Lonely Castle in the Mirror movie review (2023) – Roger Ebert

Sullen center college freshman Kokoro (Ami Touma), is frightened to attend college after getting bullied by her aggressive feminine friends. Any reminder of college leaves her with a stomachache as fixed anxiousness washes over, stopping her from getting off the bed. Who can blame her when the bullying is so intense? Women at her college both inform her to drop lifeless or stalk her again dwelling, the place they try to trespass. For the rising teen, staying house is probably the most viable possibility.

Bedridden in her room, Kokoro finds a portal inside her full-length physique mirror. She steps via to the opposite aspect, transporting her to a magical fort straight out of a fairy story e book. There, Kokoro meets six different youngsters round her age. They sit on a staircase, awaiting details about their random invitation.

The Wolf Queen (Mana Ashida), a troublesome, commanding little woman in a wolf masks, seems. She tells them they’ve been chosen to play a recreation. All of them have a few 12 months to discover a key mendacity about within the fort. Whoever finds the secret’s awarded a want. But when anybody breaks a rule, that particular person will get eaten by a wolf as a loss of life sentence. All year long, Kokoro and her friends strive residing their double lives freely, taking college someday at a time and reuniting on the fort afterward.

Based mostly on the novel of the identical identify by Japanese author Mizuki Tsujimura, this animated adaptation of Lonely Fortress within the Mirror wears its good intentions on its sleeve. Its fantasy and realism parts maintain secure floor and supply a mature remark about teenagehood’s hardships, together with the cruelty teenagers face at college or dwelling and the deep loneliness that stems from such rooted trauma. 

Just a few months deep into visiting the lonely fort, Kokomo learns that, like her, every teenager has little to no management over their life or environment. However the longer time spent there, the extra it appears like a peer-led restoration group providing solace and security than it does an enchanted fort. When the movie particulars the opposite points everybody in addition to Kokoro holds, it wavers from plain unhappy to horrifying.

The respectable animation by A1-Photos (“Fairy Tail,” “Sword Artwork On-line”) presents distinctive background landscapes, a number of 3D photographs, and an consideration to scale when the teenagers are towards the huge fort halls. However regardless of these positives, there’s hardly any justification for its general presentation. In comparison with “Fairy Tail” and the numerous “Sword Artwork On-line” options, “Lonely Fortress” is a extra laid-back dramatic providing than different A1-Photos options that always bear vibrant flashiness. Whatever the style and tone, “Lonely Fortress” desperately wanted some glitz. 

In fantasy-coming-of-age tales of comparable tone and maturity, like “Chronicles of Narnia” or “Bridge to Terabithia,” a refreshing gust of caprice capturing youthful pleasure can stability the bleakness of the mundane. And but director Keiichi Hara misses the potential so as to add a chic issue that may give the movie weight. The one handy time the animation is astonishing is across the climax, which is already late. 

The teenage ensemble all are likable sufficient. However they severely lack character and complexity past their traumatic backgrounds, stopping them from feeling like a pure good friend group. Their shared camaraderie is weak, particularly since their dialogue is fundamental conversations that play to the stereotypical anime archetypes—the quiet sort, the assured older sibling sort, the nerdy sort, the mysterious sort, the aggressive sort, and the goofball romantic—and their solely exercise is working collectively to discover a key. However as time passes, the connection shared between Kokoro and her fellow teen outcasts barely progresses.