A spoiler free early review of the Berlinale premiere screening of "Bubble" (Posting here until the review section is open)

greatxgaming said:
Before I get to this review i would like to tell you that this is a review of the version of pre release world's first premiere version of Bubble in Berlinale 2022. The movie itself won't be coming out until a April at least so expect some things to change along the way.

Story (7/10)

The story of this movie is an action romance inspired by the classic tale of little mermaid (the downright tragic original version, not disney's) with a twist. With Gen Urobuchi (Psycho-Pass, Madoka Magica) as it's writer and Tetsurō Araki (AoT, Death Note) as it's director, you can already expect that this movie isn't going to be all fun and laughs. Although i would say that this would be one of the more lighthearted animes they have released. I personally found it very engaging. The contrast between the fun first half of the movie to the more serious and sad tone of it's second half contrasts each other perfectly. The build up and and story telling of this movie actually reminded me a little of Makoto Shinkai's "Weathering With You". One problem I have here is the lack of explanation and the amount of exposition. It's never really clear how the world exactly ended up it did. Even the movie just boils it down to "even scientists still can't answer it" which doesn't really satisfy at all. And for most of the background of the world, they simply put a background exposition section for a few minutes just narrating what happened instead of showing it. It's quite lazy and I'd really like it better if they could've just shown it instead of doing it that way.

The romance aspect of the story is direct and simple, though it doesn't make it any less lovely. Two teenagers jumping around doing parkour while enjoying their lives, while mentally growing through each other. The action aspect involves platforming/parkour around ruins and floating debree. It's set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where teenagers play parkour capture the flag to win supplies. It's surprisingly intriguing and is a lot of fun.

Art (9/10)

The art of this movie is simply amazing and is expected of Wit Studio. Like Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, and Attack on Titan, They have done it again with the breathtaking close-ups of the characters. It looks simply amazing. The action scenes are also very well animated and engaging. The fast paced nature of the platforming allows Wit to excel here and make angles and energetic camera work akin to Attack on Titan with it's extreme angles.

One gripe I have though is the discrepancies between the level of detail's in the close up shots and the wide shots. I feel like the close up shots, while amazingly beautiful, can sometimes differ so much in detail to the wider shots that it takes my brain a second to process that that's even the same character. Although i must say Vivy also suffers from this problem, and this could be improved by the time the movie is released.

Sound (10/10)

With Sawano Hiroyuki making the music for this movie, it's wasn't even a question that the OST here was going to be simply amazing. From the moment the titles dropped it was clear that he was making the piece with his signature style. And it didn't disappoint right down to the end with it's perfect timings to set the mood. The way how the character would hum a tune and it would slowly transition into a full fledged song while they start parkouring and the tempo started picking up was wonderful. The characters sound deep, and you can feel their emotions and empathize very well. Though this isn't surprising with all the big names coming in as the VAs for this movie. For me personally, sound is the biggest driving factor for a film, and this movie did not disappoint at all.

Characters (6/10)

The characters here are all lovely and unique, they look very distinct and everyone has their quirk that you come to enjoy throughout the movie. I love how one character literally just talks through some kind of Siri voice assistant strapped on his hand, it's so random and I love it.

The massive problem here is character depth. The main character, Hibiki, is fleshed out and is a very deep character with problems and insecurities you get to explore throughout the story. The problem is with everyone else. Most of the other characters don't really seem fleshed out. They seem hollow and are just there to be "buddies". It's plain and you forget their names very quickly. More problematic though is the love interest of Hibiki, Uta. While she is lovely and downright adorable at times, we don't really get a clear reason as to why she is interested in Hibiki in the first place. Sure, you can read into some of the sub-plots to get a little idea of what triggered her interest in him. But from the way it was written, it was almost as if they were just created to be lovers from the start for the sake of being lovers and nothing more. But all in all their romance isn't without depth. They explore each other's feelings and insecurities and they help each other grow to be better. And that is a win in my book.

Overall (8/10)

All in all, you could say that Bubble is exactly what you would expect is the creator of Attack on Titan and Madoka Magica tried to make a romance movie like Makoto Shinkai. It has amazing music, and a very good story for what it is. You shouldn't come in expecting every character to have depth, but if you're watching with the expectation of a fun action movie with a splash of tragic tearful romance, you will not be disappointed at all. As a side note, I really liked this one scene where one of the characters would tell the tale of the little mermaid, and subtly asking if it was a spoiler. It felt a little like a fourth wall break of the movie asking itself the exact same question. Will this movie end like how the little mermaid ended? You keep wondering the answer to that question until the end of the movie.

Tharuth said:


Since people rate things differently, how would you say it fares up to say Attack on Titan, Vivy or 86 if you’ve watched them?

Bablolgajra said:
can you please spoil me is this one of the shows where it is really focused on romance? cause I don't like romance that much. but I can handle some amount of romance if it ends up with a happy ending. can you tell me the ending please cause I don't want to be sad again? I just watched 5 centimeters per second. and I am very unhappy about it. please spoil me if it is romantic then it has a happy ending or not. cause your little mermaid tragic story comparison is scaring me from watching the anime.

Bablolgajra said:
can you please spoil me is this one of the shows where it is really focused on romance? cause I don't like romance that much. but I can handle some amount of romance if it ends up with a happy ending. can you tell me the ending please cause I don't want to be sad again? I just watched 5 centimeters per second. and I am very unhappy about it. please spoil me if it is romantic then it has a happy ending or not. cause your little mermaid tragic story comparison is scaring me from watching the anime.

Nam234 said:

Lol same, I have watched Plastic Memories, Sankarea, Sukasuka, Guilty Crown and they all ruined me. Although I really want to watch Your Lies In April, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and 5 Centimeters per Second but I'm to scared too suffer that haha. xD

Bablolgajra said:
can you please spoil me is this one of the shows where it is really focused on romance? cause I don't like romance that much. but I can handle some amount of romance if it ends up with a happy ending. can you tell me the ending please cause I don't want to be sad again? I just watched 5 centimeters per second. and I am very unhappy about it. please spoil me if it is romantic then it has a happy ending or not. cause your little mermaid tragic story comparison is scaring me from watching the anime.

ZXEAN said:
Those 3 anime you mentioned at the end are 10 time more sadder then the previous one which you have already watched.