Fireworks, Anime Movie Review

I have heard about this movie, Fireworks since it’s release but I never got a chance to watch it. I mean, who would want to watch it after hearing the mediocre response from people?

Still, out of boredom, I decided to watch this on Netflix.

Yes, I still love watching anything mediocre.

Heh.

It’s summer, and Norimichi Shimada and his friends want to know if fireworks look round or flat from the side. They forge a plan to find the answer at Moshimo Festival’s fireworks display. However, Norimichi finds himself conflicted when his classmate, Nazuna Oikawa, plans to run away from home and wants Norimichi to join her. When things go awry in their attempt to escape, a strange orb in Nazuna’s possession gives them another chance at staying together. (MAL)

After watching the movie, I could tell that Fireworks could have been good.

The story and plot were really interesting, but that ending?

It was too meh and lackluster. Now, I understand the mediocre response.

(Author’s note: I might touch on some mild spoiler from here on out. So, BEWARE. If you haven’t watched the movie and doesn’t want to be spoiled in any way, please leave my blog, I’m totally fine with it and watch the movie. But if you could stomach at least a tiny bit of spoiler, then feel free to continue reading.)

The story focuses on Norimichi and Nazuna, and the so-called “adventures” all throughout the film. It plays around with the “what if” trope, and personally, I like how they did it. It gave us a glimpse of what were the regrets of the main protagonist as he lost his chance to be with his heroine. The sequences, from one “what if” to another was really well made. It gets intense as the movie goes on. It made you, as a viewer, want to root for them. Want them to get that happy ending.

But as we reach the end of every “what if”, we always get reminded that all of this is not true. And everything that is happening on screen is just a possible figment of Norimichi’s imagination that stems from his initial regret.

And that made the whole movie really bittersweet.

However, as I said above, this movie was meh. Wanna know why?

Because of how everything had ended.

What kind of ending was that?

You can’t call that an ending?!?!

I want to know what happened to the pair after everything went down. Did they get a chance to talk? Or what are their feelings?

The ending was so dry, I almost flipped my laptop.

However, after a few days, I did think of a possible reason as to why it ended like how it ended. It seemed the director left the ending to the imagination of the viewers. As it’s clear that the theme of this movie is “Imagination” or the “what if” trope, we, the viewers, are left to make our own “what if” endings. It’s kind of a smart move actually, but it’s still left a sour taste in my mouth.

Yes, it helps us make our own ending to it, but personally, I prefer to see how it ended than me imagine my own one.

But that’s just me.

Now for the visuals, Studio SHAFT never fails to give us high-quality art and animation. It was an eyegasm overload, especially during the “what if” scenes. Yes, the typical SHAFT quirky animations were present, but it didn’t stand out too much and blend well with the story. The character designs were really nice and distinct from one another, though, yeah, it was weird looking at Nazuna when all I see is Senjougahara of the Monogatari series.

Overall, the movie was spectacular, visually, but it lacks enough substance in the story. It’s still a good movie to watch though.

Would I recommend it? Yeah, but not a must-watch. Maybe, as a “the movie you will watch when you don’t have anything to watch anymore” type. You can find this anime film on Netflix, so check it out there.

This has been Will Sirius and thanks for reading.