Sol Levante (2020)

I’ve come across a lot of movies.  There are maybe a dozen or so in theaters at any given time.  I also have some sets of movies I’ve been reviewing.   In addition to that, I have access to stuff from my cable provider, as well as Hulu and Netflix.  Most of them are good.  Some are bad.  There is occasionally one that I really don’t know what to make of.

Sol Levante is a short anime, clocking in at only four minutes.  It seems nonsensical, as there’s no dialogue, nor are there any title cards.  It’s just a woman moving through various scenes.  I’m not sure if she’s moving through dimensions or teleporting or what.  It almost looks like a coming attraction, which is a shame.  I’d probably watch the movie that it would have advertised.  As it is, it looks like someone animated an LSD trip.

From what I’ve read, it was meant to be seen in 4K.  I don’t know how many people are going to have access to that.  I’m certain some will.  I watched it on my laptop, as I’m not going to hunt down an HD screen just to watch this.  There will always be a better screen to watch it on.

Sol Levante will likely serve as a test run for future projects.  I would think it took more money and effort, per minute, than your average anime.  I have to wonder if Netflix will be willing to invest in these projects, considering that they charge by the month.  There are going to be purists, who prefer traditional anime and those who probably wouldn’t notice, either because they don’t have the eye or the equipment for it.

Visually, it’s spectacular.  But there’s no real plot to speak of.  There’s no beginning or end.  There’s no satisfaction of finding out what happens at the end.  It’s almost like the movie was canceled after making a few minutes of footage and this is all they had to offer.  It’s the very definition of eye candy.  It looks pretty and doesn’t require much thought.  I am genuinely hoping that a larger project comes of this.  I want to see what happens.


IMDb page