There are two peoples, with gravity working oppositely on them. The camera shifts views often enough to express the perspective of the main character emoting on the screen. This sounds hard to pull off in a movie that switches so often, but it is done beautifully.The story involves fear, exploration, and trust, with some very nice scenery, and slowly but surely unfolding story. When the end happens, you're ready for it, but it's not what you expected. It's a twist, but not a major twist.The main bad guy is just plain evil. Well, actually, he's insane, or jealous, or something. His character is not fleshed out well enough, and he comes off as just an evil crackpot dictator. It's too bad, as it is he that drives a major part of the story.The end in anticlimactic. It's a twist, and it fits, but it left me wondering, is that what i watched this for? It really isn't worth it, that is, if the end was all the movie had to deliver. However, the story, the visuals, and the connections make this story well worth watching. I'd give the first half 10 stars easily, but a little less overall.

I was surprised at the scarcity of geometry explanations in the movie- and this was clearly intentional. Some people believed it was all "fuzzy" or "not thought through"- while in fact the picture is entirely coherent, and the authors leave enough clues to put it together- but they simply choose not to explicitly elaborate in the movie. Paradoxically, this basically pulls the movie away from a harder-core SF content, into the soft of the interpersonal relationships- this was probably their intent.This is a typical "hollow earth setup"- of course, this was never Earth, but a space habitat/colony, entirely artificial (don't let the grass fool you, the skeleton is made of metal) - as suggested by the nearby planet with a debris ring orbiting it (possibly a consequence of the same gravitational catastrophe). Agee's world lives on the inner side of this shell, while at the very end the characters punch through the metal shell and reach the true outside surface of this habitat- where the collapsed building are scattered.The "inner sky is in fact a device/factory located at the nucleus of this spherical shell- that serves as a "luminary" for the inner crust world- a central sun. At some point, the two characters flee that surface which was getting warmer and warmer - the sun was switching on in the morning.So the story could be like this: people were inhabiting this colony, on the usual outer side, with normal gravity. At some point, they decided they have to move to the inside of the shell, and use a central "sun" (which clearly had to be built beforehand with this purpose in mind) - but for this you either need rotation ( a la G. O'Neil space settlements) or some reverse gravity. When this happened, the buildings and the people on the outer surface were repelled into the sky- probably for a short while, until the experiment was terminated and the buildings collapsed back onto the ground. The only people that survived were those inside the crust of the colony, in the tunnels. Also, a group of people were permanently inverted - had a"mutation" that would pull them towards the outside of the planet, rather than to the inside. These were Agee's people. This is reminiscent of Christopher Priest's novel "Inverted world" - with the hyperboloidal gravity.So the irony is: the actual "inverted" people are the "puritans" in Agee's city - that is why they fall into the real sky once exposed to the true, outer surface- while the tunnel people are the survivors of the "normal" humans, the ones that could live on the outer surface. Other inversions: Agee's surface is not the real surface ( "the real world" as the picture says), the sky is not real, the sun they see during the day is actually a machine, the stars are the safety lights of this at nighttime, the clouds are the smoke output of the nucleus factory, the people that reverse fall into the sky are actually Agee's people, not the others (which simply fall down)- so all the original expectations are actually inverted at the end: the "normal-looking" folks are actually the mutants, and the underdogs in the tunnels are the "original" = "normal inhabitants". Interesting that the movie did not want to emphasize all these nuances, leaving the conclusions for the spectators -as a SF fan, I am particularly puzzled.

Another direct-on-net release from the director of 'Time of Eve'. A very unique concept that resembles Hollywood's live-action 'Upside Down'. It should not be a reason to you to discard from watching. In fact a lot better than that and completely a different storyline. When I picked to watch it I did not think it will reach beyond my expectation, but it did. And now it becomes one of the top rated by me among a few others from the year 2013. Anime movie fans must not miss it.Patema, a young girl who lives in the underground tunnels is curious about the outside world which is forbidden to enter. Her father, a pioneer who was disappeared trying to find a bridge between the worlds. One day while exploring on the danger zone she falls into a deep hollow pit. Wake-ups and finds in a strange world where people are upside down and to them she's. Meets someone who she can trust, and he saves her from falling further into the sky. The mystery about the inverted world and what cause it was told while Patema makes her escape while other men try to hunt her down.''The sky eats all sinners.''Initially I laughed because few scenes looked so funny, like a kid walking on the street having a hydrogen balloon in his hand. In the other end the story narration was pretty serious, so I put back my concentration to the movie. Falling in a hole and finding yourself in a different world is what basically inspired from the fairy tale 'Alice in Wonderland'. We could have expected that from Studio Ghibli, but this one was completely a science-fiction and that is what this director is famous for. The concept was not the fresh, the story created around it was. The animation was only a little disappointing in few parts. Art was great and I don't know what is the framerate, but the motion was not smooth, especially in the slow motions. Other than technical aspect, it can be enjoyed by anyone without age limit.The end twist totally changes the perspective of the story that involved in the earlier. A nice solution, but it will not explain in detail the experiment that caused the world split with two opposite gravity forces. In my opinion, it is fine for not binding it to thoroughly on the science. As it now, everyone can understand it, even the common people. You know everyone can't be intelligent like who are, entertainment is the notion and this movie serves it well. I thought after the legend Miyazaki's retirement, the anime industry may fall behind, but his son and especially this filmmaker looks very promising and a few others I have noticed. We usually see quite a lot animation movies every year, but not that much anime movies. It is limited, so don't miss the opportunity if you get one for this movie.

So the story starts with a community of people who live underground and for whom, rather fantastically, gravity is reversed, so they fall upwards - hence the need to live beneath the ground or they'll fall into the sky.A mishap means Patema finds her way to the topworld where she meets Age (a - je). The initial meeting is hilarious as Patema needs help not flying off into the sky which for her is an eternal drop.What follows is a story about communities divided, a totalitarian regime, and some of the most deliciously mind twisting plays on spacial reality I've ever seen. The steampunk designs will please fans although the facial animation does leave a bit to be desired. The comedy is laugh-out-loud funny and the drama genuinely thrilling.I feel something is missing from the film I can't put my finger on but it's a terrific animated film that should please anyone.