Makoto Shinkai's newest released work: Haru no Ashioto trailer (Tech Gian DVD Version) review

Once again, the music is by Tenmon, and nbkz, the character design in Wind ~ A Breath of Heart trailers is also in working on this one.

One of the things you will notice is that the music and the animation are very closely linked, from the beginning alarm clock which starts off the music, to around the end middle part where the characters open their umbrellas, and also at the end where the characters look like they are singing in unison. This is unlike the making of Hoshi no Koe where Tenmon had to adapt his music to suit the pace of Makoto Shinkai's animation.

Like his other recent animation for "Egao", this trailer uses framing elements to great effect, such as the dividing line, basically doubling the amount of animation in that period and providing contrast. Besides the more common vertical division downwards, he also uses horizontal division at some stages.

As can be seen from the images above, there is the motif of a scene within a city, found in Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (at the inbetween scenes) and in the beginning of Hoshi no Koe. Also, contrasted with that is the wide countryside which, I think, will be very much present in Kumo no Mukou. Other than that, there's the train and the bus motifs which is in all of his works, and the sky, again one of his more recognisable symbols. Note also the train tracks going into the distant blue sky (similar to the wallpaper of Kumo no Mukou),

The images above has the character sitting in the train with the light flashing across, reminescent of Hoshi no Koe beginning, and contrasting in both colour and direction to that is a female character sitting at a place like a classroom looking out of the window, with sunlight reflecting off the desk, again like Hoshi no Koe. There is however, a clothesline there in the classroom for some reason.

The images above are of the same thing and come within seconds of each other. It is of an old see-saw in the park, and here we can see the progression of the seasons and lighting conditions, another of Makoto Shinkai's favourite themes, which was most noticeable in Wind ~ A Breath of Heart Opening.

The bridge seems to be one of the recurring motifs in the game, so proper consideration is given to it. Notice in the left hand side image though, that the road with its barriers is very similar to that of Hoshi no Koe.

The images above are the 'normal home life' sort of images, which we can recognise elements of from Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko. Notice intertextuality of the book 幸福の王子, which is known also as the Happy Prince (by Oscar Wilde). This might be symbolic.

The above images are the school scenes. Most notably, the school is empty.

The above 3 are images I thought were pretty nice. The one in the middle had parallel with the snowy scene, except sakura blossoms replaced snow, and the last one looks like one of the scenes from "Egao".