Luzes no Céu: Fireworks

I must admit I've watched amazingly executed animated films but this one unfortunately doesn't make the list. The story: It had a lot of potential but even though the story was okay, it had a lot of twists and turns that could've been taken just a tad slower, but overall it wasn't terrible.

The p.o.v's: In case you haven't watched it to me it felt like the perspectives were jumping from one character to another plus I think the movie experience would've been a little bit better if they added Nazuma's perspective, since it felt like her point of view in this was basically missing.

Character development: Personally these characters felt pretty undeveloped if I could get at least some more insight on why the mc really liked the girl so much, and maybe a little more information on the little ball instead of it remaining a mystery

"Leave it to the imagination": Throughout the beginning when trying to figure out how the ball ended up there, to the end trying to figure out why the two weren't in class. I've seen other movies do this before but for a movie that had such great potential had a bad time trying to do this in my personal experience.

Overall: 6/10

First off, the animation is absolutely beautiful and if it weren't for a few seconds of really terrible CGI I'd say that the animation would be perfect. The music was also nice.

With that being said the film was so boring, and melodramatic, and dull, and just a complete waste of time. Which is sad being the story seemed kind of interesting. The exacution of the story however was poor. Skip this film and watch Your Name or The Girl Who Lept Through Time instead.

This film tells the story of a school girl who finds a pretty transparent ball by the sea. She plans to run away from home to escape from her unhappy home, but her escape fails until her friend finds out the supernatural power that the transparent ball has.

"Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or The Bottom?" is so different from what I thought. It is in fact not really about fireworks, but a science fiction story that is akin to the previous animation "Your Name". The story is sad, especially when I hear Nazuna's wailing cries, which are very depressing and spine chilling. I sympathise with her situation. Her plan to make money in Tokyo is even more upsetting, which indicates that her home situation must have been very bad.

The story is quite easy to understand, and is interesting. The Seiko Matsuda song that is sung in the tram is really beautiful, I should check it out. The very final scene is a bit puzzling, and is open to interpretation. I heard people discussing about it, which is a good sign because it means people liked it enough to talk about the film.

I'm not gonna say this is a great movie. It kind of suffers from the same standard sins of plenty of anime out there, some jokes don't always hit, parts seem taken from a basic "how to make a successful anime" guide, over-stylised action, and the writing sometimes suffers from first-draft syndrome with a visible lack of polish. However, I'd also be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

The animation and music are both incredibly gorgeous. Not exactly on the level of Studio Ghibli, but it's not really trying to be, it feels like it's more often trying to be it's own way. I also found myself interested in the plot throughout despite the aforementioned shortcomings, and some of the characters ended up growing on me. I also enjoyed the tone, which managed to stay consistently emotional throughout.

So, is it a perfect movie? No, especially when compared to the aforementioned Studio Ghibli. But is it an enjoyable one? I think so. Not for everyone, but not terrible. I certainly found myself enjoying it much more than Sword Art Online.

It was very beautiful, the scenery at least. I watched it with my mom and she cried, I didn't understand why she was crying though. I guess I'm just not old enough to understand why she was crying. The concept is good but they could've elaborated on a lot of topics some more. The animation was beautiful in my opinion. It's worth a watch even if you don't quite understand it.