This is part 2 of my message above

The story and characters are absolutely 
wonderful.  The pacing doesn't feel rushed, even 
though they crammed a LOT of story into a 1.75 
hour movie.  In some ways, I do wish that it 
could have been a longer series, because there 
were some characters (Pero, Atlas) that I fell in 
love with and wanted to know more about, but who 
didn't have enough of the story devoted to them.  
But those would have been side-stories, and to 
include them in this film would have been a 
mistake because it would have distracted from the 
main story too much.  Despite the relatively long 
playing time of the film, it never lost my 
attention.  The story was relatively easy to 
follow, even with my limited Japanese.  And the 
music. . . the music was FANTASTIC.  I want this 
soundtrack.  It was all 1950's-era jazz, swing, 
etc.  And the climax  WOW  let's just say that 
IMHO the music was the most wildly inappropriate, 
and yet, somehow strangely appropriate music that 
you could imagine.  The character designs were 
beautifully retro - fans of Giant Robo, Big O, 
etc. will appreciate them.  My favorite character 
was probably the most emotionally complex 
character in the film, Rock.  Damn, he's so cool, 
and yet so screwed up. Basically, the movie 
reminded me of so many of the things that I like 
about anime - it reminded me of why I got into 
anime in the first place.  Wonderful characters, 
interesting plots, action, adventure, humor, 
pathos, a little politics, a little bit of 
introspection, but thankfully never dwelling too 
much on the philosophical points.  I hate the way 
some anime seem like they are trying to be cool 
and cutting edge, and so they ram introspective 
philosophy down your throat at the expense of 
story and characterization.   Anyway, I guess the 
most important thing is that the movie made me 
happy - I left the theater feeling good about 
having seen it, not regretting the 1800 yen it 
cost for me to see it, and wanting to see it 
again.

Jennifer