Did anyone remember when i used to write reviews?
[ahem]
Kowarekake no Orgel, or “The Half-broken Music Box ” in English, is a one shot dojin anime created as an OVA in 2008, before being remade as a 34 minute film in2009 and has an impressive set of names behind it for a dojin anime, but i’ll get to that in a moment.
The film follows Keiichirō, a young musician who, when his parents and little sister are killed in a car crash whilst coming to one of his bands live show, suts himself away from friends and life itself, when he discovers a Parents [ this worlds personal android assistant] abandonded in a pile of rubbish. However, despite initial thoughts that she is just junk, she miraculously reactivates
The girl, who takes the name “flower”, however has short term memory loss, and so as we follow this short film we in part see the world through a childs diary that Keiichirō gives Flower to help her to remember – and all the while we as the viewer see how flowers presence, both good and bad, help Keiichirō to see beyond his small, self imposed prison.
Now, some of you may have noticed somthing familiar about this series:
A male lead, who lives by himself,
Discovers a female android in some trash,
Who, when reactivated, has no memory of her past, But who promptly helps turn the male leads life around.
Sound familiar?
Well, to be fair to it, and while it is a similar premise, it would be unfair to accuse of plagurism – in fact Kowarekake no Orgel take the premise in an original direction – for one thing theres the matter of [ahem] how flower is reactivated!
Added to that the fact that, unlike chobits, this is fairly well wrapped up within half an hour, you never really get fed up with Flowers overly chirpy personality.
Now, Remember when i mentioned the production staff?
The director for this is one Keiichiro Kawaguchi [Moetan, Hayate the Combat Butler] with the voice of Flower played by Masumi Asano [ Gravion, Haibane Renmei, Shakugan no Shana, Hayate the Combat Butler] and the role of Keiichirō by Tetsuya Kakihara [Bleach , Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, Romeo x Juliet, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann].
At the end of the day this film, while oin the short side, had the makings in my opinion of at least a short series[ maybe 6 episodes top], as there seemed to be so much more to the characters and the world of Kowarekake no Orgel that one film simply seems not enough – in many ways its like a good ghibli movie.
So to sum up – find this movie, and let a little sunshine into your life.
Chuo - Dori 