Voices

Joseph Mallozzi offers anime Voices of a Distant Star as an example of intelligent science fiction. I remember feeling cheated – and more than a little annoyed – when I bought the DVD online a few years ago to find the movie only 25 minutes long. But then I watched it, and saw that it was really a beautiful movie. Seriously, there were tears.

Voices tells the story of a girl, Mikako, who is a member of an interstellar military expedition. Left behind on Earth is her boyfriend, Noboru, with whom she tries to keep in touch via text messaging using her mobile phone. As the expedition travels further away from Earth, the time it takes for her messages to get to Noboru increases.

The movie is on YouTube if you haven’t seen it (and want to).