South Korean anime has always lagged behind that produced by big brother Japan, but Sky Blue’s lush dystopian tableaux and extravagant Wagnerian staging rivals practically anything the neighbours have come up with. Seven years in the making, you can see where Sky Blue’s vast team of animators put in the hours. Theirs is an intricate marriage of CGI and cell animation; raindrops meander exquisitely down window panes, battles are fought with breathtaking grace in zero gravity. Shame the content isn’t quite so dazzling.
Set in 2142, the ‘action’ takes place within the post-environmental walls of Ecoban, a majestically dreary fortress city where the privileged rule over a disgruntled untermenschen of ‘diggers’. With the city’s inhabitants greatly outnumbered by misbegotten nomads in the contaminated wasteland without, Jay (Cavadini), an emotionally reticent young woman cast from the same mould as the heroines of Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell, is already pondering the legitimacy of her overlord status when childhood sweetheart Shua (Worden) returns to town as the leader of some revolutionary freedom fighters. As tensions mount, the reunited couple pine for escape to a legendary paradise known as Gibraltar. Gibraltar? So much for leaving entrenchment behind.
Serving up the usual gumbo of Bladerunner leftovers, eco-mythology and gloomy sci-fi, Sky Blue quickly resembles a gorgeous date with no conversation beyond traffic congestion and recycling charges. Still, it’s sooo damn pretty that you‘ll manage to feign an interest in whatever the hell it’s actually saying.

Running Time 86mins. Cert PG. Opens July 8.