Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta

In the seaside village of Hinashi Town, Kai Ashimoto's grandfather is one of the locals who reinforces the legend that mermaids lurk near Merfolk Island and consume humans. Due to allegedly attracting merfolk and subsequently causing the death of the elder's mother, music is seldom discussed in the Ashimoto household. Even so, Kai finds solace in making looped beats on his laptop and uploading them to the internet.

Despite his reserved and glum demeanor, Kai is approached by Kunio and Yuuho Ebina, two cheerful classmates that happened upon one of his videos. The pair ask him to join their rock band but are met with apathy. Nevertheless, Kai agrees to accompany them in a practice session on Merfolk Island, where he soon witnesses something that he cannot explain.

Later that night, Kai is composing music in his room when he attracts a familiar entity—a mermaid. As she twirls and grins to the sound of his stereo, Kai discovers a number of aspects about the being who introduces herself as Lu: she possesses incredible water manipulation powers; she buds a pair of functioning legs with the sound of music; but most notably, she is a truly benevolent creature who simply wants people to like her. Fostering a dynamic friendship, Kai and Lu gradually come to express their genuine selves, testing the long-standing boundaries that have deafened the resounding harmony among the people of Hinashi Town.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lu Main

Tani, Kanon Japanese

Ashimoto, Kai Main

Shimoda, Shouta Japanese

Lu's Papa Supporting

Shinohara, Shinichi Japanese

Ebina, Yuuho Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Kunio Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Ashimoto, Grandfather Supporting

Emoto, Akira Japanese

Fuguda Supporting

Kawashima, Tokuyoshi Japanese

Isaki Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Chief Priest Supporting

Sasaki, Mutsumi Japanese

Ebina, Father Supporting

Cho Japanese

Choi, Eun-Young Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Script, Executive Producer

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Yoshida, Reiko Script

Reviews

Nov 29, 2023

Purinzu05

Recommended

An adventurous coming of age story of 3 friends on their way to find out what do they really want to do with their future lives, is it Tokyo where they'll ultimately go or will they find something more magical on their not so sleepy fishing town island?

Visuals are fun and endearing might I say.

I'm a sucker for movies about music, while I won't claim to be able to explain the intricacies of its music, All I can say is from the ears to the brain and the heart, it sounds good and it makes me feel good.

A very enjoyable film to watch if you ... have 2 hours to kill.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 14, 2020

lethargilistic

Recommended

"What if Ponyo, but she's a vampire, and it's a musical?" I dug it. I ended up watching the dub because it was the path of least resistance, and I probably wouldn't have if I had realized just how integral the musical performances would be later on. I wish English dubs would/could put more production work into the songs. Ah well.

The visuals were very cool and emotive all throughout. It felt nice on my eyes. Like a breath of fresh air. But on my face. The cuts of dancing were a bit repetitive, but the content of those cuts was so purely joyous.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 27, 2023

Drakestalker

Mixed Feelings

Lu Over the Wall was studio Science SARU’s first original, theatrical production. What’s it about?

The movie has several themes, but the basic idea of the plot is that our protagonist trio Kai, Yuuho, and Kunio have an interest in music and singing. While Kai needs some persuading, they decide to team up and form a band early on in the film. Meanwhile, a mermaid named Lu is attracted by their singing and shyly engages with them. You’re initially led to believe that music is an important theme in the movie, but it’s really just a plot device to inject the mermaids into the movie. Once ... Lu gets introduced as a proper character, the whole singing sphiel gets put on the backburner. Then it comes back again? Then becomes irrelevant again? Then we sing to save the world at the end? Sort of? I recommend not delving to deeply into the internal logic of the plot. It’s… ehhh.

Point is, how will our protagonists react to a mythical creature presenting itself to them? How will the rest of society? Watch to find out!

Should you watch it, though? I mean, it’s a Masaaki Yuasa movie, so it’s got that weird, overly liquid, trippy visual signature style of his. If that’s not something you’re into, then skip this movie. If you can deal with it, then there will be some moments of animation that are quite cool, but since I’m not a fan, most of the film just looked weird to me, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it off-putting.

In terms of the narrative, I had a hard time staying engaged for the first hour. It’s a 2 hour movie, and by the time I got to the 45 minute mark, I started to lose interest. The “plot”, such as it was, did not seem like it was going anywhere. Then, out of nowhere, the movie takes a complete left turn and becomes an action thriller romp. It makes no sense, but it’s fun – dumb, but fun dumb!

That said, this is my perspective as an adult. I suspect the movie might look very different indeed through a child’s eyes.

In any case, if a nonsensical Ponyo rip-off with Masaaki Yuasa visuals seems like something you’d be into, by all means.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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