The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)

 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is an anime concerning a love triangle, two boys and a girl who meet in middle school. The story is set in an alternate timeline in which the Soviet Union invaded Hokkaido, the northern most of Japan's four major islands, at the end of World War II and set up a puppet state there. While the film dosen't say when exactly it is set, it appears to be roughly contemporary to when the film was made. Our protagonists live in the non communist part of Japan, which seems healthy economicly, but war scares with the north are fairly common. In addition the "Union" state on Hokkaido has constructed a massive tower which looks like it reaches into the stratosphere and in which they are conducting experiments into parallel universes. Side effects from the work going on in the tower, as well as joint US/Japanese efforts to learn more about what is going on there play into the plot. These are some interesting ideas but the execution is far too slow and understated, I got bored. This was dull and should not have been. **