Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi

This is criminally underrated. It's such a shame that this doesn't have an English dub, but don't let that stop you from giving this a watch. Summer Days with Coo combines supernatural mythology elements into a beautiful slice of life, following a family on its journey of growth via their special magical pet. Coo himself has his own epic journey, that begins tragically but ends happily. Coo, though not human himself, is treated as a true sibling and goes through an array of human emotions. While deeply moving at times, the movie also possesses fantastic & intelligent comedic relief (no exaggerated manga effects for comedy) ... and plot-twisting drama. This is a true masterpiece - one of the greatest stories told, and really deserves an English dub.

Well, this movie broke me. I cried so many times, and all of the times it was the human’s fault.
Two characters died because of humans. Other characters suffered mentally, because of humans.
When Coo discovered an ability, I honestly wished him to kill all humans. Sadly he did not so, but well. Would’ve been too easy anyway, I guess.

Fuck humans. I hate them. I hate to be one of them. If I could choose, I’d be a different species. Anything, really.
But humans are a piece of junk and this movie just proves it once more.

I love the director for exposing humans like ... that; perhaps that’s why the movie is unpopular.


Anyway, go watch it and suffer.

What makes a great anime movie? Is it visuals, great storytelling, great and relatable characters, mind-bending themes and ideas or just the name of a famous director and studio. Whatever it is, we all love movies and anime. When I think about anime movies one of the first which comes to my mind is Summer Days with Coo and it is not because of complex storytelling, visuals or name of the director but it is because it is the only anime movie that genuinely made me cry and word “genuinely” is very important. Coo is not a movie of fakeness or pretending, it is a ... movie about reality and humans, It does not pretend anything but show directly what is true and that is the greatest asset of Summer Days With Coo. To understand this we have to understand the story structure and characters of this movie.

Characters in Coo are quite different than rest of the rabble. By that, I mean that they don’t have a specific trait like brave, loving or anything near it and they don’t follow normal convention of movie characters when they take action and when they do take action which will be almost always be motivated by the situation. There is no villain in this movie nor there are any heroes and what we might think is a hero do not follow general rules of a hero, ie. they are not purely selfless, well expect Ossan. In short characters in Summer Days with Coo are humans and nothing more and that is the greatest beauty of this movie. A hero is a hero because of the situation made him and villains are villains because situation made them, there no good and bad just people with different situations and needs. That is why I said there no fakeness or pretending, these people who are in the movie act genuinely like people in that situation, just like you and me. There is no trait defining them, no horrid past poking them, no high goal driving them, they are just normal people nothing more and nothing less.

Story structure is defined by a single action and multiple reactions to that action. Like when you drop a rock in a claim pond and watch ripples react with each other to form different patterns. The movie can neither be called story driven or character driven. it is the initial action that forms the story and characters react with that story making their mark on it and story also making its mark on them. Its beauty cannot be explained by mere words. Summer Days with Coo is a movie that can put nearly every movie I have watched in shame, in the storytelling department.

Again this simplicity and realism also reflect in its vision. It is rough, ugly, detailed, clunky and realistic in an odd way. Everyone looks normal, there are no extraordinary beautiful characters and yet there are detailed and beautiful backgrounds, this gives the movie a unique feel. Some may find visual to be repulsive but what hidden behind them is gold.

Summer Days with Coo is a truly unique and beautiful experience and everyone should give it a try. It is a movie filled with Simplicity and Beauty to the brim and there could be no doubt that it is one of the best movies I have ever watched. So go and give it a try and let me know.