Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo

Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo: Dreams, reality and what it means to be an adult

Akane Aioi and Shinno Kanamuro promise to go to tokyo together when they graduate from highschool. But when her parents die in an accident, Akane is forced to break the promise to raise her little sister. 13 years later, Shinno returns to his hometown older, worn out and unable to achieve his dreams.

A classic tale of adult disillusionment. You've probably seen it happen to someone or maybe you've experienced it yourself. An adolescent belief of being destined for greatnesses being crushed by reality. At the start, the characters ... in the film paint a grim picture of adulthood: 'Grin and bear with it', living with regrets, hiding your feelings, giving up on your goals. Ultimately though Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo (SnAwSHy? SASH?) rejects this perception of adulthood. It's not too late to achieve what you wish for, and its never too late to be honest about the way you feel. This is a message that likely echoes writer Mari Okada's own experience, as someone who was once a shut-in and now has a very successful career in Anime.

Despite having well realized themes and thoughtful story, the movie is fairly slow paced and can be pretty dry at times. The protagonist is bratty and hard to relate to and the other characters aren't super likeable either. Not really a film with mass appeal but a good film nevertheless in my opinion.

The background art is very impressive as you would expect from an anime movie production and the animation can be very good at times, especially in the music scenes. If I had one complaint about the art, a few scenes were poorly composited, making the characters stand out way too much from the photorealistic background. I'm a fan of that sort of aesthetic though so I wasn't particularly bothered.

Overall I'd recommend this film, especially to people who like self-discovery/coming-of-age narratives. Being a fan of these sorts of stories myself I look forward to Mari Okada's next work, 'A Whisker Away' that should be releasing soon.

Really enjoyed Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo.The story was confusing at first but you'll be able to figure it out quickly if you paid attention. Overall the story was not unique but enojoyable.

The art was great as expected for a anime movie. The songs were good especially the background music,would download the music. Characters were good. The main character faced the dilemma head on and accepting it very fast was quite nice unlike some other animes where they would drag it out for the entire movie.

Enjoyed it would recommend if you just like anime movies overall.

So where should I start my review from so I will starting from the story the story of movie is not that fantastic or something mind blowing but it is pretty nice but when compared to its other rivals like your name silent voice a girl who leapt through time and I want to eat your pancreas and weathering with you it does pretty fine...

Story - 7/10
It's story somewhere between weathering with you and your name and story I will keep reminding you of anohana so it is a pretty decent story I would give it 7 out of 10

Animation - 7/10
now let's talk ... about the animations the animation of the anime were pretty decent when compared to the other movies like a madhouse movie I don't remember the rain name of that movie e Summer wars summer was the name of movie was summer wars so animation was pretty good nothing excellent or worth mentioning but yeah they were good

Enjoyment - 7/10
Overall - 7/10

now my final conclusion on this movie this movie is quite nice and I must say it can be called hidden gem underrated gem it is I must recommend you to watch this movie e because you won't regret it I know I know man you most of you want don't watch it again and ya is not worth watching again but it was a pretty decent movie it's story was quite good I liked it personally I landed it was better than weathering with you ok if people can fly on weathering with you and weathering with you can get rating of 8.5 something then this movie is getting rating of 7.5 is I must I must say is pretty underrated this movie atleast deserve rating of at least 8 that's it that's all a nice watch for you

But some of must be wondering why are sad about giving 8 while I myself give it a 7 that's because that I am a veteran so yeah I am a highly demanding person I can't put it in the category of 8 because it does deserve that but my ethics don't allow it you can give it a 10, I don't mind you can give the 10/10, who cares I hope you liked my review and if you didn't it is a said before who cares that said that's all thank you

And there isn't any. Or, in this review because I just wrote this review I didn't even know this review I used Google speech translator to write this that's why it's so bad and edited some of the lines ok thanks

Story: For me, the story kinda unique. But it didn't intruiging me at first, until the 18 years old Shinnosuke appears. After that, the story is interesting until the end. The story not only tell by dialogue but with some shot, which is good, but we need to speculate about it.

Art: The art is okay, not bad and acceptable also some shot was beautiful especially at the climax scene.

Sound: Just for the climax scene I rate it 9. The song at climax was beautiful and powerful. Credits to Aimyon for sing it.

Character: This is the most interesting part. From this movie we can know ... that human relationship is complicated. The relationship between Aoi and Akane tells it and resolved well. The 31 years old and 18 years old Shinnosuke also interesting about how different the attitude and the looks and how can he be like that.

Enjoyment: I watched it on theater and I love it. Especially the climax, the songs work well with the climax and with that flying scene for me its not exaggerated. But there are some dialogues that kinda confusing for me, because there are some implied words or maybe the translations not that good

Overall: It is good and worth watched. If it goes to your theater be sure to watch it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Maybe coz I can relate to some characters having “grown up” and become jaded through the years. The story is coherent with some whimsy sprinkled all over (like most of the anime movies I guess.) It might not have the most original plot, but it is absolutely refreshing. Art is amazing. Characters are fleshed out enough for you to gravitate to (without exposition). I like the “old” Shinno. He’s tired…and so jaded, having seen the world and having given up soo much for mediocre results. I mean, you don’t get to see all of that, ... but you can absolutely see it in his entire demeanor change. The themes maybe a little adult oriented to be honest, but I can see young me enjoying this movie as well (although not as much as adult me, probably).

In any case, the movie is worth a watch (or two or three). The music perfectly compliments the story. Although I had to search for the meaning of the lyrics online to fully appreciate and comprehend the songs. 😊 Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would recommend anyone to watch it as well. And oh, you must wait for the end credits to finish rolling for a neat and tidy ending.

A tale about regret, sisterhood and moving forward, the Super Peace Busters team once again success to crush my heart. The story follow three main progatonist. Aoi, who feel she is to blamed for her sister canceled plan to go to Tokyo to pursue her dream because she has to take care of her after their parents death. Akane, Aoi elder sister who 'seems' to still stuck in the past after decided not to go to Tokyo with her lover. And Shinnosuke, Akane lover who currently is 'just' a profesional guitarist in backup band for an Enka singer.

One day, when Aoi is practicing her bass, ... teenager Shinnosuke suddenly show up. At the same time, the current Shinnosuke, who has changed because he feel like the move to Tokyo he took is useless, is back as part of the backup band. From then on, the three must confront their unfinished past.

Despite of some pacing and background artsyle choice problem, I found myself deeply fond of this movie. The way current Shinnosuke acted gloomy and cynical after his failure, scares me that the way I'm living right now I could become a jerk just like him. But as the movie shows, maybe its fine that you don't reach your dreams. Just keep moving forward, and along the way, maybe you can reach other things in life, and possibly, be happy.

what would you say if you could meet your past self? would u be proud, disappointed, shocked, surprised?

a boy who's a walking reminder of the dreams his future self once had. how do u move on/move forward from ur choices/regrets? what if you fall in love for someone in the past? or is still in love w/ the same person who's become so different today? what if you've lost sight of what you dreamed and desired of a long time ago? how does something you feel so strong for, and promised, be something so insignificant now?

everyone has that thing. we all break our own promises. ... we lose our passion for something. we lose sight of what once mattered.

well-written. great characters. an angst-filled teenager who doesn't want to be a burden to her sister. a self-sacrificing sister, who had to mature and become the parent figure to nurture her sister after their parent's passing. a boy who dreams big, for himself 13 years later, to be so different and void of the spirit he was once brimming with. an oddly mature, young boy experiencing first love, observing it all.

I kinda wished they had more music, as that would up the experience. But, overall, still a good blend of romance and time travel. Definitely worth my time.

I'm not usually a fan of anime movies because they're usually short with undeveloped characters and an undeveloped plot, but some manage to impress me. I'm not sure whether it's because of where I'm at currently in life, but this one impressed me.

There's a lot to unpack here, and I don't even fully understand everything. But what I did understand, I either related to personally, or just adored how it was told.

Firstly, this movie is about a lot of things. Dreams, change, love, regret, growing up. We see Akane and Shinno's relationship at first, and while undeveloped, I felt the love. Akane's character ... felt like a slow unravelling, calm, unphased older sister who had to take on the responsibility of herself and Aoi at a young age. Only to reveal, unsurprisingly, that she wasn't perfect, but that she hid the flaws from her sister. In contrast you have Shinno, who is straight-forward, outgoing and positive. He has this big dream of making it in music and Tokyo and is in love with Akane, and for some reason, I really adored them together. Even though we got like... about 3 scenes with them.

Then you have Aoi, who's 'childhood love' (ig we'll call it that) is nicely told. It made sense to me. Watching someone love someone else is an easy way to fall in love with them because you see how soft they are. In this case, even though she was young, Aoi always knew Akane and Shinno belonged together, but when ... happens and she gets to interact with him at the same age Akane was, it's unsurprising that she falls.

And then my favourite theme ever is the regret and growing up. Akane being tied down to the town they grew up in because of circumstances, though she doesn't feel that way, Shinno leaving with the hope to make it etc. And Shinno leaving part of himself behind.

I, personally, loved how it was told. I was thrown off guard so many times and did not expect a single thing. I grew to love Akane and eventually Aoi. Shinno I had liked from the start but the scene where past and present face each other almost made me cry. Well, I did cry in the movie, but not at that scene.

There's a lot here, and they managed to fit it into a 1 hour 46 minute movie. Music is the underlying theme. There's not much of it here, but it's there (even if it's small). But change was told in all parts of the movie. Whether it was the band growing apart, doing their own things, or character development.

Her Blue Sky isn't about time travel, not even close. It's a story about confronting regret and the past, rather than leaving it behind and locking it up. It focuses on 3 people who never got the chance to confront what had happened, and thankfully still have the chance to change. There's nothing confusing about what this movie is trying to say. Shinno having a go at Shinnosuke gave me goosebumps because it made me think about how I would appear to my past self.

In other words, the movie is great. It's plot driven, it's characters are good and nicely developed for such a short amount of time and the pacing is just right. Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's fast. But it will catch you off guard and in the best way possible. I loved it, and I highly recommend it. I'm not sure what everyone else watched, but this doesn't deserve anything below a 7.

And a quote that gave me goosebumps:
"Don't disappoint me." - Shinno

*SPOILER FREE REVIEW*

Overall: 6/10

This is an Anime movie that pushes the boundaries of successful formulas and doesn't execute it well, this has a lot of wasted potential because of it's mediocre plot and relatable but unbelievable characters.

Story: 6/10

It's not time travel, instead there's a living spirit of Shinnosuke from a previous time line that exists in the current one. The themes and ideas for me weren't very clear and apparent, there are a lot of parts that lack explanation and felt rushed. Given that they had 1 hour and 30 minutes to work with, they had more than enough time but still somehow managed to ... flop.

Art: 8/10

It's just beautiful, don't expect anything like Your Name. or Weathering With you levels of art.

Sound: 8/10

Fantastic OST.

Characters: 6/10

A lot of the characters in the current timeline are supposed to be in their early 30's yet they look like in they're in the late 40's. A difference in clothing and hair colour would've been more than enough to signal a time or age difference.

You will find someone to relate to, but because of how the story is set up, they're not entirely believable either.

Enjoyment: 5/10

To be honest, if 2 certain people ended up together this could've been way more enjoyable. There are a lot of parts that are unexplained and rushed through for the sake of time which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The ending is just one big fat WTF that you won't understand unless you paid some attention.

This is the first movie that I've watched that actually gave a slice of life vibes since the story is very close to reality if we will ignore the supernatural part. The movie wants reminds the viewers that as an individual we should be careful on our life decisions, because in reality, having a second chance is very unusual. Furthermore, having someone to think of you even after a long time of not seeing each other is rare, very rare nowadays.
To sum it up, this movie is a good eye opener especially for young adults ... out there to be careful on their life decisions, because no one can know what will happen.

A lot of people are coming to this through anohana, and although there are a great deal of parallels, Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo has an entirely different story, and portrays its characters in a very different light as in anohana.

From here on there may be spoilers for the movie, be warned.

Story: 10/10

The entire premise of this movie revolves around the central theme of growing up with responsibilities, having ideals contrasted with the harsh realities that lie in the adult world that is not quite as touched upon in much other anime. This is clearly portrayed through the two different Shinnos ... with the younger one representing the ideals and the older one representing the harsh realities of the real world after having those ideals shot down. There are other examples such as Akane, but I mainly focus on Shinno in this review.

This is concluded in the end with the older Shinno embracing his past ideals by which the younger Shinno can then disappear as his older counterpart has become idealistic again which would mean the younger Shinno would have no reason to exist anymore (since the whole point of his existence was to change his current self to his past ideal). This shows the watcher that it is possible to go back to previous ideals even if it has been shattered by society, it is always possible to pick yourself back up.

Another theme that I found hit home very hard is that life is very fleeting and your life can go by in a flash. That is shown by the time skip very early on in the movie, wherein one minute the characters are young, contrasted to how the characters are when they are fully grown. This is further emphasized when you see two of the exact same characters in different ages of their lives with Shinno and you see how nothing is permanent and you should seize every opportunity as it comes since it may never come again.

A criticism I see about the double Shinno thing is how it should not work as in typical anime, you cannot have two of the same character in the same time period meeting each other face to face. For this, I would like to point out that the younger Shinno is not a time traveller and instead is more like a projection of the older Shinno's regret of moving forward and is only manifested in the movie because the older Shinno moved closer to his home which (I speculate) causes the regret to grow large enough to manifest itself as his younger self bound to the room that he was traumatized in with the guitar as a metaphor of a shackle since it is what caused him to move forward. And breaking the guitar to leave is another great part for me as well.

The story of this anime just hit so many different themes and portrayed them so well that it deserves a 10/10 (imo)


Art: 9/10

The art was outstanding, very nostalgic to the anohana style. All of the scenes have an insane amount of detail in them with very fluid animation. This anime has it all, when it needs to pull an action shot, at the ending with the younger Shinno flying, it really feels like weathering with you.


Sound: 10/10

The music in this anime was also quite good. From the ambient sounds of crickets to the emotional soundtracks they play whenever there is an important revelation or conflict taking place. I found that the music set the tone excellently for each scene no matter what the scene was about.

The opening and ending playing during the movie while was especially good.

Character: 8/10

The characters in this anime all had a great deal of depth to them, with each character having a link to all the other characters in a way that the watcher can fully understand why they act the way they do with other characters. For example, Akane was written to be a perfect older sister character, but when she's alone she can still be vulnerable and cry etc.

The way the characters interact isn't shoved in your face either, when they need to interact they will, and when it doesn't make sense for them to interact, they won't and this realism is what makes these characters so great. Like when Akane brings (Young) Shinno rice balls (unknowingly) while looking for Ao, he does not confront her because it does not make sense to do that. When Ao sees Akane crying she does not confront her.

This reminds me of a pet peeve I've had about animes where, for example in a harem series, the MC's love interest sees the MC with another girl and totally misunderstands which results in some kind of conflict. This movie completely avoids that.

Enjoyment: 9/10

I was hit very hard by the themes of seizing the moment and ideals vs reality as well as with the immersive art and sound design, the entire story just sucked me in, I loved it!

Overall: 9/10

Seriously consider this show, it is criminally underrated. I feel like the further you dig into this, the more you will find to enjoy.

First Time Writing a review Here we Go


Plot was alright that the start. Some things could have been changed since for the most part of the movie is either irrelevant to the story or just boring in General.

6/10

Characters were alright for the most part. In my opinion some characteristics of some could have changed buts that's my opinion.

7/10
...
Anime it self is pretty much alright. Could have been better if they tried to put in more details to the characters since for the most part the side characters didn't do anything to support the anime what so ever.

Hope This is an ok Review for my first Time Doing This.

i was expecting there's many original songs in this anime, but it turns just a few. i interested to this movie because it has some music and band element in it, but it turns the band is just a gimmick haha.

the story was good, but it was confusing at the first time. the art is beautiful, it has some anohana atmosphere in it (yeah i know the setting is in the same places). the sound is so good, plus i watch this in the cinema so it sounds great with dolby surround. by the way, when aoi's playing the bass i cringed a lot ... lol, it sounds so awful. the character is not bad, but it was confusing at the first half.

i liked this movie, but i think i won't watch this movie for the second time. i think it would be boring when i rewatch this

The biggest down fall of this movie is unfortunately the story. Even at almost 2 hours ling i can't help but feel it is rushed in places and goes from middle to end very quickly. Some great ideas in this movie and i could connect with both of Shinnosuke versions. I think there was great potential in a story of a teenager meeting one's older self who isn't happy or satisfied in life but i don't think that is explored enough and the movie missed the mark on who the main character should be. Aoi isn't a bad main but i couldn't really get ... invested in her as i honestly thought she was a bit bland and one dimensional while Shinnosuke and her older sister Akane had much more potential especially Akane who is relegated much more to a supporting role which is a real shame. The animation is fantastic throughout the movie and this is its best feature. Throughout watching i couldn't help but notice how amazing the background looks and the scene in the park with grown up Shinnosuke and Akane having a catch up it down right fantastic as is the very random and never explained flying scene late on.

While not a classic or overly deserving of a re watch in future it is certainly worth a go for the amazing animation alone it makes up for the disappointing story and characters

If you're looking to watch a movie with a neat ending and characters that act like they do in the movies, then Her Blue Sky will probably disappoint you. Yet, for me, a lot of the things that many people may not enjoy about this movie were things I really appreciated.

I'll start with the technical aspects of the film first, though. The art was amazing. While there are certain scenes where CGI was obviously used, it wasn't so distracting or jarring that it looked "bad" to me. The backgrounds in particular were really lovely, high quality, and while looking somewhat computer generated, WORKED in my ... opinion and gave them an almost photographic, realistic feel. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I personally thought they were very nice. Something else I noticed about this movie was that animators took care to animate very subtle expression changes during certain scenes!

Now, as far as the writing goes, I'm a firm believer in Mari Okada as one of those writers who, when she misses, misses badly. But when she hits the mark, her work really shines. While Her Blue Sky wasn't AMAZING for me overall, something I really appreciate about the film is the realism of its characters.

This obviously varies between characters (see: Shinno still reads as very anime-), and it's a matter of opinion, but Aoi in particular felt like a teenage girl: when confronted by a difficult choice regarding her first love and her love for her sister, the answer to me, as an adult, was obvious -- but she didn't know what to do. It's a moment that's easily dismissible as "this protagonist is really stupid, huh?" but to me, that really communicated that she was still very much a child, someone who wasn't grown up enough to see what the "right" decision would be easily.

The same goes for characters like Masamichi, who could have very well been villainized for the drama, but read as an adult -- which is what he is. The characters all function and act their age in my opinion, which is very rare to see in anime or even dramas in general.

Some may dislike the ending -- it doesn't end "cleanly" (or maybe they dislike the less realistic part of it, that's understandable), but personally, I loved it. The movie didn't NEED to wrap everything up, and the way the story is told post-credits felt right to me. Anything else would have made the movie drag; it said all it needed to say, though I will concede that there were some plot points that felt abandoned by the end (the festival is made to be such a big deal, but in the end...?)

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, I enjoyed the characters, and most of all I feel like the themes of first love, losing sight of your passion, choosing between yourself and the person you care about, etc were well presented. While I again feel like Mari Okada is very hit or miss for me, she wins this one.

(Also there's a REALLY fun rock cover of Gandhara which is worth looking up on youtube at least-)

Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo,

"Might Contain Spoilers"

While I did enjoy this movie it wasn't overly dramatic nor was it complicated well maybe just a bit with the spirit thing I thought it was just a tad bit weird but got over it anyway the plot wasn't anything complicated younger sister has a crush on her older sister boyfriend younger self well at that point in time the older sister was attending highschool together with her boyfriend younger self while the younger sister looked to be in elementary school if that, to me it looked as if the younger sister didn't realize ... what she felt was feelings towards her older sisters boyfriend anyway the younger sister has trouble expressing what she really wants to say instead she lashes out with rude remarks typical tsundere for you, So and So happened and she understands why her sister sacrificed her happiness for his younger sister, this series was ok for me the character designer is a legend well to me he is I love his style and the animation looked very fluid low-key made me want to figure out who pitched in on this project as for the voice actors I hardly ever complain about Japanese V/A's so I might be a lil biased in that regard also the background pictures the scenery everything was really well done the visuals was really good I almost wish this movie was like a the starting point for this series and then follow up with a 12 episodes series to tie or clear up some loose ends especially with the main female characters Aoi because at the end we still didn't see if she ended up with someone as she got over her crush for her sisters boyfriend younger self plus some characters for me personally needed to have closure the elementary kid who claimed he liked Aoi did he get with her or did he get with the friend of Aoi who was boy hungry I guess we will never know I'd give this movie 9/10 or even 10/10 but it failed to clear up some loose ends and such but nevertheless it still ended up enjoying

Mari Okada finally realised that she should stop directing films as underwhelming as Maquia, so she went back to writing under Tatsuyuki Nagai to again to bring an emotional anime film. If these names don’t sound familiar then perhaps some of their past work together should ring a few bells, with series like Toradora and Anohana, as well as one of the most criminally overlooked films of the past decade The Anthem of the Heart. Anybody who has seen these works should easily be able to tell, without even watching that there’s going to be a lot of melodrama and while it can occasionally go ... too far (beer poured on head), for the most part Her Blue Sky handles the potentially cringe-inducing tone very well. The main character, Aoi, and her much older sister, Akane, are casually mentioned to be orphans, with Akane functioning far more as a young mom than an older sister. This is established within the first five minutes of the film, and is treated as just how they live their lives. The actual focus of the film is that the ghost of one of Akane’s friends from High School comes back to haunt the place where their band used to play together, except he’s not really a ghost because the real him is still alive, playing music for this guy and its never fully explained.

Also a random girl from Aoi’s high school is great fun. She hears rumours that Aoi fucks college kids and wants to join her as they suck and fuck the night away. Then when she realises that isn’t the case at all, she helps them with their music thingy. Oh, yeah, this film is about a band also. I probably should have mentioned that earlier.

The grown up version of the ghost is a fucking cunt, and is so different from the ghost that when they were originally revealed to be the same person I genuinely thought there was some kind of twist or something, but nope, his dreams ended in failure so the energetic, optimistic fun kid, turned into this piece of shit. Maturing is the key theme of the movie. As you get older your forced to make decisions and change into somebody different, and whether that change is large or small its presence remains all the same. Whether it’s the sacrifices Akane made for the sake of her sister, or the reality that hit Shinnosuke like a tonne of bricks that change is present, whether you like it or not.

Honestly, my only major criticism for the film, aside from the occasionally over the top melodrama, is that the narrative climax that the film had been building towards is abandoned last second to make way for a far more gratifying emotional climax, which is fine, except the film never goes back to say how that original climax panned out, aside from like two still frames in the credits. While these still frames did provide some closure, it meant that the ending felt slightly unsatisfying. Emphasis on the slightly. The lack of satisfaction was almost non-existent but I thought it should be brought up anyway. Don’t avoid the film because you don’t think it has a good ending – it does.

In fact, there could even be an argument made that the film’s shift in priorities towards the climax mirrors the characters shift in priorities as they grow up and mature. It’s a fitting ending to a really good film.

8/10

This Review is actually the script to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN0-RoSqDf0

Check that out and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more reviews like it.

The art is classic anime style, good looking. The sound is of good quality as well. THE PLOT IS SO TERRIBLE, LMAO. This is my personal opinion, but I couldn't relate to anything in the plot and it was too obvious, too straightforward, yet to bizarre to be real.
Although I like the individual characters, I don't like the relationships between them [any of them, so that shouldn't be a spoiler].
I got a good laugh out of the silliness of it all, but it's not something that tugged at my heart like other anime movies have done.
Wouldn't recommend it, but why would you listen to a ... stranger on the internet. I just came here to vent a bit, lmao.
It's so bad. It's so silly. Wow.

In spring of 2011, an anime called AnoHana aired on Japan's Noitamina block. After a relatively lackluster winter season that didn't bring in much money, AnoHana came out of nowhere and managed to achieve immense success and popularity. Because of AnoHana's unexpected success, some of the people who worked on it: Director Tatsuyuki Nagai, writer Mari Okada, and character designer Masayoshi Tanaka, went on to become their own group, called Super Peace Busters (after the group name the kids in AnoHana referred to themselves as) and began working on other projects similar to AnoHana. In 2015, they released the movie Anthem of the Heart, a ... movie I've seen and really liked, but have yet to review. Just a year before, they put out a new movie, called Her Blue Sky, or its Japanese title, Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo (translated as Those Who Know The Blueness of the Sky). All three anime take place in Mari Okada's hometown, the mountain locked city of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture. Speaking of Mari Okada, she's made quite a name for herself over the course of the new tens, though she's admittedly rather divisive in the anime fandom. I didn't really pay much attention to her myself until Anime News Network highlighted the fact that she published an autobiography, which you can find on Amazon. I bought it, read it, and really liked it because I enjoyed reading about her journey and the insight into how screenwriting for anime works, though some details of Okada's early life were not only unsettling, but downright horrifying. Barring that, how does Her Blue Sky fare? Personally, I liked it well enough, but it still leaves a lot to be desired, and that's probably due to its format.

The story focuses on a young high school girl, Aoi Aioi, who dreams of becoming a musician just like one of her older sister's friends, a red-haired guy named Shinnosuke Kanamuro. Unfortunately, her parents died in an accident, and her older sister Akane had to put her dreams on hold to take care of her, rejecting Shinnosuke's offer to go with him to Tokyo. Shinnosuke left, and years later, Aoi finds herself lost. She feels like Akane is wasting her life being stuck in a backwater town taking care of her, and would be better off if she left and did her own thing. One day, when Aoi is practicing her bass skills, she finds Shinnosuke at the shack where she practices, not having aged a day. Aoi can only assume he's a ghost and that Shinnosuke died. But making things complicated is that her town is holding a festival where a famous enka musician, Dankichi Nitobe, is set to perform...and Shinnosuke suddenly returns, confirmed to be alive, only now a washed up, brooding, deadbeat musician who's nothing like how he was back when Aoi was a kid. Whatever made a younger version of Shinno appear, Aoi and the son of one of Shinno's other former bandmates need to find out what's going on and what they can do to help both the past and present Shinno.

If you're an adult who has ever wondered, "What would my younger self think if they saw me now?" then this is the film for you. It's fairly similar to AnoHana in its premise, but unlike the former, where a character actually died and came back as a ghost, the characters here encounter what appears to be the spirit of their friend Shinnosuke back when he was young, only Shinno isn't dead. The movie explores themes of adulthood and balancing idealism from simpler times with grounded, real-life commitments that come from growing up, with Spirit Shinnosuke representing the former, representing the time in his life where he and his bandmates could dream of going to Tokyo without thinking of the complications that it entails. From a thematical standpoint, I think Her Blue Sky handles its core themes pretty well for the most part. It helps that while Okada's works typically tend feature teenagers as the protagonists, she goes out of her comfort zone here by having the film focus quite a bit on various adult characters, such as Aoi's older sister Akane. They don't wear their emotions on their sleeves as much as kids do, but some of them are still in touch with their younger selves in this way. One of Akane's old bandmates, a man named Michinko, was the plucky drummer of their group, and even after he marries, has a kid, gets a divorce, and gets a job in City Hall, he continues to be cheerful and friendly, helping his friends out when needed, even if he can be kind of a goof.

Unlike AnoHana and one of Okada's other movies, Anthem of the Heart, the company that did the animation for those, A-1 Pictures, did not work on Her Blue Sky. Instead, CloverWorks got that job, and I admit I'm rather mixed on it. On one hand, the character animation is absolutely sublime. Characters move and act out their emotions with their bodies, with the movement being as smooth as butter, with no still frames, no recycled scenes, and very detailed background art. On the other hand, said background art is also kind of static. One reason people love the animation for Makoto Shinkai's movies is that he puts care and effort into every scene, making everything come alive. The character animation achieves this, but the backgrounds don't, and often times, the moving characters doesn't seem to blend with the background because of this. Being a movie about music, Her Blue Sky also boasts a good soundtrack. The songs are well sung and composed, and some are used as important plot points in the movie, but never get shilled over and over again, so hearing them doesn't get old, making their emotional impact hit more successfully (Sorry, Ride Your Wave. I love you, but overusing one song for an entire movie was not the best idea). I also find it interesting that Aoi is a bassist rather than a regular guitarist. Most music-themed anime tend to favor singers or guitar players, so it's refreshing to see an anime put a rather underappreciated instrument in the limelight, letting it take center stage for once.

Speaking of center stage, the characters! I admit...I'm kind of mixed on this one. Some are really bad, some are really good, and the rest fall somewhere in between. Being a movie, Her Blue Sky obviously can't devote all its time to fleshing out its entire ensemble, and that's one of the things that holds it back. The main cast are reasonably well developed. Aoi is a brooding teenager who knows what she wants, feels like she's weighing her sister down, and does want her to be happy under her closed off facade. Young Shinno is optimistic, kind, caring, if a bit of a goofball, while his older self is morose, quick to anger, and weighed down by how his life turned out. Another major character is Tsugu, Michinko's young son who hangs out with Aoi and gets roped into the spirit Shinno business with her. He also gets a healthy amount of development, even though a lot of what goes on has nothing to do with him, as he does want to help Aoi and Shinno out in spite of his snarky, deadpan facade. The best of them is Akane, Aoi's sister. After losing their parents, Akane stepped up to take care of Aoi just before graduating high school, which is the reason why she didn't go to Tokyo with Shinnosuke years ago. She continues to put Aoi first even after Shinnosuke returns to her life. Well-meaning townspeople push onto Akane the idea that she couldn't possibly be happy stuck in a backwater town taking care of her sister, something Aoi herself believes, which does put a lot of pressure on her, but Akane brushes it all away with cheerful stoicism and is perfectly content with how her life turned out in the grand scheme of things. There's a good amount of emphasis put on familial relationships here, and while there are romances here, they thankfully don't take over the movie. In that aspect, Akane is unique, refreshing, and wonderfully three-dimensional.

That said, other characters don't fare as well, because they either don't add anything to the story, take away from the more interesting characters, or just don't get the fleshing out they deserve. The worst of these is one of Aoi's classmates, Chika Otaki. She's little more than an annoying, shallow, superficial girl who inserts herself into Aoi's business just to try and get with Shinnosuke (Not in a sexual way, of course!), caused arbitrary drama between him and Aoi, jumps to conclusions about everything, and was just overall pointless to the whole narrative. You could cut her out entirely and nothing would be lost, and I have to question why she's in this movie at all, as she literally contributes nothing to it and doesn't get called out for her actions. Speaking of not getting called out for their actions, present day Shinnosuke is a real dick towards Aoi when she and Michinko get recruited to practice with him and Nitobe. At one point he's needlessly rude to Aoi, a high school student, belittling her and her bass skills for n. I mean, if you want to critique a musician's skills, sure, but there are nicer, more polite ways to do it, and he never even apologized to her after that.

Now for the movie's biggest problem: Its overall structure really doesn't work in a movie format. It crams in too many subplots, resulting in several of them being introduced out of the blue and then being forgotten in the very next scene. For example, one character tells Shinno that he has a crush on Aoi, but there was nothing in the movie that indicated as such beforehand, so the reveal just seems shallow and shoved in, and nobody talks about it afterward, with the narrative treating it as a Big Lipped Alligator Moment. The stuff involving Chika also added nothing to the narrative. I have to wonder if Her Blue Sky would be better off as a TV series than a movie, similarly to Maquia. Who knows?

Overall, while it's not the best movie I've ever seen, Her Blue Sky is unique among movies that already covered the same familiar ground, and a nice little youth coming-of-age story for those who like that sort of thing.

Her Blue Sky mainly focuses on teenage Aoi Aioi finding herself disillusioned with her life as her older sister, Akane, was forced to raise her on their own years earlier due to the loss of their parents in a car accident and assumes she led to Akane's separation from her former boyfriend and aspiring musician, Shinnosuke Kanamaro. Wanting to be a musician like Shinnosuke, Aoi has become a skilled bass guitarist and is shocked to see a past manifestation of him appear bound to an abandoned building at the same time an older Shinnosuke returns as a supporting guitarist for an enka band.

Her Blue Sky ... offers solid and grounded exploration of the developments facing Aoi, Akane, and both the younger and older incarnations of Shinnosuke seen throughout the film. Each of the four have their challenges they are learning to confront with the different circumstances and stages of life each are in. Akane and older Shinnosuke are each coping with the decisions they made while younger and learning to live with them as adults. Akane made for an interesting character as she coped with the pressures some pushed on her at points with trying to marry to reduce the burden placed on her caring for Aoi as a single woman, but able to keep her composure in spite of the challenges and stresses. Being a teen, Aoi is naive to the pressures that her older sister had gone through raising her and assumes she is somehow burdening her sister by costing her her relationship with Shinnosuke and being disillusioned that his older self has becoming a struggling musician. The younger Shinnosuke appears to be a representation of what the older incarnation sacrificed from his youth to keep himself going after Akane dumped him years earlier. The parallels between the two incarnations make for an interesting comparison with the younger incarnation having his idealistic aspirations to pursue and the older one confronting the realities of his decisions in adulthood while getting some measure of satisfaction from still being a musician.

The character developments aside, Her Blue Sky isn't without its imperfections. The implementation of its supernatural elements are a bit of a doubled-edged sword. While young Shinnosuke's appearance helps add an additional layer of exploring the issues surrounding the character dynamics between Aoi, Akane, and the older Shinnosuke, the film did get a bit overboard with things for it toward the finale that clashed badly with the more grounded storytelling shown throughout the majority of the film. Plus, the film doesn't really dabble too deeply into what led the younger Shinnosuke to exist within the future without any time abnormalities taking place. And speaking of the ending, it did feel a bit anti-climactic seeing a rather needless plot device that the film resorted to in order to conveniently resolve all the ongoing character developments all at once as this also went against the grounded storytelling of the film's majority. The film probably could have been a bit more longer to properly resolve its character developments instead of having the rather sloppy ending it used to rush through things.

As it is, Her Blue Sky was still a decent movie for me as it did offer solid and occasionally engaging developments with its major characters dealing with decisions that affect their futures and learning to appreciate the bonds they have with one another. The sloppily-implemented ending does ruin the viewing experience somewhat. But if you're looking for a decent two hours to kill for an anime film, you'll at least won't feel like you wasted time with seeing Her Blue Sky.