Well, this is a difficult one. Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi's synopsis striked me when I first saw it. A disabled protagonist? That is rare in Anime as a whole. I was expecting this movie to deal with its characters in great depth, especially Josee who is obviously facing unique challenges in life due to her disability, but after watching the movie I realized that I had my hopes a little bit too high.
The synopsis kind of gives away what the entire movie is revolving about. Josee spends most of her life more or less confined to her home with only her grandma taking care of her. She is longing for the outside world, especially the world of the sea, but it isn't until she encounters Tsuneo that her dreams would eventually come true. Facing the outside world, Josee eventually develops into a more mature and independent woman.
So far, you might think "okay, so what's the issue?". Here is the first one: Pacing. This movie is fast and it doesn't slow down ever until the very end. If you need an example of how negatively the fast pacing affects the movie, look at this example: Tsuneo meets Josee 5 minutes into the movie. 15 minutes later he already visits the sea with her and carries her around over the sand. In those 15 minutes, we've seen them interact exactly twice at her home. Both times she locked herself into her room and forced Tsuneo to do some silly things like sitting kneeled down for as long as he can. Project this situation on the entire movie: A lot of events that happen are barely touched and often just skimmed over. This makes interactions between characters often feel unnatural because of a lack of real progression. If you were a disabled person sitting in a wheelchair, you wouldn't let someone carry you around that you've only met twice. There is another key event happening at some point in the story where you would think that it affects Josee's future life, but the event is never mentioned again after being shown for about a minute.
The second issue is related to the fast pacing: A lack of character depth and character development. Josee shows an obvious disconnect from the real world due to spending most of her life at home. There is a scene where she laments about everything in life being always out of reach from her wheelchair but that is really as much of her feelings and thoughts that you will ever see. Her personality isn't really explored much and neither is her disability and the challenge that her disability has posed over the course of her life. Tsuneo is even worse in that regard: He is fascinated by marine biology but other than that he has no personality or hobbies or even a life. There is co-worker that likes him but who knows why she does. I guess a movie without a love triangle is impossible in Anime. He is the average student with a dream and that is all that his character is. Josee's grandma acts as her caretaker for a while but it is never explained why she refuses to take her outside, other than her repeating the same phrase that the world is full of monsters over and over.
It's really a shame that the characters in this movie are so lifeless because this movie has a great setting and could have been dealing with some interesting themes. You would think that Tsuneo grows as a person - but no, he doesn't. I have met disabled people in life as well. And I can tell you they often see the world different from a healthy person. And yes, the way they see the world has changed my perspective on some things as well. But I guess Josee's disability was never even supposed to be the focus of this movie. It becomes even more apparent if you consider that never in the movie is Josee ever prevented from doing something because of her disability. She sits in a wheelchair but it is almost just like a plot device that exists to exist and doesn't have any other purpose. While Josee does experience some development into a more mature person, that is all you are really going to get.
The later half of the movie contains some heavy drama that I found to be a nuissance. The first half is pretty light-hearted and shows Josee's journey across the outside world together with Tsuneo but the second half shifts the tone towards a more depressing atmosphere. The story at this point becomes predictable and that is where I lost most of the interest in the movie because it creates drama where there was no need to.
Conclusion? I honestly don't know. I really want to like this movie but I can't help but acknowledge that it has wasted a lot of potential. If you are expecting any sort of depth or development in this movie you're at the wrong address here. This movie is about a disabled girl falling in love with a guy who takes her on everyday activities. That is really all you're gonna get. A high pacing and a lack of character depth and development makes this movie fall short of being really good. You're not going to waste your time watching this movie, but there are better movies out there.
5/10
