Imagine Makoto Shinkai's somewhat lackluster Tenki no Ko a.k.a Weathering With You, except there's bubbles and parkour to create a decent movie.
No doubt that this insanely high-profile Netflix-exclusive movie is the work of acclaimed people (most of them being from Shingeki no Kyojin a.k.a Attack on Titan since this is Wit Studio with producer Tetsuya Nakatake, director Araki Tetsuro, sound director Masafumi Mima), along with writers Gen Urobochi and others, plus the musical genius of HiroyukiSawano. With a high-calibre staff team like this, this Netflix release must look and feel the part of accomplished veterans, and just feels incredible...music and production-wise only.
In a very simple storytelling way (because it really ain't much), Bubble showcases a post-apocalyptic Japan where people can parkour to their liking, so much that it created a competition-like feeling to the young-uns living there. And in comes the supposed "The Little Mermaid" twist character Uta, birthed out from saving this somewhat closed-hearted Hibiki from drowning, only to land at his familial ship Reiyo of Team Blue Blaze, became human and lead Hibiki to be a better parkour player. While it showcases that, it also does is focus on the romance aspect of both Hibiki and Uta in terms of "noise", showing that hearts can resonate together when they hear the same vocality. Case in point, this feels like a combination of 2 other movies: Belle and Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru a.k.a Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop on both music and romance aspects but with the classic Attack on Titan twist. The other characters weren't so memorable, and as mentioned, they're only there to service for numbers and progress the plot.
Honestly, when you take the entire package as a whole, it feels half-fulfilled, half-empty at the same time as well. Both Wit Studio (and their core staff) and HiroyukiSawano absolutely delivered in their craft, as are the theme songs from Eve and Riria that shouldn't come as a surprise for fans of either entity and people behind this movie. But the structure of the movie being like this just wasn't a good one, and for a movie that's very highly anticipated (or if you're one that got spoiled by reading the pre-review in the forums that was posted months before the Netflix release), it just felt disappointing and underwhelming.
I don't really want to say this, but Bubble is one recent anime movie that I felt can be labelled as "mid". I usually take everything into consideration, especially when it comes to movies, but sad to say that even with the talents of Wit Studio and HiroyukiSawano, it's the scenario and character writing in this that suffers tremendously. This is a movie that's all about the musical and graphical showcase (since it has a higher budget than regular TV anime no matter the source which is Netflix or otherwise), not one that's too focused on story, though it would help if the story was written better for a more immersive experience.
Can someone PLEASE make a movie that's not so heavily inspired by Makoto Shinkai for a change? Because the anime movie landscape is getting stale at this point if most movies now are created and attempting to imitate the success of the prolific author-cum-filmmaker.
