An extremely short trailer for Makoto Shinkai’s latest project “Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo” has been released on the official site. The length and amount of plot details contained are about the same as the Byousoku 5cm trailer.

It looks like he is actually moving out of his comfort zone into more adventurous fantasy territory. There’s a really strong Ghibli vibe in this one, both in terms of design and setting, but since the character designer is still Takayo Nishimura as in 5cm, I suppose this is more of a deliberate homage and probably doesn’t actually have any Ghibli involvement.

Judging by the trailer, this seems to be one of those girl-falls-into-the-well fantasy stories with a slight edge. Other than the mecha fight in Hoshi no Koe, I can’t recall any other scenes of violence in Shinkai’s past works so this seems new. Hmmm. But I’m sure unrequited bittersweet adolescent love will find its way in somehow.

The Japanese title translates to “Children Who Chase Stars”, but the English subtitle in the official art says “Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below”. I suppose this is like one of those kanji with unconventional reading situation where the writer tries to imply a plot connection between the mismatching versions of the title. But really, let’s just pray that it won’t turn out to be the official English title because it sucks Pokéballs.

Still, more Shinkai is always welcome. At least until he jumps the shark.

Sure, DOA isn’t exactly the greatest game ever or anything, but I still have to pay my respect to yet another video game that has fallen victim to Hollywood idiocy. Click to see the rest of the screen caps.

General Advisory: May cause blindness.

WTF?

WTF happened to Kasumi?

WTF is this one?

WTF are they using katana?

Kill Bill 3? WTF?

WTF?

She’s no Japanese ninja! WTF?

Looking more and more like Kill Bill! WTF?

I warned you, didn’t I?