Windaria

Title:Windaria
Once Upon a Time
ウインダリア
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: FURUYA Toru
INOUE Kazuhiko
MATSUI Naoko
Two warring nations enter a massive battle that will decide their fate. But a prince and a princess of the two opposing nations have fallen in love. Windaria is the story of their tragic love, in which they have no happy ending.


102 minute animated film released on July 9, 1986.
Animated by Kaname Productions
Licensed by Streamline Pictures in the late 1980s who edited the film to market it as a children's movie for its VHS release in the form of Once Upon a Time. Later picked up by ADV Films who re-released Streamline's edited version of Windaria in 2004 to DVD. Both versions are now out of print.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 6 6 8 6 Ggultra2764 [series:749#1552]
This is a toughie for me to contemplate my thoughts of. Windaria seems to want to push as much tragedy into its fantasy story as possible with a number of the typical cliched elements you can expect of the genre with lovers being in rival warring kingdoms and the loving husband who will face dire circumstances for the choices he makes with his involvement in said war. On the one hand, the title does well to stick out from medieval fantasy titles of its type by dumping as much dire circumstances for all characters involved as possible from major leads to even the populace in which certain characters are connected with as seeing the complete and utter destruction of two kingdoms can get one giddy with seeing a title similar to the darker stories told in fairy tales one could read up on from the Grimm brothers. On the other hand though, Windaria's efforts to conjure up its tragedy look quite a bit forced with its simple story and limited depth on the relations between characters and what led to the tensions between kingdoms to be as they were at the start of the movie. Unless one is a sap for Grimm's fairy tales, then I can see where there can be folks that hate how cynical the premise for this movie can be.

The visuals for the movie are about on par with what you would expect for a mid-80s anime movie and are effective with the dark tragedy Windaria paints itself to be with dark and subdued color tones and decently drawn scenery of the two nations at war with one another, though it is definitely outdated compared to modern anime titles. The music consists of dramatic ballads and tense musical scores that are surprisingly pleasing on the ears and are fitting for the type of anime Windaria wished to make itself into.

I guess you can call Windaria a title that your mileage could vary with as its tragedy-telling story is a love it or hate it affair.

Last updated Tuesday, November 06 2012. Created Tuesday, November 06 2012.
Watch Jan-Chan [series:749#967]
I have to agree with Aerith about this movie ... it is not very happy or entertaining.

Starting with a secret romance between prince Jill of Paro and princess Ahnas of Itha, the King of Paro has set his heart on conquering the seaside city-state of Itha. His son resists his father’s wishes that he lead the army, enraging the king to the point of having him draw his sword against his son. Prince Jill takes the blade and kills his father, and in a fit of grief resolves to carry out his fathers war against the home city of his beloved. And the world burns.

The animation is OK (this movies was released in the late 1980’s), but the story is a bit too sorrowful and tragic for me to find any joy in watching it. I am a bit kinder than Aerith, so I will give it a reluctant (watch) rating.

Last updated Monday, April 04 2005. Created Monday, April 04 2005.
Avoid 5 5 4 3 1 Aerith Hotaru Lockhart [series:749#1269]
This is one of the most misleading series in the history of anime. If you look at the cover, it has a happy picture filled with animals, making it look like a children's film. However, as soon as you turn it on, it is most obviously not.
The movie is filled with an extremely depressing storylinww, with absolutely no humorous or uplifting points. Windaria is neck deep in gore and blood, and the most horridly ill fated romance.
Being that their is little story outside of the romance, which is poorly laid out, the only point to watching this would be to see the poorly animated battle scenes.
Anyone who has any real interest in seeing something with any real substance should avoid this movie.

Last updated Sunday, March 14 2004. Created Sunday, March 14 2004.

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