the artwork is gorgeous, both in the foreground and background, and the actual animation is very expressive and never static. The characters in the movie really come to life in how they're animated, and they're extremely dynamic in their emotions, poses, and constantly changing expressions. The movie packs in tons of details, with plenty of nonverbal communication between the characters that you have to work to be able to find. Say what you will about A-1 Pictures and the fact that all they work on is Sword Art Online nowadays, but when they go all out, they really go all out. It's a shame they don't do more stuff like this anymore. I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, as I think it feels too much like a Saban-style action movie score, except for one thing: How the hell did the creators of the movie manage to get Susan Boyle of all people to sing the ending song?! How?! I know she got famous literally a year before the movie came out, but doesn't it cost a lot of money to use a British singer's song for a Japanese movie? Don't they have tons of copyright issues surrounding that kind of stuff? How did A-1 pony up the money to do that?!
It also helps that the cast of characters, while not the most developed, are pretty likeable and charming. Because most of the movie consists of the kids exploring space and learning all it has to offer, the movie gives us a good sense of who they are, their strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. Because of it's limited time frame as a movie, it doesn't have a whole lot of room to flesh them out, but the time they do get is fairly well done. There's a bit of drama near the end that is very effective and realistic because the movie never forgets that it's dealing with children who make mistakes and aren't always the smartest. I also liked a lot of the side characters as well, even though I wish the movie had done more with them. I wasn't a big fan of the villain, though, and apparently the security staff in this movie was too incompetent for their own good. There is one other flaw that keeps me from bumping my rating higher: The movie has some bits of child nudity that, while not outright explicit or anything, might ruffle more than a few feathers. I mean, who wants to see a four-year-old boy's cartoon penis in the beginning of the movie? These scenes are very small and are only a few seconds long, but while I personally wasn't bothered by it, as I know Japan has different views on child nudity than America does, but I can see overzealous parents seeing even brief shots like this and foaming at the mouth.
So in the end, Welcome To The Space Show suffered from trying to be too epic and trying to bite off more than it can chew. That being said, for this being A-1's first ever movie, and I say they still did a bang-up job for their first effort. It's a fun, cheerful, enjoyable family movie that manages to balance life-like characterization and imaginative space adventures.
pluvia33
Let me get this out of the way: I absolutely adore this movie and think it is one of the most underrated and underexposed anime films out there. Welcome to the Space Show (Uchuu Show e Youkoso) is a delightful science fiction story about a group of children taking a journey into space with an alien. It is whimsical, beautiful, and a feast for the eyes and soul for anyone who loves light-hearted sci-fi stories and imagery. However, this is just my own feelings on the film and with the relatively lukewarm reception it received, I seem to be in the minority here. So with thatin mind, let’s get right into my category breakouts as I try to express my love for this movie while also explaining some of the pitfalls that might prevent others from enjoying it:
-----Story - 8 out of 10-----
Starting things off, the story of Welcome to the Space Show seems to be the biggest sticking point when it comes to how much someone might enjoy this film. The only professional review for the movie on Anime News Network stated the story as the biggest negative and summarized the negative points as, “Plot is a mess - it tries to be several different stories in succession and ends up with none of them making an impact on the audience.” While I can understand where this point is coming from in hindsight, I never felt that the plot was a mess at all as I watched it. I think the reason for this is that I felt there was only one main plotline: Five kids go into space with an alien and need to get back to Earth before their parents come to pick them up from summer camp. That is it. The movie is about the journey that the children go on. There are a number of B-plots going on at the same time and most of them are undeniably underdeveloped, but I never really cared. They were just things that were going on and I always felt invested in what was going on with the children first and foremost. In a way, I saw a lot of the main story as having more of a slice-of-life structure to it, even though MAL doesn’t have the Slice of Life tag attached to the movie. You watch the kids experience life in space; going shopping at a huge space port, getting jobs there when they need money, and visiting the home of their alien friend. In the meantime, things just happen around the kids, many of which aren’t fully explained, just to propel the journey forward and cause some conflict. If that structure of storytelling doesn’t sound appealing to you, then this could be a vastly less enjoyable film from your perspective.
-----Art - 10 out of 10-----
And this is what most people consider to be Welcome to the Space Show’s biggest strength. The art is just absolutely amazing and it’s a bit hard for me to believe that this originally came out in Japan 9 years ago! While the visual production values all around are absolutely great both on Earth and in space, the sci-fi imagery in particular is wonderful to behold. The initial space port has a vast array of alien creature designs and space ships, structures, and technology. And while it’s a comparatively minor aspect of the visuals, the character designs for the main human cast (the five children) are also very pleasant, distinctive, and expressive. Funny enough, the character designs will look familiar to people who have seen the similarly named anime Welcome to the NHK, as the same guy did the designs for both. Really, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about the visuals in Welcome to the Space Show and if you don’t like them, it would really just be a matter of taste.
-----Sound - 9 out of 10-----
A while back, I remember hearing a movie composer say something along the lines of, “If you notice my score, then I failed at my job.” In that respect, the music score for Welcome to the Space Show was just about perfect. I remember specifically keeping an ear out for the music at times, but otherwise the score perfectly blended with what was going on in the visuals, seamlessly becoming part of the larger production. And while I can see some people not liking them, I also found the English-lyric songs to be haunting and beautiful, fitting the strange space setting perfectly. The general sound design also left me with no complaints. When it comes to the voice acting (Japanese version), I felt that all of the characters were well acted. As the main cast is a bunch of kids, your tolerance for “child” voices could also affect your enjoyment of the movie, but I personally thought all of the performances worked very well.
-----Characters - 9 out of 10-----
Overall, I loved the characters in Welcome to the Space Show. The five kids all felt like they had their own distinct personalities and their own hopes and dreams which motivated them during the journey. They essentially all get a miniature coming-of-age arc during the movie’s runtime which felt very satisfying by the end. Our main alien friend was also a lot of fun and felt very human in his own way. The trip to his home planet felt especially down-to-earth (yes, I recognize the irony of these statements). Many of the side-characters are also great. Ink is probably the most adorable alien I’ve ever seen in a story and her dad was also amusing when he was working with Kouji. I’d say that the only low point in the character department would be the antagonists. While the “villains” initiated a great climax and some awesome action sequences throughout the story, their motives were really confusing and not fleshed out all that well. This goes back to some issues that others may have with the story, so that issue can be compounded if you’re a fan of villains in stories. But again, if you primarily see this as a journey for the kids and see everything as stuff that’s “just happening” without thinking about it too much, then it all works out.
-----Enjoyment - 10 out of 10-----
Yes, I absolutely loved this movie! While I’m watching many anime movies at the moment, trying to catch up with a lot of stuff that I’ve missed over the years, Welcome to the Space Show is currently my second favorite standalone anime movie. It was simply a delight to follow the overall-simple story of these five kids traveling through space. I got deeply invested in their adventure and the emotions, positive and negative, which they experienced. I had tears in my eyes a number of times and had a smile on my face for nearly every other bit of the 2 hour and 16 minute runtime. And it DID NOT feel that long. I almost didn’t want it to end. I ordered a Blu-ray copy of the movie that night and will happily watch it again when that comes in the mail despite having many, many other things in the queue to watch.
-----Overall - 9 out of 10 (Conclusion)-----
So in the end, I can say that this is not an “objectively perfect” anime film. If you are looking for a fully engaging story which fully fleshes out all of its plotlines and has everything “make sense”, then you may not enjoy this. And it might be a bit far on the “family movie” side of things for some people, although it does have some bite to it. The visuals could also get a little goofy for some peoples’ tastes. But if a fun and grand almost-slice-of-life style adventure story following kids in a wonderful and diverse sci-fi space setting sounds interesting to you, then definitely give this film a watch. It truly has not gotten the love and exposure that I feel it really deserves.
HybridMedia
For any American or anybody that isn’t Japanese that doesn’t always follow anime as much, there is no denying that Studio Ghibli is a part of that fraction that people who aren’t anime fans like their movies but recently, most anime movies have their Ghibli touch such as Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt through Time, both of which are from Madhouse and directed by Mamoru Hasoda but what if a movie that combines the magic of Ghibli and the works of Mamoru Hasoda? That is where this movie comes to mind. The plot involves around five children who originally plan to spend theirsummer vacation at a self-run summer camp but things all change when they save the life of a dog-like alien while looking for their lost class pet and they are rewarded with a trip to an alien colony located on the moon. However, things take a turn for the worse when passages from the Moon to the Earth banned, poachers hunting for something one of the kids got (it’s wasabi), and to top it all off, finding a way home before their parents discover them to be missing.
While I got to say that story of the movie is really nothing new, being it’s a journey to a world that’s outside of our own and experiencing new entities beyond their eyes, is actually really refreshing to watch, but I believe there are some scenes (The passport scene, the ways of them earning money and losing it) that really didn’t need to be there or need to be cut short, considering its runtime is over 2 hours 16 minutes (136 minutes) and most anime movies don’t even try to be that long…or at least, the anime movies that I watch. There is also something about the title element, The Space Show, as in you’ll know nothing about it in the first part and only know a little bit about throughout the movie’s mid-section.
Characters are pretty decent with a minimal main group of characters like Natsuki, the newly added, energetic kid from town who is a space case some of the time but wants to prove to be stronger than she usually is, as in her being a heroine; Amane, the youngest member (and Natsuki’s cousin) who has the honest and gentle personality but isn’t as naïve as most people would think in a child and was annoyed with Natsuki in the first few minutes of the movie because of her letting the pet Pyon-Kichi escape. There’s Kiyoshi, who’s the oldest of the group and basically the leader because of his leadership skills, but to me, he had less to deal and honestly, he’s really not that interesting to follow through. Noriko, the timid fourth grader, might be the same as Kiyoshi in the story but her role is being the voice of reason. Then, there’s Koji, the bespectacled boy who is very curious about anything with UFOs, aliens, and the occult and yet he doesn’t seem like the person that would touch everything and messes it up for that person. He’s curious but he’s not an idiot and I like that in a character. Then there’s Pochi Rickman, the dog-like alien who has a very Peter Pan-ish personality minus the Lost Boys and felt more like a characters that adults can somewhat relate to in something that’s very kid-friendly but not in your face about it. There’s also the message of owning up to your responsibility, from Natsuki being arrogant and lazy to when her cousin is in danger or Pochi.
For animation, A-1 Pictures, the studio that brought you Blue Exorcist, Black Butler, and of course, Sword Art Online, are the ones responsible for this movie and this may sound redundant but the animation looks very vibrant, colorful and a visual masterpiece. In layman’s terms, it’s that damn good but at sometimes can get a little warped in the character movements, like it was Studio 4’C doing in-between animation but stil, it’s great animation to look at. The music score has that jazzy, bouncing edge to it, like you are a kid in an amusement park being surrounded by all these people and cartoon characters (mainly people in mascot outfits) and the ending song done by Susan Boyle (yes, that Susan Boyle. Has she done anything relevant in a while?) was really a great highlight in the music department.
The dub, surprisingly, is done by underutilized New York/Los Angeles (bicoastal) dubbing company NYAV Post and, as of now, is distributed by Manga Entertainment……that’s Manga UK meaning no US date has been made for this yet. Anyway, the dub really had strong points when casting child actors Michael Dean & Michael Jacob Wayne as Amane & Koji, respectively, as you believe that this is an actual kid voicing that role since most dubs and especially the original Japanese counterparts often ignore that. However, there are strong performances from veterans Michael Sinterniklaas (The Venture Bros. and founder of NYAV Post), Stephanie Sheh (in her better roles, IMO, and also co-direct and wrote the English version/ADR), Cassandra Lee & Marc Diraison (also co-directs with Sheh.)
FINAL VERDICT: This movie has got the touch of what Ghibli has been missing recently with a sense of adventure and fun thrown in with some glaring problems like forgetting the title element of the movie, it can run for too long, and some lessons can become overbearing but can be subtle about it. It’s an anime film that I would recommend to families if they can stand the 2 hour length of it.
tothebirds
Welcome to the Space Show is a weird movie, definitely enjoyable, but still weird. Story: 7 It's kind of how you'd expect a movie like this to go, but it's not bad. Art: 10 The art style is cute and definitely pleasant to look at. Sound: 7 Not bad, although, the voice acting (dub) gets quite cheesy at times.Character: 7
They could've been fleshed out more and their characterisations were a little cliche at times, but nothing terrible.
Enjoyment: 6
It wasn't bad, I don'y regret watching it. It had some good ideas and maybe would've been better as a full show rather than a movie. There was some stuff that was really weird, in my opinion, such as a particular relationship they wanted between two of the characters.
CureFaith
Do you remember, as a child, roleplaying with your friends in the backyard, pretending to be firefighters and superheroes and animals? Remember when your make believe story would hit a wall, and you had no idea how to keep going...so you just threw in whatever you could think of? Maybe flying elephants save you, or you can suddenly transform into a car. It didn't have to make sense as long as you were having fun. "Uchuu Show e Youkoso" is just that: a make believe story where elements are tossed in to keep the plot going, because who cares if they're cliché or nonsensical? This isabout having fun!
Really, the best way to enjoy this film is to go in accepting that you're getting some good old space romping and little else (that is it in no way surpassing the scale of Star Wars. Just...no). You have some seriously vibrant animation, with action scenes and visual spectacles galore. The plot can be engaging, too, especially when it slows to allow the protagonists to chat and take in the beauty of alien culture. Nothing deep or revolutionary, but the conflict and climax are entertaining enough for casual viewers.
I'm not saying that the story itself is a bland afterthought to the visuals. Five school students coming together to find a missing rabbit - one lost IN SPACE - offers plenty of humour and mayhem to lose yourself in. The tension between Natsuki and Amane, the only two human protagonists with legitimate focus and growth, feels natural. You want to see them find their rabbit, save the universe, and get home before their parents find out, while learning a few life lessons along the way.
Therein lays the strength of this film: you want to see what happens. You want to see what sort of crazy plan the kids will come up with, how it'll go wrong, and how they'll get out of trouble. You can let the uninteresting side characters slide, give the offkey pacing a pass, and ignore the obvious similarities to other popular anime films of the same demographic (just avert your eyes, Ghibli...), because in the end, it's just here for a fun time.
If you have younger anime fans around, or are just looking for a longer, edgier Ghibli adventure, "Uchuu Show e Youkoso" offers a couple hours of entertainment. Nothing new, nothing expansive, but enough to have a fun time now and again!
mrsLEE
The story is so fun, interesting, and dreamy. An adventure into a different world with kids as the adventurers. With the age range of the characters, the storyline is very light and family friendly. The characters are all adorable particularly the dog-alien. There are so many interesting things to look at with its nice graphics, character designs, setting and illustrations. The musical background is classical kind which is quite typical for the kind of story the movie has.
