Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ is the licensed English name of what was called Gin-iro no kami no Agito. This isn’t so much of a “hey look at this” anime, but “hey it’s been many months and I’m still thinking about it” anime. Origin is one of those Gonzo movies that came out a couple years go when the company stated how they wanted to change their image: A family company that could make movies for everyone and compete with the big corporations like Disney.
To sum up the movie, you have humans on a nature ruling Earth with cities in ruin below ground. Plant beings rule and humans are restricted in certain areas such as places with waters. Nature decides how much water the people get. Nature and humans are suppose to coexist, but with swift destruction of most of the human population and technology, that’s not the case anymore. One day a young boy named Agito finds a machine with people inside. One person appears to still be alive and out comes the girl. This pretty much angers and strikes fear into forest above. This girl (of course named Toola) has something that can allow her to unleash something that can return the balance. The people who live with the forest aren’t the only people, as nearby there is a massive structure in a desert that provides water using technology and machines to keep the forest at bay. As a whole that was their only intention.
If you plan on watching this anime you may want to skip this part for spoiler reasons, but if you’re okay with that then this is what made Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ special. It hit me and my progressive views in ways that disturbed me. Humans are no longer able to develop? The sky is no longer a limit because it makes the world unbalanced. Media and all the comforts that make everyday life as we know it are no more. The goal of the anime is to show that you can’t live without balance and that life should be respected, even if not human.
Years ago scientists wanted a way to make a balance on their own, so they made an experiment on the moon that was suppose to make plant life smarter and better able to compete. Sadly one of the scientists on his own thought that the project would go faster if the plant life was even stronger. This lead to massive dragon like plants shooting across to earth destroying cities and laying ground to the new world. This man is the same who also awoke in a similar machine like Toola, but instead sided with the desert people and (mis)lead them to help him destroy the forest. This all is bothering in more ways than one. The human made machine meant to destroy forests had let’s change our mind and live with the forest feature. That feature was used and the forest showed that people are apart of nature and that nature creates people. That is nice, but that puts humans back to the basics and no way of return. If humans were ruining the environment, why not allow them to develop technology to explore the universe and why must so many people die for balance? After many months after watching this movie, it bothers me that all of our progress became the past and the people who were alive hundreds of years ago moved on.
If you seen Origin ~Spirits of the Past~, you may also like Green Legend Ran. They both have a similar aspects where Earth’s landscape is changed, water is controled, and a young boy who ventures out to save a girl.