The story is quite simple. Our young protagonist Hinata is an elementary school student with quite the overactive imagination, is very skilled in drawing, and is incredibly socially awkward. He befriends his classmate Shigure, and they slowly open up to each other in their fondness for birds. But of course, Shigure has to move away soon due to her father's work, and our bumbling hero Hinata goes on an epic quest to the train station to tell her how he feels before she leaves.
Pretty standard romantic fare right? It would be, if it wasn't for the vibrant world "Hinata no Aoshigure" shows off. Playing on Hinata's vivid imagination and skill in drawing, the movie constantly switches from boring everyday life to the same scene re-imagined in Hinata's wondrous painted worlds. Hinata enjoys placing himself in fantastical situations with Shigure, such as turning their short exchanges into adventures in a wildlife sanctuary for birds. The most incredible imagery comes from Hinata's attempts to chase after the taxi Shigure is in, his bicycle turned into a flying bird and the taxi chase replaced with him soaring through the skies.
One of the biggest highlights of this movie is the gorgeous visuals. The whole movie looks like it came straight out of a children's picture book. Lines are very crisp and there's a watercolor-like quality to the animation and colors used. Speaking of which, the use of color in this movie is stunning. Color contrast is bold and noticeable, bright greens when Hinata is happy to deep shades of blue when the crushing realization that Shigure would be moving away is just one of the many examples found. The taxi chase scene is particularly noteworthy, and all sorts of color just seem to burst from Hinata's imagination.
The overall movie gave me a very Disney or Pixar sort of feel. It's hard to describe, but this movie could easily have been one of those short animation projects shown before the main feature, something to wet your appetite beforehand. Oddly enough, this movie also reminded me a lot of "5 Centimeters per Second," anime's quintessential romance movie. Both share in the protagonists's earnest journey to confess their feelings, and both movies have made me afraid of trains. They even share a similar message right at the train station, but while the future in "5 Centimeters per Second" was a lot less cheery, I'd like to think Hinata and Shigure would meet again happily in the future.
"Hinata no Aoshigure" is whimsical, clever and definitely packs into it a lot of love. It's a magical, colorful journey and it's easy to see a lot of care went into crafting this story. Clocking in at a little under 18 minutes, it's definitely worth a try. I feel like watching this made me feel just like an earnest little kid again, and that's a feeling that many full length series can't capture as well as this charming gem of a movie.
And with that, it's time to leave. Trains don't wait for every little thing. The train doors are closing, and I bid you "Good luck!"
