Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai

Fair. The story was fair. It didn't have much of a focus, but this is to be expected. It features several arcs and has a couple of characters that interact with each other. Yet there is barely any progress or character development. The characters were realistic, yet it wasn't a story. It was a series of events that happened to somebody in a chronological order with no theme or message. The only arguable theme is to stop being afraid of death, yet there was so little focus on it, it can be barely called that. However, Onei's relationship with her little sister, Onao, is quite ... touching. I almost cried. But as it failed to make me actually cry, it was alright. That small story is the only thing that somewhat redeems this movie. However, with so many arcs going on in the story, an ongoing series would suit the subject matter better.

Despite its focus on traditional Japanese arts, the art was mediocre. The style wasn't something I liked, nor was it overly complicated or pretty. Several times some scenes were lacking too much in detail for it to be a movie made in 2015. The animation has way too many still scenes, often very confusing as I have to check if there was anything wrong with my computer while watching it. Had they chosen a different art style - perhaps one that has a watercolour feeling similar to Legend of Kaguya, it would have been much preferable to this bland mix.

The soundtrack can only be described as terrible. As a story set in 1800's Japan, someone would expect a more traditional soundtrack with minimal electrical sounds. However, we are introduced to the opening scene with an electric guitar as a background. During one of the last climatic scenes featuring Oei running, the electrical guitar played, creating a somewhat ridiculous effect. The soundtrack wasn't just bad, it was disorienting. It takes the viewer out of the setting of the story back into our lives in the modern world. When any good movie should let the viewer forget about their life, the soundtrack choice for this movie was more than appalling. However, there are very rare moments when the soundtrack sounded nice, preventing it from getting a simple "1" for its score.

Overall, it wasn't a good movie. The soundtrack was terrible, the animation was mediocre, the story lacked focus, the characters didn't get properly developed, and the art style just might not be your cup of tea.

4/10. And that's being generous because it almost made me cry.

I don't have an interesting angle from which to talk about Miss Hokusai. It's too slow. The stories aren't connected well enough to maintain interest throughout. The art is quite good, especially the main character's expressive facial design, but it's not great overall. Most of the men look the same, in a bad way. The musical choices are sometimes baffling.

The movie is only about an hour and a half and I watched it a piece at a time over multiple weeks, if that gives an impression of what a slog it can be if you're not totally sold on its presentation. I remember liking Oei ... from the beginning, but I lost interest at some point early on. Nonetheless, I still felt that continuing it would be worth it, and the last few stories were the best. I think I was right to keep going.

It has a lot of pathos on its side. Oei isn't sure what her life is going to turn out to be, and neither are we. Is it going to really matter at all? Who knows? But she was there, and she was at least a small part of the history of city where she lived. Now she's at least a small part of mine. And I suppose that's all we can ask for.

I had the privilege of seeing this film awhile back in theaters. I grew up in a rural area and recently moved to the city and was excited to see an anime film in theaters. I should have picked a better movie.

The story 3/10

The story is about the life of the daughter of the famous painter Hokusai. As can be guessed from the period of time this film is from, not much concrete fact is known about her life. Instead of going to the route of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya with artistic liberties, the movie jumped around to the different facts known without ... tying them together. Every element was disjointed, save for one (which I'll get to shortly). It tried to have something grandiose to say about religion but came across as a neurotic mess of a freshman's first week of "Into to Religious Philosophy." The one competent element was an interwoven theme of sickness and death, but that was thrown out without resolution as well. Then the story ends with some text about her life's end without showing it. Come on movie. You're better than this.

Art 8/10

The art is obviously quite good. It reminded me of Ghibli's animation style if it was drawn in a more mature way. The backgrounds are colorful and the movements crisp and clear. It even incorporated some images from some of Hokusai's most famous paintings into the backgrounds. It did have jarring CG used throughout the film, so I knocked it down a few points.

Sound 2/10

The sound is awful. I mean awful. When the movie first started in theaters I honestly thought the theater staff had accidentally played a commercial or something over the movie. The last I checked, the Edo period didn't have electric guitars. For a movie whose animation so focused on capturing the atmosphere of the Edo period, the animation did a poor job of standing up to the animation it is presenting. Even the slower pieces were of classical pianos and such and they just did not match the animation nor the tone of the movie.

Characters 4/10

It could be that I went to the theater with the expectation of this being a sort of biopic about O-Ei. But I was severely disappointed in the depiction of all but one character in this film. Who is O-Ei? Who is her mild love interest? Who is her father? Who is the male prostitute? With how this story is told, none of these questions are answered. Another thing to note is that this is supposed to be O-Ei's story. It is supposed to bring light to this woman who was underappreciated by history and do her justice, but this movie does the opposite. The closest character we get to understanding is the younger sister, but even she is ambiguous. I again am aware that not a lot is known about these characters. But many personal details about Jiro Horikoshi in the Wind Rises were fictitious. The movie could have benefited from the screenwriter taking some creative liberties and writing a character for Miss O-Ei, rather than making her character seem like a woman with bipolar disorder. I do not mean that in a negative light. She is all over the place, and the rest of the characters serve to fit archetypes rather than people. Such as the pervy friend, the clueless love interest, and the absent father.

Enjoyment 3/10
This movie had me sighing and rolling my eyes a lot. I felt like so many of the ideas were half-baked, the characters shallower then a baby pool, and the music was atrocious. I tried to like and see this film for a piece of art, but I simply cannot. The idea was amazing and everything was there for this to be a great, well-told film, but it failed miserably.