Between his anime features on a High School rock band (LU OVER THE WALL/’18) and Feudal Days set to a rock-‘n’-roll beat (INU-OH/’21), Masaaki Yuasa let his inner Wagner out on this death obsessed liebestod that uses a ‘Pop’ tune as leitmotif. It’s certainly distinctive. But is there method in the madness along with visual extravagance in this very Japanese tale (okay, Japanese/Wagneresque) on how love can outlast death; yet still look & play like a typically giddy manga adaptation? It starts as a pair of chance encounters for twenty-somethings Minato & Hinako (fireman & flower shop clerk) puts them on a path to surfboard romance in a Japanese coastal town. The two a regular Snooky-Ookums’*, anime flesh/anime sex suggested. Yikes! Yet with a tragic first act finish that leaves Hinako mourning her loss until she gets a message in a bottle . . . Minato! Well, ectoplasmic Minato, a presence that only appears to Hinato when she sings 'their' song.* (Would it were a better tune! Catchy, but annoying.) But is he real or an insoluble shape-shifting figure she should drop for more solid flesh? (And if you think Hinako doesn’t see Minato in the bottom of the water in a lime green toilet bowl, you’ve got another think coming.) The first act is the most interesting visually, some very cool POV animation as Hinako bikes into town or on country roads that let Yuasa capture glaring seaside light in a manner rarely attempted. Often lovely, often strange, always very Japanese. Or is it Japanese/Wagneresque?
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: *The cult of death culture, so common in Japan, is stoically confronted in the recent GODZILLA MINUS ONE/’23 pic. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/05/godzilla-minus-one-gojira-10-2023.html
LINK: *Don’t know ‘Snooky Ookums?’ All explained in the first half of this little clip from EASTER PARADE/’46. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P4ZD6mRrBo
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