Michael's Movie Grade: A-
A wonderfully unique anime feature film.
Those of you who are familiar with Masaaki Yuasa's previous movies (The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (2017), Lu Over the Wall (2017), Ride Your Wave (2019)) know they will be in for a visual treat watching this film. This movie does not let down in this department at all. This film is simply lovely to look at. Every moment is dripping in pure visual delight. This is especially true of the musical numbers. Visually these scenes are as large scale and elaborate as anything Busby Berkley ever did. The numbers also take pure advantage of the fact that this is animation and in animation you can do anything. There is such a wealth of creative ideas in these scenes that give this movie a truly unique and wonderful feel. Speaking of the musical numbers the music is excellent. While normally I am not the biggest fan of modern music being used in period films, I feel it works exceptionally well here. In the fairytale atmosphere of this movie, this music doesn't feel out of place. Plus how many characters state they never heard anything like it before, helps make this feel like it belongs in the movie. The songs are also simply a lot of fun and I could see a lot of people being fans of these songs even if they weren't used in a movie. Yet this film is not simply a matter of style over substance. The film also benefits from a very smart script by Akiko Nogi (who has written for live action movies and TV shows, but for whom this is his animation debut). This script gives an intelligent look at how parts of our history disappear and get forgotten.
This is a must see for all anime fans.
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