"It was a mystical summer." Dragon Heart - Adventures Beyond This World, directed by Isamu Imakake is an anime about two teenaged cousins who find themselves in the afterlife after spotting a kappa along the edge of a river, chasing it, & falling in. That first brush with the unknown throws them into the underworld where questionable choices for soundtrack music are made (it suffers from the Toy Story lyrical redundancy) and an abundance of religious propaganda that *presents* as pantheistic. They meet a bunch of gods, get a dragon for a taxi, emotionally grow to fully stand by their convictions, & learn the value of family. Overall the message is wholesome until you get to the part where sex slaves are condemned to hell for feeling tormented about having been sex slaves. That really ruined the story, actually. Perhaps I went into this with my expectations too high as I grew up on the works of Isamu Imakake, with Cowboy Bebop being my most favorite of his endeavors. The film had its moments, with that Isamu Imakake flair but overall it felt disjointed & rushed as if it were originally intended to be a series. Or perhaps there were too many cooks in the kitchen. It makes me wonder what took place behind the scenes considering one can usually depend upon Isamu Imakake for as near to flawless art as one could hope. The animation itself was beautiful, dreamlike, crystal clear, it hit that feeling of nostalgia of anime from the 90s-2000's. That alone was worth the watch. I don't know if I will be watching Dragon Heart - Adventures Beyond This World again, as too many points of the story passed the threshold of being tedious & the best parts of the film didn't get enough time. The best part about this film is to see Isamu Imakake back on the scene after a seven year hiatus. I hope his next project is fully in his hands.

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