Bubble

This latest Netflix original anime by WIT Studio, having ensemble big names involved is brilliant with regards to its animation, however felt short in terms of storyline.

Tetsuro Araki, the renowed director behing Shingeki no Kyojin directs this dystopain sci-fi version of 'A Littler mermaid'. The characters felt a little underdeveloped, given the screentime of mere 100 minutes. While the movie bears influences of the classic fairy tale, they are rather loose, and at some parts, do seem to be shoehorned into the plot.

The animated feature, helmed by Studio WIT, is a breathtaking sight to behold, with its striking, vibrant colours breathing life into the desolated, forgotten city of Tokyo. The visual design also changes nicely to reflect the atmosphere of specific scenarios: action scenes get louder, bolder hues, domestic moments feature softer lighting, and intense sequences welcome ominous, darker colour mixing. Meanwhile, the landscape boasts details that allude to real-world Tokyo, such as Animate stores, Japanese ferries, and the star of the show, the Tokyo Tower.

The soundtrack gets a mention as well, as it was unique and melodious in its own way. The cinematography was amazing, capturing the parkour sport effectively. It's unfortunate that Bubble couldn't reach its narrative potential, because it excels everywhere else.

At the core of it, Bubble is a visually-gripping anime movie that presents an innovative and interesting premise, but couldn't deliver the best to its potential. I would recommend Bubble for a one time watch, due to its outstanding animation and cinematography

My Rating : 7/10.

This film is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. It has some of the best animation and music I have ever witnessed. The physics-defying scenery, parkour races and flashbacks create a very colourful and dynamic atmosphere.

However, it barely had any story. The characters are just stand-ins for typical anime tropes, the romance is forced and there seems to be no overall "point". The entire plot could be described in two sentences without any loss of detail.

Visually stunning from start to finish. They made sure that even if most people don't like this film, the animation will make everyone captivated. The plot is just a post-apocalyptic Little Mermaid from the opposite perspective which they remind us again and again in an attempt to make sure no one, I mean absolutely no one misses the reasoning behind their choices. Even with such attention to detail in animation and sound effects, the film manages to be bland a lot. Despite its blandness, they did manage to make the animation itself work in the narrative a lot to make it worthwhile too. It's really a mixed bag where if you like the animation you may like it.

Animation in this is something out of this world, the colors are beautiful. Everything about animation was amazing. I am so sad that story is mess and charachters are not developed or special in any way.

Coming into 2022, this anime was one of my most anticipated movies. We have the director of Attack on Titan Season 1-3 and Death Note, WIT studio, writer of Fate/Zero, and the composer of Attack on Titan coming together to make this sci-fi action thriller.

Let's get the obvious out of the way. The animation was breathtakingly gorgeous. There was never a boring shot. Every single frame and motion was jaw-droppingly beautiful. WIT studio poured their heart out to make this masterpiece of animation. Just like in other anime from WIT like Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, the close-up animation of character's face was distinctly angelic. Those moments were special, and I'm still in awe.

However, sadly the story did not deserve such godlike animation. There's a blend of Little Mermaid, spiral, bubbles, and parkour. Unfortunately these elements did not work out very well. The first half of the movie felt like it was going nowhere. The characters were mostly uninteresting, which made the emotional scenes less impactful. The encompassing theme of this movie just did not land.

Overall, I don't think it's bad, as I still had a good time, but with this much power dedicated to make this supposedly masterpiece, Bubble was still a disappointment. 7-7.5/10.