He has since been a finalist in both the Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust National Award.
The Sky Crawlers, meanwhile, sees Oshii Mamoru, creator of celebrated anime Ghost in the Shell, bring his philosophical outlook to a science-fiction romance about young fighter pilots.
The protagonist in The Sea is not a simple fellow, however - I assume the simple prose is used to compare the hollow shell that grief has made of Max Morden with the naive beauty of the young boy he once was.
Both young men were among seven members of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force killed late Monday when a mortar shell exploded in its firing tube during an exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.