Goodbye, Don Glees!

So I watched it without any expectations, ended up getting emotional at the climax. At first I thought it will just be just another youth summer adventure stories which turned out to be absolutely wrong.

Two long-time friends, separated after graduating middle school, reunites the next summer. Except that among them, now there is one wildcard third party, who speaks in riddles and most of the times talks about something that one would doubt is real, who ended up triggering and changing everything.

The film invested practically 80% of its runtime for something with zero payoff before actually revealing the twist ending. While I'm sure many will, ... but I wouldn't say that those 80% of runtime were wasted, if anything it's a great way to make the audience to learn about and get close to the characters. And it's worth the time, considering things got bleak real fast after that.

What happens is basically, things went full circle. It picks up on the legacy of the wildcard character and flipped my expectations about the entire film. And in the end it just left me in sombre disbelief, "did that just happen? Is THAT what happened? How did THAT happen?"

The film was marketed as "the new stuff from the creators of Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho," maybe expecting that would make the audience know what to expect since the trailers and promotional materials barely tells anything about what it really is, which is why the ending is a really pleasant surprise. Such a shame that it never left Japan nor that it ever marketed abroad, the promotional tagline alone should have attracted many Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho fans outside Japan.

But, do not compare this to that. It's not apple to apple. While it shares many similar themes, it's not Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho and it may not for all Yorimoi fans.

Personally, I regarded this film above Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (a cardinal sin, btw) due to a) how it's presented, b) how the tiny details bites back later in the story (same as Yorimoi, but pandemonium instead of big sad), c) how relatable the bonding between the characters is, and d) how I enjoyed it more regardless of other factors, don't judge me.

In January of 2018, a little anime called A Place Further Than the Universe aired in Japan, winning the hearts of anime fans all over for its fresh, nuanced, down-to-earth take on the well-worn premise of young girls going on an adventure. I need to rewatch that series some time, and with the news that it's FINALLY getting an English dub and home video release, I'll actually have an excuse to do so! After the show's success, the team behind it decided to try their hand at another project, a movie called Goodbye Don Glees. The movie tries to go for the same initial premise ... and appeal as Yorimoi did: Dorky kids on a down-to-earth adventure to a real world location that has great personal significance to them, with even the marketing going into this. But what the marketing tried to sell the movie as and the movie itself are two very different beasts, and as much as I hate to say it, Goodbye Don Glees wasn't necessarily the home run that Place Further Than the Universe was.

The story centers on three young boys—Roma, Toto, and Drop—who are a tight knit group of friends, naming their little group Don Glees and spending time together in the countryside. But they don't exactly have the best reputation and are often picked on. One day, Roma spends all his money on a cheap drone with intent to use it to take a video of fireworks the next town over, or if not that, the fireworks Don Glees set off for the night. But that night turns out to be a fateful one as they're hit with one misfortune after another: Their fireworks don't go off, the drone goes missing, and later, a forest fire occurs. Worst of all, the townspeople believe that Don Glees are responsible for it. But the kids think the missing drone might have proof of their innocence, so they decide to go on an impulsive journey into the mountains to find it and clear their names.

From what I've heard, the original Japanese marketing made a big deal about the characters going to Iceland, which only happens in the last third of the movie. 85% of the movie is focused on the trio of boys and their quest to find their missing drone in the countryside. Now, these parts of the movie are legitimately great, with the animation really going all out in conveying the natural beauty of the woods and the countryside. Of course, the animation quality isn't limited to just the backgrounds. Similarly to Place Further Than the Universe, a lot of attention is paid to how the characters move and how they express themselves through body language, like the way Drop sits or the way Toto hunches over when he feels insecure. Speaking of the characters, the main trio are a delight to watch. They actually feel like real dorky kids from the way they move, talk, and get into scrapes, and their designs change believably near the end of the movie. It helps that a lot of their banter and interpersonal conflicts are pretty naturalistic without bordering on cheese. I honestly wouldn't have minded if the whole movie had just been about their adventure through the woods. Low-key, slice-of-life movies have their place! I mean, the Laid-Back Camp movie exists, y'know!

But as much as I want to love Don Glees as a movie, if the rating didn't clue you in, it has quite a bit of issues holding it back, with the main one being the really rushed, shoehorned in third act that feels like it's only there because the staff felt like they absolutely had to escalate the movie's plot by the end. The third act never felt like it was properly built up, and when the characters are made to go to Iceland, it just zooms through the process of exploration in favor of throwing in a very heavy-handed emotional climax at the end, with the shift into said third act being so intense and dramatic that it feels like you got hit with a case of whiplash, eschewing the rest of the movie's down-to-earth charm. It also results in a certain twist coming across as a lot more predictable, even though it was foreshadowed well in advance. Say what you will about Place Further Than the Universe doing the same thing, but there, the writers actually had the time and wiggle room to properly show the process, build up to its own emotional climax, and used every tool at its disposal to have it make an impact. Furthermore, the drone and forest fire subplot doesn't get much in the way of resolution at the end, because it just gets dropped in favor of the Iceland trip. Also, the character of Chibori is woefully underutilized. From what I've heard, the Japanese marketing also made a big deal out of this character, but she really only gets one scene in the whole movie and is just there to be a prop for Roma's development. Yeah, she's mostly just a waste of animation and has no character beyond supporting Roma.

So basically, bad marketing made the movie tank, and I'm not exaggerating. Apparently in Japan it did pretty badly at the box office, which sucks because other than the flaws I mentioned above, Goodbye Don Glees is a fairly cute movie that really showcases director Atsuko Ishizuka's talent, alongside that of the rest of her team. Plus, it's getting an English dub and a home release in the US this month, so you'll be able to watch it legally fairly soon. So while I do admittedly like Place Further Than the Universe better, if you're looking for a fun, wholesome movie to watch, I'd still recommend you watch Goodbye Don Glees, even if its third act feels very heavy-handed and out of place in what's supposed to be a fun slice-of-life adventure.

I'm usually a big fan of these kind of movies but I have to say I was severely disappointed by Don Glees.

First of all, the positives - I have to state that this is a beautiful film well acted by a talented cast. Some of the shots are breathtaking on a big screen.

Sadly beyond the visual craft of the film it really begins to struggle. Coming of age stories between a group of friends centred around a supernatural theme of death is one of the biggest tropes in anime, so at this point if thats going to be the premise of your movie you have ... to do it well. Anohana is one of the best examples of this trope I can think of, with even the directors own series A Place Further than the Universe treading very similar themes.

With this kind of film its vitally important for any of the emotional beats to land that the audience is invested in the main characters friendships. Don Glees misses this by throwing us in the middle of the story so we never see any development between the characters, we're just told they're good friends before the main plot of the film begins. For the next hour of the film they get up to hijinks and occasionally spurt out pseudo-intellectual musings on the meaning of life. For any of these things to mean anything it would have helped if we even saw how the three characters first met and formed their bond.

It's a repeated mistake of this film that the audience is repeatedly told things instead of shown, meaning we have to take it on word that there is a dynamic between these three worth investing in rather than seeing it grow organically - making this film and its themes feel shallow while it strives for death. There's also an overabundance of musical montages, no doubt to try and prise an emotional reaction from the audience that the film never earns from its story alone.

As stated, if you're into stories about friends facing hardships and growing up then you'd be much better seeking out Anohana. I'd argue Goodbye Don Glees isn't even the best example of this story released in 2022, as Sumer Ghost explores similar themes in a much better way.