Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi

I watched this in theater recently and decided to write a review, will keep it simple for those who's curious about this movie.

In summary, this romance drama is pretty standard as it goes, so if you expect something new or something compelling then you won't find it here. Animated movie formats in general are fast paced due to its short run time; relying on common tropes, character archetypes and melodrama to convey the story quickly and efficiently; it simply can't be fleshed out like a TV-series, and this movie is no different. Of course, this isn't a bad thing - what I want to address here is to know your expectations before watching this (and pretty much anything else). I personally watched this because I want a light-hearted casual show with nice interactions between the main duo. And yes it is a cute show which satisfied my needs, so if you watch the trailer and like what it has to offer then you should definitely give it a chance. Next up are my personal thoughts of this movie with no spoilers.

The main duo Josee and Tsuneo got to know each other during an accidental encounter. Tsuneo, as a poor college student, was offered a job right after by Josee's grandmother - it is to look after Josee and keep her safe from the outside world due to her condition. It wasn't easy for Tsuneo to earn the trust of a wary and awkward Josee who's confined from the outside world most of the time, but eventually he got through. And from there Tsuneo slowly helped Josee to see the world that she always wished to see; became more independent and overcome her physical condition that greatly hindered her life. You should be able to guess how the rest goes.

The movie doesn't waste time elaborating, it set up the story and the arcs quickly and efficiently. You will feel the quick pacing of the film (due to the format's limitation like I mentioned at the start), but it isn't feel rushed. The first half introduced our characters and established the duo's dynamic, and then it shifted gears right away into the second half where the drama starts surfacing. The general flow of the movie was decent from start to finish - exciting and cute at first, then it gets heavier during the drama act, goosebump during the climax and lighthearted in the end with a happy ending. I was pleased with the movie's general execution, although the first act where it established the duo's dynamic was kinda short in my opinion.

Tsuneo and Josee are classic characters you usually see in a romance drama, but what matters is the execution, and it was well done. Tsuneo is a hardworking college student who loves ocean life and want it to be his career goal. While Josee dreams of exploring the outside world, especially the sea. She loves drawing and her topic has always been about the world under the water. It is the love of the sea that draws these two together, and from here we see their relationship started to develop. Tsuneo is level-headed, matured and responsible; while Josee is a bit hot-tempered, and awkward due to lack of interaction with the outside world (which her overprotective grandmother played a big part in). But as she grew more comfortable around Tsuneo, she became expressive, happy, easily excited (and sometimes embarrassed) over the most mundane things of the outside world and it especially peaked when she saw the sea. It melted me a bit seeing these sides of Josee. During the second half we will see how the duo helped each other to overcome their struggles and life misfortunes. I won't dwell too much into this, but it was well paced and ended on a good note like I mentioned last paragraph.

The relationship dynamic between Tsuneo and Josee for the most part can be described as cute and light-hearted. Their interactions and dialogues remind me of Korean romance for some reason - short remarks; bashfulness between the two, especially from Josee as she became fond of Tsuneo, but for the most part, light-hearted and pleasant. Their voice acting are on point as well. There's only one gripe I had - I wished there was more development and connection between the two as they talk about their love for the sea because I love sea themes in general and unfortunately the movie doesn't cover this too much, which was a bummer.

The supporting cast are nothing special. They serve only as plot device, nothing more, nothing less. There's a love triangle but it existed only to move the story forward and the melodrama was rather awkward but ultimately it served its purpose and wasn't dragged out, which was a relief. Moving on.

Art, music & general direction was nice. You can check out Eve's MV Aono waltz to have a feel of everything. Unfortunately, 90% of the eye candy visuals and the most beautiful shots are all in that 4-minute MV so you won't find much more in the movie. Don't expect it to be stunning every frame like Makoto Shinkai's productions.

All in all, this is an enjoyable show and I had a good time watching it. Hopefully this review will help you make up your mind and have a casual, realistic view of what this movie is like.

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Let me begin by saying I've been waiting for this movie for a little more than 4 months, so although there is bound to be some bias in this review I will try to keep it as balanced as possible and write as if the anticipation was less. I will also try my best to include as little spoilers as possible, but if you have yet watched the trailer, you might get spoiled in the smaller parts

Plot - 10/10
As you might have read in the synopsis, Josee met Tsuneo by a chance encounter (check out trailer if you want to know what happened) and decides that despite her disabilities, she wants to see the outside world. If you have seen the trailer beforehand, you will know that both of them sneaked out when her grandmother took her naps, and they explored the world Josee had never seen or had not seen for quite a long time. It was during those times that she experienced more of the outside world, an experience that she found very exciting and scary at the same time.

I think the best part of the movie was when everything goes wrong, one after another. I know there is bound to be people who say something along the lines of "oh, but the climax was cliché" and I won't say they are wrong. But the way it is depicted in this tale is not very usual, and some scenes forces you to try sympathize with the characters due to how heartbreaking the implications and the events can get. Also, I can safely say that this is the only movie in which the storytelling of a children's book can be phrased in a way that makes the audience very emotional, so look forward to that.

Art - 9/10
The art in this movie is average at best. If you have seen Garden of Words or Your Name, then you might feel that the art in this movie is mediocre. This is where I disagree. The art serves as a support for the plot that we are paying our money for, and the art in this movie actually supports the plot well. You will not find yourself feeling left out by the characters who look so unrealistic that they seem to be of a different world. In fact, you might actually be drawn to the characters because the art makes them feel real, and the fact that a simplistic art style makes it feel realistic is a selling point of a movie.

Sound - 10/10
Now many people might be reviewing this based on the ending song Ao no Waltz by Eve since the Eve music video in Youtube had been very popular before the movie's release and had been the reason why many people watched the movie in the first place. While that song itself was good, we can't discount the fact that you only get to hear that during the last few minutes of the movie. So instead I will share about the ambient sounds and the speech patterns of characters in the movie.

The sounds in the movie are engineered in a manner that will leave you breathless. Some scenes include a lot of atmospheric noises which will improve the already realistic feel of the movie, while others uses the strength of silence to emphasize the feelings each character holds true within themselves. The way each characters spoke really reflects what is actually on their mine, rather than the words they actually used and the message they actually tried to deliver.

Character - 9/10
In terms of character development, I feel that it was done in a rushed manner and although it explains every character, their personalities, and their behaviors well, it does not give you time to process the string of information. However, I can’t say that it was done in a bad manner, it isn't. The main goal of this rapid development is actually to let you immerse yourself in their world and experience and understand more about the characters with the characters themselves. Confused?

Let me give you a rundown of my argument. Would you find watching a movie which tells everything you need to know about a character realistic or one that makes you go in the same pace as the characters? I think the fact that we do not know everything about a character is realistic in the sense that, in the real world, we do not know everything about people we interact with, and instead only know what had been displayed by that person.

As for the characters themselves, there is not many to talk about, but there is much to talk about them, but I won't, you have to see for yourselves. There are some you hate but will grow on you, some you enjoy looking at, and some you might loath so much because of how rigid their minds work. It is this good blend that reflects how the real world actually is, and that’s how the movie makes its characters so relatable and not flat.

Enjoyment - 10/10
Won't go into too much details here since I've been waiting for this movie and it’s only natural that I will enjoy myself. However, in the theatres I was watching at, people cheered at the end of the movie so I guess it was enjoyable enough even if you watch it without any background information.

Overall - 10/10
Summary of this review, it's worth it to watch. Give it a shot.

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[tl;dr is at the bottom of the review]

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is a movie that tells a story heavily focused on Josee (the disabled girl shown on the poster) and Tsuneo (the boy who walks besides Josee shown on the poster). When you saw this movie's poster for the first time, you might be thinking that this movie will tell one hell of a sad story. You're not wrong, but you're not completely right either if you think like that. My suggestion if you ever wanted to watch this movie, do not take your expectations too highly. I've heard a lot of positive things about this movie before, and that obviously made me expecting things highly from this movie. The movie did not live up to my expectations, but it did have it's own redeemable quality to be called "good".

Now to the actual review:

Story: 5/10
The story is as generic drama as it could get. As I mention as an opening before, this movie is heavily focused on Tsuneo and Josee. Why did I say it's generic? Because this kind of story has been seen and used lot in the drama romance genre. It's a story about Josee who has a deficiency locked up by her overprotective grandma in her own house for too long, and that made her has a dream to see the outside world by herself. Tsuneo on the other hand, is a "normal" boy who has a part-time job that needed him to explore the ocean and has a dream to become a student in a foreign university. One night, Tsuneo came across Josee by accident and that somehow made Tsuneo became closer to her. Their journey exploring the outside begins there, and guess what? Yes, they slowly grow a feeling into each other. The main problem is not how the story is oftenly seen on the screen, but it's the way how the movie tells the story. There's no proper explanations on how and why these things on the screen happening. Things just happens like that, and it tricks you into thinking the movie has explains the important parts when it's actually not. I sat there watching confused with a question like "How? Why?" most of the time. Being "mainstream" is not enough to call this kind of story generic, but looking at how lacking the storytelling is kind of backing my statement about it being generic. The pacing on the other hand, is kind of balanced in a way even if it feels a bit forced sometimes. The flow from the happy introduction, to melancholic complication, then going back to the happy vibes in the end feels nice and balanced. As I said, Nothing bad, nothing good.

Art & Animation: 9/10
Probably the best aspect of the movie. The artstyle is absolutely smooth and detailed, it made my eyes almost reached the orgasmic point. Animation is also feels and looks smooth. I'm sure this alone could make you hooked into watching the movie more.

Sound: 8/10
The voice acting is very good. The dialect that Josee spoke feels natural, and every other voice acting of the characters here is also feels natural, even the screams could make some goosebumps here and there. The sfx is nice, and then the music. Eve takes part in this, and boi it did make the show better. I almost shed a tear when Eve's music starts to play in the middle of the movie as it fits perfectly with the scene that the song placed in.

Character: 5/10
Even though the movie is heavily focused on Josee and Tsuneo, they both did not have a proper background, but I'd say it's still tolerable. Their backgrounds might be little, but their journey on the movie could make the viewer cares about them. The other characters though? They seem to be exist only to be a plot device. No proper backgrounds and not enough screentime to make the viewer at least lay an eye on them. There's one scene that made me scratch my head out of confusion. One character that is supposed to be an important character, just got removed without an explanation. Imagine one neutral scene where you're not supposed to expect something, the show gave you a sudden turn anyway. It's not a shock value, but it's still something. Something to confuse the hell out of your mind. The scene is supposed to be "powerful" but it's just, they don't seem to even care with the characters other than Josee and Tsuneo. Also, the whole "love rival" just came out of nowhere, and the show expect the viewer to care about it?. I mean, Again, because there is no proper explanation on it.

Enjoyment: 6/10
Even though this movie did confuse the heck out of me, and dissapointed me since i had high expectations on it, it somehow still made me almost sheds a tear. And that artstyle, my eyes highly appreciates it. Also, Josee's cute not gonna lie.

Overall: 6.6 - (7: Good)
tl;dr - This is a heartwarming and cute movie. Best watched with your close ones and enjoys it together. Even if this would made the viewer confused with it's way of storytelling, but it could still make the viewer cares about the two main duo of the movie, as it is their focus of the show. It's a good watch overall even tho there's a lot of downs from the movie.
And yes, i'm sorry if this looks like a rant rather than a review.

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I just came back from the theatres and I want to say that this movie is really good. Watched this with the bros and we enjoyed it. It has a great soundtrack, beautiful art and the story is pretty good. Corona ain't stopping me from watching this but remember social distance and wear your mask.

As you go into the movie you will start to fall in love with the characters. You got the girl in wheelchair, josee(best girl) . Black hair kind dude,tsuneo and the other few side characters. Well designed and the VA they chose for the characters did a good job.

The art is beautiful 9 to 10/10. Thank you for blessing my eyes.

Story is probably the weakest part I think BUT IT'S STILL PRETTY GOOD. It's something abit different and they don't waste your time on dumb shit and executes it really well. I didn't get emotional tho but it got me feeling empty. When can I find a girl that loves me :(

The music in this anime is AMAZING. It's made by eve (The dude that made JJK opening)

OVERALL 8/10 which is really good definetely recommend you to watch this but it will make you feel empty. When am I gonna meet a girl that will make me happy :(

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