It was on Crunchyroll, and I'm a fan of Shinkai, so I went ahead and watched it. For a half-hour short, it's solid. Crunchyroll wasn't able to get the dub for this one, so I watched it subbed, though I guess it's not like I had much choice; don't get me started on the ridiculous prices the DVD is fetching. I'm not exactly sure which (admittedly sparse) cast this was since it was re-dubbed in Japanese with different voice actors from an original where the male lead, Noboru, is voiced by Shinkai himself, but the one I heard did a good job here. It's not hard to see how Shinkai would later advance on this one, but it's pretty solid for what it is.
It was a little different in this case since the whole dub is on YouTube, but in the same way, I'm a fan of Shinkai so I decided to go ahead and watch it. It's an improvement in a few key areas, though at least some of that can be attributed to the fact that Shinkai has more time to tell the story. With that said, the animation is also a step up, though again, this has at least a little to do with the advantages Shinkai has been given here. I guess one could likely argue that there are a few too many fades to black here (every 5-10 minutes almost), but it wasn't enough to take away from my enjoyment. The dub is a really good dub. Chris Patton is excellent as Hiroki, as are Kalob Martinez as Takuya and Jessica Boone as Sayuri. It's not quite as easy to connect to Takuya as the other two, but that seems to have more to do with how the character is written than Martinez's acting. Gendo Ikari himself John Swasey is gruff but likable (though Takuya rather amusingly calls him a demon) as Mr. Okabe who runs the military factory Hiroki and Takuya work at in the last year of middle school (you know, before the movie fast forwards three years) and the dub script is completely natural. As it was with
Voices of a Distant Star, it's not that difficult to see how Shinkai improved on it with
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (which is my favorite of his in case you were wondering) and
Your Name, but
The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a strong entry on his resume and any fan of his would be remiss not to check it out. Later, guys.