Pom Poko belongs to the collection of animations and movies, meant to raise awareness about environmental problems. In this case: raccoons, who see their territories shrink by the minute, due to humans and their need of new homes. The links to studio Ghibli are obvious: they take the myths about how Raccoons are able to transform and change their shape, and create a unique culture for these little animals, who try to do something against the humans, despite their carefree nature.

The thing is, though, that the environmental messages may be good for children and others new to these kinds of problems, but for me, I felt like I’ve seen things like these a bit too many times in other movies, commercials and documentaries. The true reason you should watch this anime is because of the raccoons themselves. They’re quite hilarious with their short attention-spans, and it’s especially interesting how they’re portrayed in a human-like way. I especially loved how the newbies tried to practice transforming.

Because of this, the first half of the movie is a lot of fun to watch. There’s a lot of detail put in the dialogue, and a nice balance of comedy and drama. I wish I could say the same about the second half, though. Incidentally, the one who directed this movie was Isao Takahata, who also did Only Yesterday. Both movies felt like they’ve gone on for a tad too long. It’s a shame: the guy clearly has lots of talent, and his eye for realism is astonishing, but his direction really drags on a bit too much at times.

The second half of Pom Poko falls victim to this. It’s just too… one-sided, and feels like I’ve seen it many times before. Granted, this movie is already about fifteen years old, but I don’t really think that the issue at hand was very new at the premiere-date either. There are also a few story-inconsistencies here and there: at one time when a raccoon is injured from a small accident, he remains in bondages for a full year. Then when he’s hit the next time, he stands up and goes on like nothing happened.

One thing that I do have to praise this movie for is that it isn’t afraid to address death. Despite the fact that this movie is aimed at children, with its carefree nature, both humans and raccoons end up losing their lives. Overall, this really is a Ghibli-movie. The animation is very detailed and full of creativity, a lot of attention has been put into the dialogue. It’s just a pity that the lacklustre second half prevented this to become a classic.

For now, I’m happy enough with this series. My biggest fear was that it would go down the same path of Code Geass, though at this point I’ve yet to find any hints that that would be the case. There isn’t one party that’s just pure evil, hundreds of innocent citizens aren’t killed in an attempt to evoke sympathy, the fights are short and sweet and there are no hints that two childhood friends will end up against each other. The director of Full Metal Alchemist and Ooedo Rocket hasn’t disappointed so far.

Right now, this series is just building up. The Celestial Beings first need to build up some kind of success before the real meat of the series can come. I’m also dying to know some of the background behind the different characters. How did they end up where they ended up? How come the Celestial Beings waited 200 years before acting? What I like so far is how all the four Gundam Pilots have different opinions about the war. Not bad, for only three episodes.

Ireland may have gotten a bit more development before the declaration of peace, though. It’s a bit of a pity that the creators only used wars that have been going on for more than hundreds of years, and it would have been more interesting to see the leaders of the terrorists, to make their actions a bit more believable.

This episode also explains why the two students we’ve been seeing occasionally will be important: the guy is Setsuna’s next-door neighbour and the girl is this guy’s girlfriend. The guy furthermore lives with his sister, who is investigating the Celestial Beings. The guy especially will without a doubt be responsible for a large amount of character-development on Setsuna’s side. It’s a bit predictable, but if the creators carry this a bit further, things could become quite interesting.

Then there’s also the old Gundam Models which were left behind. The Celestial Beings must be very confident to just leave clues like that behind, which could give the enemy more advantages in battles.