Brave Story

Brave Story is one of the first animes I watched, back in the day. It's a complete story in under 2 hours, packed with action, adventure, and drama. It was 2006, and SAO wasnt out yet. Becoming a hero in another world was already a thing, but not as HUGE as today. And it also meant saying goodbye to reality, for a world full of dangers, trying to fulfill your wish.

 I've seen it a few times. It never gets old, and I keep comparing it to modern isekais. It's a coming of age story, for a kid whose reality is kind of sad, and the first scene is all about the Surnatural coming into his Reality, to give him a chance at fixing his reality by going on a Quest in the Brave World.

 The animation is really nice, I really like the design of the Gates of this new world, for example, and the whole thing feels a bit Ghibli-esque sometimes, if Ghibli tried the isekai genre. It does have a few similarities with the Tales of Earthsea, the 2006 Ghibli, which is an adaptation of a book, but still, both show new continents through the lense of a newcomer/adventurer and question the concepts of what is Good or Evil, and how far people are able to go for what they desire.

 There's kind of a Made in Abyss vibe too, since it's a kid going into a world of adventures, and you feel like this will be a kid's show, like idk Dragon Quest, classic japanese RPG stuff right ? Well no, this is not a kid's movie, Wataru will learn the hard way how to survive in this hellish world, thankfully helped by many good people along his journey, being a good person all the way, choosing the path of Righteousness.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

but Mitsuru chose the path of Desire, he was ok with becoming Evil as long as he got to fulfill his wish no matter what. Does that means Wataru didnt want to fulfill his wish as much ? No, he simply realized the people of this world arent just npc, they deserve to live just as well and he wants to be a hero, not a selfish person who would sacrifice everything for his dream.

So yeah this is an anime about learning to deal with reality.. by going into a fantasy world where you live adventures that lead you to

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

fighting your friend that became the equivalent of the demon king

Sorry for all the spoilers, it's really hard to write reviews without discussing how the movie is a big crescendo towards the final scene.

 The adventure : there's everything you'd expect from 2006 fantasy anime, and more, that makes it very modern in many good ways.The pacing is really good, there's no down-time, and you really dont see the 1 hour and 50 minutes fly by !

 The drama : this anime really takes itself seriously, while also remaining a kid's movie. So maybe it's more of a teen movie, as that is usually when you start questioning and building your identity, facing many crisis and becoming a better person (sometimes). Reality is used in this anime, unlike many isekais today, as a place Wataru will return to (unless he dies), making the fantasy world a momentary adventure to fix his reality, instead of a place the mc will live from now on without even thinking of his old world where he was usually unhappy (hello konosuba). Also this isnt some typical fantasy anime with idk... tsunderes. This is a very real world, with a very real start. What I mean by that is that this was made in the era of .hack//SIGN, it can be very depressing but hey that's reality, there's no Megumin, Aqua and Darkness, here it's very real issues like his mother is sick, his dad is gone, his friend is missing and boom a door to another world opens, the same that his friend went to, so he wants to find him and also fix his...
Wait this is exactly the start of Tower of God.

 Honestly it's really worth watching, not only to understand where the isekai genre came from, but also as a genuinely good movie about becoming a better person.