Jazz has been a part of my life for the better part of 8 years now and no piece of media, art or animation has ever captured the passion nor love that I have for jazz more than this movie. I watched it on the plane ride to Japan …. AND the plane ride back. This was because on the way there I didn't have an adapter for my nicer headphones so I had to use the provided one. Thus, to me, nothing was more logical than watching the movie properly again on the way back. It's that good.
This isn't a review from someone who watches anime often. I'm sure there are multiple plot holes, also after reading the manga, this is comparatively rushed, the use of CGI in some of the scenes felt off BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS.
The best part of this movie is thankfully the most important part, the music. One thing of note is that the songs and the type of Jazz that Dai and his trio play is not “pure” or conventional Jazz, it’s unbelievably energetic and passionate and is in a subset of its own in this oversaturated genre. I recently talked to a well established composer about the film and even he said it's unlike anything he's ever heard. Hiromi, the composer for this movie, is someone who I have admired for a long time, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but SHE IS A BETTER COMPOSER THAN SHE IS A PERFORMER … If you understand the magnitude of that statement then I salute you. Our main character Dai is technically a "newbie" to Jazz having started his passion for Saxophone quite late compared to others. Yet it is his passion and personality that allows him to perfectly capture the ethos of Jazz and make him the most "developed" character musically. The movie constantly uses him as a anchor for the other two band members to latch onto and grow from. Thus slowly but surely, their sound changes, their feelings and expressions change and the music eventually becomes one big juicy amalgamation of bliss.
The cast of musicians in this film is also brilliant beyond belief. Obviously, Hiromi is on piano and you can hear that in the sheer energy of the piano as with the absence of a bassist, she has to do the role of two musicians not one. The saxophone is done by Tomoaki Baba, who is mostly unknown even among musician circles, heck I didn't even know who he is and that is exactly what makes his sound mind blowing. His sound represents the potential of Jazz, and with Hiromi providing the canvas for his solos, hoooooboy was he absolutely ON FIRE. The drummer, Shun Ishiwaka has to mimic someone who was never exposed to Jazz, however has been completely devoured by it as they can't help but want to play despite their overwhelming lack of experience. It's very endearing to see the drums slowly improving in quality as the movie progresses until the final performance in which things get REAL. Thus the three characters represents musicians at different stages in their journey, with the Pianist Yukinori growing up with music since a young age, Dai at the peak of his determination to succeed and the Drummer Shunji obsessing over his new passion.
When there is no CGI (Thankfully there is not a lot or it's done well in some part), the animation goes unbelievably hard. It's a chaotic, ebbing and flowing, never ending cluster of flashing colour. At some point the saxophone doesn't even look like a saxophone anymore and the music can literally be seen. I wish, and I mean I REALLY wish I saw this on a better screen because god is the animation good during the performances. The way they portray the audiences reactions to the music is exactly the kind of facial expressions I would've liked to have made if I wasn't sitting in economy class next to 5 people.
Anyways I could talk about this for days but I'll leave it here as YOU SHOULD WATCH IT IF YOU HAVEN'T. The movie will release internationally at some point hopefully and I'll probably have to watch it... again. You probably won't enjoy it nearly as much as I did, but I really do hope you give it a try as I wish for more people to exposed to proper Jazz. By that I mean music that embodies the fundamentals of Jazz philosophy and thinking, not some cookie cutter standard or Bossa Nova piece. Hope this review helps ;).
