Liz to Aoi Tori

Liz's days of solitude come to an end when she meets a blue bird in the form of a young girl. Although their relationship blossoms, Liz must make a heart-wrenching decision in order to truly realize her love for Blue Bird.

High school seniors and close friends Mizore Yoroizuka and Nozomi Kasaki are tasked to play the lead instruments in the third movement of Liz and the Blue Bird, a concert band piece inspired by this fairy tale. The introverted and reserved Mizore plays the oboe, representing the kind and gentle Liz. Meanwhile, the radiant and popular Nozomi plays the flute, portraying the cheerful and energetic Blue Bird.

However, as they rehearse, the distance between Mizore and Nozomi seems to grow. Their disjointed duet disappoints the band, and with graduation on the horizon, uncertainty about the future spurs complicated emotions. With little time to improve as their performance draws near, they desperately attempt to connect with their respective characters. But when Mizore and Nozomi consider the story from a brand-new perspective, will the girls find the strength to face harsh realities?

A spin-off film adaptation of the Hibike Euphonium! series, Liz to Aoi Tori dances between the parallels of a charming fairy tale, a moving musical piece, and a delicate high school friendship.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yoroizuka, Mizore Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Kasaki, Nozomi Main

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Oumae, Kumiko Supporting

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Kousaka, Reina Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Nakagawa, Natsuki Supporting

Fujimura, Konomi Japanese

Katou, Hazuki Supporting

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Yoshikawa, Yuuko Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Taki, Noboru Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Kawashima, Sapphire Supporting

Toyota, Moe Japanese

Kenzaki, Ririka Supporting

Sugiura, Shiori Japanese

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Senami, Riri Producer

Yarimizu, Yoshifumi Producer

Reviews

Apr 22, 2018

manlyflower

Recommended

"Liz to Aoi Tori" is essentially a side story to the "Hibike Euphonium" series, and from the very start, it fully embraces that role. Fans of the TV anime will likely find themselves despairing over the limited screen-time of their favorite cast members, inching forward in their seats as Kumiko, Reina, and the rest of the now-second-year ensemble teasingly jump in and out of picture for only moments at a time. This minor frustration will only be temporary, however, as we're forced out of that frame of mind, into the soft, melancholic lens of our focal point in this movie: Mizore. Although this story exists ... in the same music room we've all come to know, it takes on a different hue. Owing in large part to the incredible soundtrack and fresh character designs and art direction, the tone of the movie shifts entirely, transitioning from an inspirational story of motivation and hard work into a deeply somber and introspective world.

The story itself is very simple, examining the relationship of Nozomi and Mizore in their final year in high school. It openly compares the feelings of the two characters with the piece they play, the namesake of the film, and the folktale it was based on. I was originally concerned that the comparison would end up overplayed and come off as forced, but I left pleasantly surprised. The film acknowledges the simplicity and straight-forwardness of the story, but instead of allowing itself to be confined to that, it achieves a level of technical mastery that managed to blow me away, even though I was already plenty used to the historically superb Kyoto Animation and the other wonderful works by director Naoko Yamada before watching it.

The film succeeds on such a level because it allows itself to be a single vignette in the "Hibike" storyline. It's not a story of hard work, a story of competition, or even a story of music. It's a simple story of two characters, and it's precisely because this aspect of it was so intimately understood by the production crew at KyoAni that such a story was allowed to flourish. There is no excess. The film brazenly jumps through time, refusing to linger on anything unnecessary while still allowing the events that clearly happen off-screen to create meaningful depth in the story. We don't focus on what practicing is like. We don't see what the characters do on their weekends. We don't listen to the girls ruminating on their feelings in the comfort of their beds. From the moment we as an audience walk with Mizore onto campus at the beginning to when we exit it at the end, all we see is what's limited to the confines of the school, to the band room and to our two leads, and everything else is left to become a sort of wistful ether that exists on the fringes of our minds. Because what was shown was clearly so carefully chosen, we come to viscerally understand the weight behind every lingering shot. It's an incredibly delicate experience, and one that could've only been realized with production quality of this caliber.

Yamada's quirks as a director have often been the subject of conversation in the anime community, but I believe that this film has been one of the best applications of those idiosyncrasies to date. Her approach to the art of unspoken communication paralleled the film's focus on Mizore, a girl unable to truly express, and at moments even understand, her own feelings. Subtle gestures such as Mizore stroking her hair not only serve to silently convey the cast's thoughts, but end up feeling as if they were sewn into the very plot itself due to how integral of a role they play. The consistent focus on the characters' legs—a mainstay in Yamada's works—mirrors Mizore's own downcast eyes, and the other camera shots always seem to look off to the side, as if shyly avoiding the characters around her. Add to this the introduction of a softer pastel art style, and we see the world brilliantly through the lens of our main characters, creating something amazingly intimate.

The soundtrack and sound direction are, hands down, the shining star of the film. It combines composer Kensuke Ushio's fragmented, minimal approach also found on his work in Yamada's previous film, "Koe no Katachi," with the expertly realized orchestral arrangements that the series is known for. However, gone are the sweeping brass-heavy pieces that complimented Kumiko's role as a main character in the original series. The introduction of the new piece instead turns the focus to the woodwinds. Brass now supports from the background, and the airy voices of woodwind instruments paint the entirety of the film with a wonderful warmth that sets it apart from the main franchise. The parallel stories of Mizore and Nozomi and the girls from the folktale blend masterfully into each other because of this—from the gorgeous bass clarinet adding a sense of comforting security to the cold isolation of a "Koe no Katachi"-styled piano piece casting an ominous tone over the characters—yet the well-timed use of other instruments such as the bassoon add the perfect amount of levity when necessary (the bassoon in particular being used wonderfully to comedic effect when the bassoonists themselves are relevant to the scene), while still staying in line with the overarching thematic style.

That's why this film works. Every aspect of it is fine-tuned to near-uncanny perfection. The psyches of each character are silently brought to the surface through each deliberate animation choice, from Nozomi's eyes darting around the room to Mizore's subconscious trembling. The soundtrack compliments each and every emotional swell—synchronized musical flourishes match footsteps and impeccably timed silences pull us devastatingly close to the most minute of actions. Each background track cuts to the core, yet never accidentally overpowers the gentle art and soft color scheme. Because of this masterful balance, all of the reactions are almost unnaturally natural, seemingly larger than life because of how lifelike they are. This kind of exaggerated humanity is an achievement only possible through the medium of animation, and even then, I have never seen it done quite like this. Although giving a full score seems like it could be a provocative statement for a film focused simply on the minutia of a measly two characters, if this movie isn't considered among the best for the sheer level of craftsmanship that it exhibits, then I really don't know what other film deserves to be.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Dec 6, 2018

llimdaert_hpue

Mixed Feelings

It's nearly impossible for someone interested in the anime industry not to have heard of Yamada Naoko. Her personality-focused direction on K-On! is arguably what turned it into a hit and raised it above its contemporaries. More recently, she directed Koe no Katachi, a film that seemed to signal a move into a more art-house style with unusual shot compositions, a minimal soundtrack and a meandering pace. While the film had many flaws, its personal message resonated with a lot of people, further shining a light on Yamada's talent.
With this in mind, it was clear that Liz to Aoi Tori would be well received, even ... from the conceptual level - a down-to-earth, character-driven drama tied to an existing franchise, directed by the person who does that best, with a heaping helping of symbolism. However, in my opinion, the final product can be described as nothing other than a waste of talent.

First of all, the visuals. If KyoAni is known for anything, it's their high quality artwork and animation. However, in this case they're oddly mediocre while acting more flashy than ever. Characters have their hair flap around wildly to show off fluid key animation that everyone knew they were capable of anyway and doesn't add anything to the scene other than a distraction, while the background art consists of uncharacteristically low detail surfaces which seem to have been made completely separate from the foreground objects (and not in a superflat way, there was clearly an effort to portray depth within the frame). The transitions don't guide the viewer's eyes so much as throw them all over the screen, and there's a lot of random cutaways to objects lying around the room or to the side of a character's limb without any real purpose or meaning, not to mention it rarely goes more than two cuts without an obnoxious depth-of-field effect that puts winter's Violet Evergarden to shame.

The plot moves at the slowest of paces, and while that isn't a problem in and of itself, it makes the narrative progress (which is almost exclusively located in the last 20-30 minutes) feel jarring and unearned when it comes. There's a heavy focus on a story which our two main characters are obsessed with and constantly relate themselves to, even though thematically it turns out that the story doesn't fit either of their situations very well, making it feel like wasted time which is especially egregious when coupled with the aforementioned pacing.

On the other hand, the sound design is pretty exceptional (it was directed by Youta Tsuruoka and Kensuke Ushio after all), and I have no complaints regarding it. It really helped sell the reaction to Mizore's performance around the climax and the evocative dreamlike melodies may have been what kept me from completely disliking the film.

All in all, I don't regret watching it but I can't see myself rewatching it or recommending it to anyone. 5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 5, 2019

ambien

Not Recommended

1. The Direction - Naoko Yamada
I know you're aping the whole Shinkai thing of randomly zooming into landscapes and utensils to show how RICH and BEAUTIFUL life in the anime world is compared to the bum crapsack that is reality, but can i ask why there were nearly a hundred shots of their legs in this film? This film is a Freudian field day.

2. The Writing - Tatsuya and Yoshida
2.1 Someone tell them that the character development is supposed to go AFTER the climax. And no, vaguely hinting at their personalities by having a dozen scenes of everyone playing patty cake doesn't count as development.
2.2 ... Every time they used the device of the girls saying something simultaneously to be cutesy a little part of my critical thinking shriveled up and died forever, scattered to the desert winds, presumably.

3. The Editor - Kenge Shigemura
There are a lot of people who I could blame for half of this movie being ridiculously overexposed. It often felt like staring into the sun. My retinas threatened to form their own FLQ and detach before they burned out. I will pick on Shigemura because it was presumably his job to look at the film and say "I need snow blinders to watch this! This is unacceptable!" before it was released.

CONCLUSION:
If you've ever seen a single Makoto Shinkai film you know what to expect. There's a bunch of pretty shots, then two characters who we have no investment in waver and waffle around until they need to melodramatically part forever.

More than anything, I mostly feel bad for the genuinely talented animators and musicians whose efforts have been recruited to make the 9000th forgettable film to be loved only by teenage girls and the musky, fully grown men who are convinced the world must know

"ANIME IS A REAL ART FORM! NO LONGER SHALL WE BE OPPRESSED!"

2/5

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Liz to Aoi Tori Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Ame_Sama - Apr 21, 2018	140 replies	by NeonRumi »» Oct 8, 12:27 AM
	Can I skip this? shiro-seishun - Jul 8, 2022	23 replies	by mysticflute »» Jun 29, 10:06 PM
	does anyone actually care about these 2 characters? GangsterCat - Jun 21, 2017	34 replies	by mitchisindo »» Jun 27, 5:28 AM
	This is a masterpiece of arthouse cinema. Greyleaf - Apr 27, 2020	24 replies	by Roqueiro »» Jun 1, 8:03 PM
	It is girls love? DarKViVi66 - May 21, 2023	15 replies	by Radnitzky1890 »» Feb 16, 12:16 AM