Screened as part of NZIFF 2014

Patema Inverted 2013

Sakasama no Patema

Directed by Yoshiura Yasuhiro

In this charming and ingeniously elaborate anime world one tribe’s gravity is another tribe’s anti-gravity. A plucky upside-down girl and a gallant right-way-up boy switch perspectives.

Japan In Japanese with English subtitles
99 minutes DCP

Producer

Ono Mikio

Screenplay

Yoshiura Yasuhiro
,
Based on characters by Chayama Ryusuke

Animation director

Mataga Daisuke

Costume designer

Annindouhu

Music

Michiru Oshima

Voices

Fuji Yukiyo (Patema)
,
Okamoto Nobuhiko (Age)
,
Ohata Shintaro (Porta)
,
Fukumatsu Shinya (elder)
,
Masayuki Kato (Lagos)
,
Matsumoto Hiroki (Jaku)
,
Uchida Maaya (Kaho)
,
Hashi Takaya (Izamura)

“After the interstellar disorientations of Gravity, here’s an anime which mucks with up and down. Patema, a perky teen girl, lives in a post-disaster underground world. During her explorations, she falls into a chasm and ends up on the surface. The snag is, it’s an upside-down surface, with upside-down people, where she’s always in great danger of plunging into the sky. Luckily, Patema’s helped by a surface boy her age (confusingly called Age). He hates his oppressive society, which teaches that ‘Invert’ people like Patema are subhuman sinners. The adventures which follow will flip both their perspectives. Patema Inverted is a highly likeable mix of simplicity and sophistication, a sci-fi ‘conceptual breakthrough’ yarn where a boy can fall for an upside-down girl.” — Andrew Osmond, SFX. “The themes (rebellion, prejudice...) and panto villains lapse into broad strokes, but Yoshiura’s world-building doesn’t: from the texture of the underground havens to the idea that our leads have to – literally – cling to each other lest gravity tears them apart, it’s a wonder of detail and ingenuity.” — Kevin Harley, Total Film