Akira is one of those anime movies that almost everyone’s seen and has strong feelings toward. Not so much for A Tree of Palme, a film created by Nakamura Takashi - chief animation director for Akira. A Tree of Palme is, essentially, an artsy-fartsy anime rendition of Pinocchio.
There is no introduction into the world where the story takes place; you are immediately immersed in the story, and screw you buddy if you have no clue who that is and what the hell that’s supposed to be. You’re left on your own to figure everything out, which isn’t of itself damning, just really annoying.
Speaking of annoying, the main character, a robotic puppet made from the wood of a kuroop tree, is flat out a pain in the ass for the first hour or so. During the first half of the movie, besides being annoyed with this puppet by the name of Palme, you’re deluged with gorgeous environments and fantastical creations you’re expected to piece together a plot from. OK, I actually culled a plot from the pretty pictures, but I got sidetracked by the introduction of two very Disney-like rabbit critter talking thingies.
After an hour and a half, Palme and his crew do whatever they do (just think of a very high tech Akira-style Pinocchio and you’ll get it just fine) and then they do more weird shit on a quest that makes very little sense.
What’s really a head scratcher besides being left in the dark about the plot is that this anime is very violent at times, in sharp contrast to its Disney-esque vibe and color scheme. One minute happy talking rabbit furries, then a gout of blood. WTF?
All in all, A Tree of Palme is a journey about discovering your place in the world and what part you play in the scheme of things. That and accepting that there are some things you just can’t change and you have the “moral†for this story. Like accepting that this anime was depressing and was hard labor to make sense of…
I’m giving this one:
1.5 out of a possible four Kasugai™ Melon Gummies.