This movie has nice animation, interesting characters (if somewhat two-dimensional) and an interesting story all the way through until the very end, where we find yet another film that leaves the audience trying to guess what actually happened and what point the director was trying to get across.

There are several good aspects to this film. The story is decent most of the way through. The animation is fine. But the plot and story line are flawed, presenting bits and pieces but never succeeding in telling the entire story. The steel factory is central to the story but never explained. Why the town decided to follow a guy who was without doubt a loon is beyond understanding. And justifying locking a little girl inside a factory for years is simply insane. So much of the film makes no sense.

Some may feel they understand what happened, but in reality they'd be adding their own 'truth' to an incomplete plot. And while two or three different "theories" are presented throughout, it's difficult to understand the reasoning behind much of what goes on.

All in all it was an interesting but unsatisfying film. The writers and directors leave it to the audience to figure out what story they're trying to get across; that's a stunt that very seldom works. The overall low rating here (as of this posting) would indicate the majority of the viewers feel similarly.

ADDENDUM: When I first posted this review I found many other reviewers agreeing with these observations (in their own reviews). Shortly after this review suddenly-- within a very few days-- we see several negative ratings on any critical post. So one might suspect significant crew and family response rather than legitimate viewers. If a film requires such manipulation-- it really doesn't stand on its own merit.

It's a cool movie, but it just happens to be another one of those japanese movies that has a pretty good start, with a good aim on what it's about, but somewhere near the end, the metaphors and meanings stars hiting everythinf they can; it's almost like they want to make the movie to be about everything, and honestly it doenst work, not when you start doing this at the very end. It got confusing and extra explanatory; it didnt even seem real anymore.

I really liked where it was going, but this urge they felt for talking about a bunch of emotions at the end with almost no development to most of them just kinda of messed everything up. I'm just saying that, it is better to keep it simple and targetted than start adding a lot of unecessary dialogue about emotions that you'll have to explain because they weren't developed to be simply undestood by context.

In my own interpretation, the movie aims to show that life is not essentially a search for happiness or control; life is a search for meaning. When we give ourselves a cause to serve or another person to love, we become more human, and we love ourselves more. The movie represents love as a power that offers the experience of dreaming and helps you escape loneliness. The world needs love. The power of love is what can help you survive. Love is about wisdom. Love is what makes our hearts live and beat. The movie succeeded in addressing the theme of love and showing its importance and how it gives meaning to our lives. While it is true that love has a bright side, on the other hand, it also has a dark side that can break your heart and destroy your own life.