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Fireworks
Was this movie round or flat?
Movie in a Sentence
Natsuki, a young girl upset that her mother’s remarriage will force her to move away from her hometown, recruits the help of classmate Norimichi and a magical orb to escape her parents.
What I liked
The premise of the movie might sound plain, but the introduction of the magical orb quickly adds a wrinkle into the tried and true teen drama formula that I thought was nice. Being shown multiple events from multiple angles or at different times also added to the more unique feel. Likewise, the movie’s large cast and mentions of characters that you never see actually gave the movie a feeling of a full community. Sure, you never see any of the other classmates in any substantial capacity, but just hearing their names on the roll call gave names to what would normally be a faceless crowd. Finally, the animation quality can be top notch at times, with background graphics especially popping with detail.
What I Didn’t Like
Did it sound like I was kind of stretching or picking basic things for my what I liked section, because I definitely was. This movie was a, in a word, disappointment. Going into it I had heard that it wasn’t the best, and the attachment of the “from the producer of Your Name” meant that it would never stand up on its own, but I was hoping to be able to say that against all odds I found value in it. I was pretty wrong.
The story wrinkles? Different than normal, sure, but still poorly paced and very predictable. The whole “same event multiple angles” thing? Yeah, they reused some substantial animation or put weird filters over them. The large or seemingly large cast? Well, the ones that you could even call “supporting characters” were one-dimensional and more of an annoyance than anything. The animation? Yeah the backgrounds were nice but the characters, done by Shaft, often felt like a character from a slightly higher-than-average-budget weekly series. Add in the use of CG in parts that I have seen animated 10 times more fluidly in weekly shows and you have such an uneven product that at times it is baffling. Also, while I’m going to touch more upon this in my spoiler-filled after anime report, just know that this movie borrows so many framed scenes from Your Name that it hurts and that I don’t agree with the theme of running away from your own problems (even if there was a deeper meaning which I'm sure there was the movie didn't have enough true development to strongly depict it).
Overall Feelings
Fireworks was a movie that I watched, gave a certain score on MyAnimeList, and then went back and lowered it after a little bit. It is a movie steeped in wasted potential that further cursed itself by trying to use connections to Your Name to push publicity. Individually, there are moments of joy and beauty but such moments are marred by questions that don’t need to be asked, a theme that falls flat and fails to truly convey the deeper meaning behind face value than what the writers were trying to do, and disappointingly uneven visuals. Recent anime movies such as the aforementioned Your Name, Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai, and Koe no Katachi (or a Silent voice) have set the bar so high in terms of visuals alone with their unique styles, while also coupling them with great stories, that Fireworks feels like it just doesn’t cut it anymore. In no real world can I recommend this movie because it is so average that it hurts but hey, sometimes you might just want to turn your brain off and stare at something for a while. Without the work of a decent craftsman, a firework will just end up underwhelming.