“Director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell) returns to the big screen with this fantastical anime drama. The story follows Kokone Morikawa, a bubbly, likeable high school girl who has the habit of sleeping too much. When she sleeps, she becomes Ancien – a brave princess with a magic computer tablet and an appetite for adventure. After her father is suddenly arrested, Kokone’s waking life threatens to become every bit as exciting as her dreams.
“More accessible than Kamiyama’s previous works, this is a bold, promising new step for the director. He weaves in familiar sci-fi themes from past work, but these specialist elements thankfully take a back seat to the family focus of this piece.
“Visually, the film plays with tone and colour, contrasting the real-life drabness of rural life and cheap family apartments with the oceanic night skies and luminescent hues of the dreamworld. The outlandishly detailed establishing shots and breathtakingly paced action are a pleasure to watch.” - Time Out
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