Uchiage Hanabi, Shita Kara Miru ka? Yoko Kara Miru ka? is the newest entry in the new anime film era started with Kimi no na wa, which follows similar trends: high school years, romance, comedy and melodrama, time traveling and striking visuals. However unlike Your Name, Fireworks is very weak in many aspects. It's not a bad movie by any stretch but certainly not good one either.
The movie suffers for the most part for three problems.
The orb gimmick: a supposed mcguffin, which the main character uses to travel through time and returns to an specific point. It is never explained or detailed where it came from, why it works that way and why it can travel in time since is just a firework. This also leads to a world building problem, anime movies tend to be good on creating and using fantasy elements on modern settings, something american films can't do and thus they heavily rely on historical periods, but this movie can't achieved that at all leading to scratch your head every five minutes. The whole orb issue wouldn't be a problem if wasn't for the ending, particularly the last scene lead to a much more confusing story.
Not so much melodrama. This has a lot to do with culture differences but, it really is hard to believe the drama of a young girl who makes a huge take on her mother having a new husband. Now, there was an opportunity to explore on possible father issues or her relation to her mother's past but they don't go there at all which makes the conflict rather shallow. Not to mention the main characters rivalry with his best friend and the bid between the boys that goes absolute nowhere. So i guess the whole conflict is Norimichi and Nazuna being together at least a day, and all could have work if it wasn't for the ending, I swear that if i don't included the ending here is for spoiler purposes.
Animation: Now, the are some good use of computer animation but there are some objects and scenes where it felt underwhelming, mainly some of the human animation and some backgrounds like the school hall or the water, just looks off. The character design with the exception of Nazuma is not very interesting. Something i notice for this new era of anime films is that they tend to have a more tv anime style over a more film style, not sure it's because i'm accused to ghibli or what.
Besides all the negative towards the movie you'll think there isn't any redeeming qualities, for me at least, but there are a few.
Weirdness. I know it was not done in purpose at all but there is something about this tone, that i kind of absolutely love on how sometimes Japanese filmmakers tend to exaggerate even the most mundane conflict, making at least a consistent tone throughout the movie. Also this might be as to how a teenager sees the world, as their issues/problems are the most important thing, maybe not the most sympathetic thing but in some cases, relatable. The biggest example of the scene where Nazuma imagines herself as a idol princess it's was so odd i could help myself but enjoy it.
Animation. Besides my hiccups with it, like always seeing 2d animation is a joy, even if it's not best I've seen i still quite decent. The CGI for the crystal orb it's really amazing, i kind of wish it was the only element in computer animated and the rest in traditional but it's what we have i guess. Finally the colors with the fireworks are gorgeous, the scene where our main couple are together in the lighthouse or the "climax" is really breathtaking.
Score. The musical segments are pretty good sometimes a little exaggerated again going with hyper shallow melodrama of the film so go well the scenery. There are some good songs in here as well.
Perhaps i'm having a soft spot for it but i did have some fun watching but don't hold your breaths to high for this one, it's not complex, it's no the greatest romance, it's no profound or anything and worst of all the message is all over the place, specially due to that ending. If you don't mind exaggerated anime soap with pretty colors this one's ok but if you're looking for a excellent anime movie, skip this one, you won't lose anything.
The movie suffers for the most part for three problems.
The orb gimmick: a supposed mcguffin, which the main character uses to travel through time and returns to an specific point. It is never explained or detailed where it came from, why it works that way and why it can travel in time since is just a firework. This also leads to a world building problem, anime movies tend to be good on creating and using fantasy elements on modern settings, something american films can't do and thus they heavily rely on historical periods, but this movie can't achieved that at all leading to scratch your head every five minutes. The whole orb issue wouldn't be a problem if wasn't for the ending, particularly the last scene lead to a much more confusing story.
Not so much melodrama. This has a lot to do with culture differences but, it really is hard to believe the drama of a young girl who makes a huge take on her mother having a new husband. Now, there was an opportunity to explore on possible father issues or her relation to her mother's past but they don't go there at all which makes the conflict rather shallow. Not to mention the main characters rivalry with his best friend and the bid between the boys that goes absolute nowhere. So i guess the whole conflict is Norimichi and Nazuna being together at least a day, and all could have work if it wasn't for the ending, I swear that if i don't included the ending here is for spoiler purposes.
Animation: Now, the are some good use of computer animation but there are some objects and scenes where it felt underwhelming, mainly some of the human animation and some backgrounds like the school hall or the water, just looks off. The character design with the exception of Nazuma is not very interesting. Something i notice for this new era of anime films is that they tend to have a more tv anime style over a more film style, not sure it's because i'm accused to ghibli or what.
Besides all the negative towards the movie you'll think there isn't any redeeming qualities, for me at least, but there are a few.
Weirdness. I know it was not done in purpose at all but there is something about this tone, that i kind of absolutely love on how sometimes Japanese filmmakers tend to exaggerate even the most mundane conflict, making at least a consistent tone throughout the movie. Also this might be as to how a teenager sees the world, as their issues/problems are the most important thing, maybe not the most sympathetic thing but in some cases, relatable. The biggest example of the scene where Nazuma imagines herself as a idol princess it's was so odd i could help myself but enjoy it.
Animation. Besides my hiccups with it, like always seeing 2d animation is a joy, even if it's not best I've seen i still quite decent. The CGI for the crystal orb it's really amazing, i kind of wish it was the only element in computer animated and the rest in traditional but it's what we have i guess. Finally the colors with the fireworks are gorgeous, the scene where our main couple are together in the lighthouse or the "climax" is really breathtaking.
Score. The musical segments are pretty good sometimes a little exaggerated again going with hyper shallow melodrama of the film so go well the scenery. There are some good songs in here as well.
Perhaps i'm having a soft spot for it but i did have some fun watching but don't hold your breaths to high for this one, it's not complex, it's no the greatest romance, it's no profound or anything and worst of all the message is all over the place, specially due to that ending. If you don't mind exaggerated anime soap with pretty colors this one's ok but if you're looking for a excellent anime movie, skip this one, you won't lose anything.