Brave Story is a 2006 an adventure fantasy anime film directed by Koichi Chigira, based on the fantasy novel by Miyuki Miyabe. The film was released on July 8, 2006 and stars Takako Matsu, Eiji Wentz, and Yo Oizumi.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
While exploring an abandoned building, Wataru Mitani and his friend Katsumi Komura (Katchan) are exploring an abandoned and soon to be demolished building looking for ghosts, when they are both spooked by a cat and both bolt as fast as possible. Wataru runs up the stairs, tripping on a little blue sphere that he procceds to pick up and examine. A blonde boy then steps out from the shadow and asks if he's the person he's looking for, being disappointed and taking the glassy sphere with him as he heads up a flight of stairs to a pair of magical doors, disappearing. As Katchan shows Wataru that it was just a little black cat, Wataru is astounded by the fact that the doors disappeared right before his eyes.
The next morning, Wataru heads to school and sees the blonde-haired boy and goes to talk to him when he's pushed aside by some bullies that confront him for trespassing on their "haunted house". As the leader of the bullies goes to hit him, a teacher comes in and tells the boys to get to their class with the leader yelling that he'll get the boy as he's dragged away by his cronies.
Later that day, Wataru heads home to find his dad outside of their apartment, and his dad tells him he's leaving. Wataru, not understanding asks his mother what's going on and she brushes him off, saying he's only kidding. Wataru chases after his father, only to find the wrong man and ends up nearby the abandoned building he was exploring last night, hearing a commotion going on from inside. He goes upstairs to find that the boy from earlier is being assaulted by the bullies, and after stepping in and getting a few punches himself, Wataru tears the tape off the boy's mouth and the boy utters a spell that whisks the bullies away by the power of an evil spirit.
Later, the boy introduces himself as Mitsuru Ashikawa and the two of them have some soda to drink together. Wataru remarks on his parents getting divorced, which infuriates Mitsuru and causes him to call Wataru "pampered" and leave to the other world, telling Wataru that only Wataru can change what happens to himself. Wataru goes home to find his mother unconscious on the floor, and after getting her to a hospital, he remembers Mitsuru's words and heads to the magical doors to be whisked away to a magical trial to test his abilities. A female voice gives him some hints, and after he finishes with said trial, Lau remarks on his lack of abilities and equips him to be a Hero Apprentice, gives him the red stone on his sword, and sends him off on his journey to get the five stones to reach the Goddess of Fortune.
Immediately, Wataru runs into a pack of creatures called "Corkscrew Wolves" and is saved just in the kick of time by a giant traveling lizard by the name of Kee Keema. Kee Keema rejoices that he has happened upon a "traveler" (beings from worlds other than theirs) as his people consider them to be good luck. He heads into town with Wataru and gets some food, and after both he and Wataru finish eating, Wataru chases after Mitsuru, only to lose him and end up inside of a circus. After one of the performers spotlights him, he ends up walking over to where a baby dragon is being smuggled, and is promptly framed for the crime. Once he's arrested, he hears the voice that talked to him when he first entered the world and she tells him to head to an underground cave below an abandoned church.
The next morning, Wataru is released as the baby dragon was stolen while he was in the cell, but is told to prove his innocence by capturing the smugglers. The smugglers are found in an underground cave under an abandoned church and after a fight with a sea monster in said cave, the smugglers are captured and Wataru gets the green stone added to his sword, making for two of five. He is inducted into the Highlanders by their leader Kattsu, for doing such a good job and helping out so much, and is told that whenever he needs the others that the Highlanders will be there. They then catch up with the female cat performer whose name is Meena, who spotlighted Wataru during her performance the day before, and she goes with the two of them to find her father, bringing the baby dragon along with them. After some searching, they happen upon a town that on the outset looks amazing, but Wataru finds out there is more than meets the eye once he cannot find his friends.
The mayor of the town, Daimon sends him out to the hospital below a town where a special kind of fruit used to be gathered until a "powerful wizard" burned it all down in his quest for the gems. After heading there in a rush because he believes Mitsuru hurt himself, he is trapped in a vision where his father angrily berates him and tells him why he left Wataru and his mom. As Wataru rejects his father, a vision of him in the mirror tries to tell him to strike with his sword, but before he does, Mitsuru stops the whole charade and nearly kills the wizard Daimon sent with Wataru before he stops Mitsuru from doing so. Wataru runs back to free his friends and stop Daimon with the other highlanders, but right as Daimon is about to take Wataru out, Wataru deflects his magical spell and turns himself into the blue sphere Wataru was looking for. The rest of his group, however, continue to sail to the Ilda empire, while Wataru and his group are left without anything to do about it.
That night, Meena and Wataru talk about what they would wish for, and the baby dragon sheds one of its horns. Meena encourages Wataru to blow through the recently shedded horn, which he proceeds to do, then causing a fleet of dragons to appear and whisk them away to where they need to go. Simultaneously, Mitsuru is charming the princess of the empire and asking her about the black stone, which she can't tell him much about. The next day, as Wataru and his group slowly make it over to the Ilda Empire, Mitsuru begins his siege on the empire and the castle and eliminates anyone who gets in his way to get the final stone, even pushing away the princess. Wataru catches up to him, but he pushes Wataru away and refuses to tell him why he's been doing such horrifically evil things. Right then the mirror that protects the black stone tells the story of how Mitsuru's family were killed in a multiple homicide by his father who was jealous of his wife for cheating on him, killing her, her lover, his daughter and himself in the process. Mitsuru, in a fit of rage, destroys the mirror and takes the black stone and unleashes a plague of powerful black monsters upon the world.
He then ascends to the goddess of wishes, with the princess giving Wataru the fourth stone and his friends wishing him luck on his endeavor to stop Mitsuru. He proceeds to fight against a dark clone of himself who only expresses his negative feelings, but Wataru figures out from the mysterious female voice that he would only be hurting himself by fighting it and then understands that that is part of him, causing the dark clone to disappear. Mitsuru, meanwhile kills his clone and ends up falling over admitting that he has failed. He then sees a snowflake that is a completely different color, thinking it's his little sister he was going to wish for to have back, and turns into a loud of dust.
The mysterious girl then reveals herself and encourages Wataru to wish for her to be the Goddess of Fortune, saying he can get infinite wishes if he does. Wataru denies her this, causing her to become angry and turn into a frog, which eats Wataru that he then cuts himself out of, causing the frog to disappear. He then adds the final stone to his sword and as his sword destorys the ice platform he's standing on, the Goddess of Fortune asks him what his wish is. He then says that he wants everything in the land of Vision to return to the way it once was, without the monsters and for him to be able to go back home. After the Goddess asks if this is truly what he wants, she grants his wish, destroying all of the black monsters and sending Wataru home, with Meena crying for him to come back, and Kattsu remarking that he did a good job.
The next day, Wataru is makes breakfast for his mom in an inverse of the beginning of the film and then heads to school with Katchan. At school, Wataru finds that Mitsuru still got his wish and is alive, with Wataru happy to see him again.
| Spoiler Warning: All spoilers have been stated and have ended here. |
Trivia[]
- While this film had a large marketing campaign and many releases on home video formats, this film was outshined at the box office after three weeks due to the release of the Ghibli film, Tales from Earthsea (2 billion Japanese Yen compared to 8 billion.)