Pale Cocoon

[Kraco]

An interesting and artistic short film. Very thought-out settings, atmosphere and colouring. The plot isn't actually that surprising or original, but somehow the plot wasn't the main (or at least only) focus. I'm not sure what the focus was, perhaps just some mood or idea in the mind of the main character. An enjoyable show certainly, all things considered.

[Board of Command]

Ok to bring this thread back to life...

I just watched this and I'm a bit puzzled about the ending. During the time of the music video, the Earth was still in ruin. The singer says something along the lines of "They're trying to restore the Earth." In the very last scene the Earth is nice and blue: the way it should be.

My understanding is that Ura was hallucinating. He was about to die and the thing he wanted to see the most was a blue and green Earth, and so he imagined it. The Earth is still "rusted" and uninhabitable. Now the questions is: how does that tie into the rest of the OVA? And also, how does Riko's grandmother tie into the story (i.e. what is symbolized by her falling?)

Now, here's a totally different perspective on things. What if it's not about pollution on Earth? In the second video (after the music video) the singer mentions "the mother star wakes up." It would make sense if the "mother star" is in fact our sun. Maybe humans did something to the sun causing it to die out faster or get weaker. This would result in the death of all life (including plants) on Earth's surface, which explains the "rust colored Earth." It also explains why things would get better if the "mother star wakes up."

More on the sun theory: Ura's "coworker" says "maybe the archives are all lies?" Maybe he's right! The archives seem to focus on pollution and how it ruined a perfectly serene world. Then out of nowhere comes a strange video talking about the "mother star." Also, the fact that nobody remembers any history hints at the possibility of the archives being fabricated.

But the biggest issue regarding both theories is why can't they stay on Earth? ala Matrix-style? If they built the facility on the moon, surely they could have done it on Earth as well, which is probably even easier. And it doesn't matter if the environment is ruined because they're underground and separated from the outside world anyway.

[Y]

I'm going to hellbump this thread.

The animation in this short, contrary to some posts here and the guy on IRC who recommended it to me is pretty sparse. Lots of still shots, repeated animation, and simplistic 3D models instead of hand-drawn backgrounds. That being said, it wasn't exactly bad on the eyes either (I like the extremely limited color pallete and the design work on their electronics). It reminded me a lot of the world of Blame as it would have been before the Superstructure got too random and chaotic.

The grandmother falling from above tied in with him decoding the music video. She probably fell because she had lived outside the range of the gravity generators and strayed too close to them - this, combined with the woman sorting through archives on the surface, led to his realization of where they were.

Not only do I think the last shot is real, but I don't think the boy is necessarily dead (although the fact that the girl's grandmother found her way down by falling really fast doesn't bode well). They've been waiting for their machines or nature to clear up the mess they've made for so long that people forgot where they were and why they existed. After thousands of years, any environmental damage human beings managed to do would be reversed, so I figure Ura is the first person to see the results.

It's worth throwing 20 minutes of your time out for, anyway.