Bubble

Five years ago, gravity-defying bubbles with mysterious powers rained down upon the earth. After a huge explosion of uncertain origin, Tokyo became ground zero, with the city being enclosed in a gigantic bubble. As a result of this "Bubble Fall" phenomenon, the metropolis that was once the capital of Japan drowned in a gravity-bending sea; the government declared it a prohibited zone, and the residents abandoned it.

Children orphaned by the Bubble Fall now squat illegally in Tokyo, partaking in dangerous parkour team battles across the city's dilapidated buildings. Hibiki—a talented ace in these games with the ability to jump between bubbles—claims he can hear sounds from the Tokyo Tower. Determined to uncover its mysteries, he sets off toward the source, but he falls into the waters below.

A strange girl, whom he later nicknames Uta, saves him. But little does Hibiki know that Uta's appearance in his life will reveal the secrets behind the disastrous event that changed their world forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Uta Main

Riria. Japanese

Hibiki Main

Shison, Jun Japanese

Makoto Supporting

Hirose, Alice Japanese

Kai Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Undertaker Leader Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Shin Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Usagi Supporting

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Isozaki Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Kantou Mad Lobster Leader Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Denki Ninja Leader Supporting

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Nakatake, Tetsuya Producer

Yamanaka, Kazuki Producer

Hayashi, Kazue Producer

Araki, Tetsurou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 28, 2022

SingleH

Recommended

The trailers for this movie honestly didn’t inspire much confidence. The visuals were undoubtedly gorgeous, and I was extremely excited to see what this outstandingly talented group of industry veterans was going to create, but the premise and characters looked so boring, and boring is the last word that comes to mind when I think of Tetsuro Araki. Typical “boy meets girl” story; obsession with the Tokyo Metroplex; generic Eve pop song; inconsequential-looking friend group; pretty boy protagonist wearing Beats™ by Dre. If you told me those were the trailers for the next Makoto Shinkai film, I would’ve been like, “Wow! Why is his direction ... suddenly so engaging?!” But I still would’ve believed you. However, after having actually watched the movie, I’m glad to say many of these elements were likely included for marketing purposes only, none of them are ultimately a detriment to what makes the film good, and the actual execution is quite something.

I was surprised to realize this film was inspired by The Little Mermaid. More specifically, the Hans Christian Andersen tragedy, not the Disney fairy tail. Its highly symbolic world and setting is visually breathtaking and a total joy to become immersed in the beauty of, but it’s also deliberately mystifying. A giant bubble has formed around the city, and gravity has gone haywire, but never do you comprehensively understand why. The film provides the audience with the exposition necessary to understand what’s directly relevant to the plot, but otherwise, it let’s your imagination run wild, and it’s done not in a way that feels cheap and underdeveloped, but instead deliberate and magical. If Bubble had deep and memorable characters on top of everything else it has going for it, it could’ve easily been a genuine masterpiece, but without them, it’s not suddenly a bad movie, because everything else about the film suggests it might actually be one anyway.

Araki’s imagery combined with the thrill of Sawano’s music never fails to blow your mind. The artwork and animation is simply stunning, even for WIT, Obata’s designs are splendid, Sawano is rightly praised as a legend by virtually everyone, and Araki is one of my favorite directors for a really good fucking reason. With more and more studios desperately trying to copy WIT’s 3D environments, it’s worth reminding ourselves why WIT’s were so impressive in the first place. Yes, the renderings and graphics were perfect, but the real reason they felt so exhilarating was because Tetsuro Araki was the one directing the shots. If you saw the trailers for this movie and didn’t immediately think, “Well, alright. This is obviously just an excuse to have people parkour around a weightless and inventive cityscape with jaw-dropping animation and electrifying visual action.” Then, honestly, you need to do yourself a favor and watch more of Araki’s work.

Watching this felt like watching Promare in theaters. Around half an hour in, I realized it wasn’t trying to be Imaishi’s next Gurren Lagann or Kill la Kill; it wasn’t trying to be deep; it was just trying to be a visual feast, and it succeeded. GKIDS had a translated interview with some of the creative staff which played after the screening, and if I remember correctly it was Shigeto Koyama who kept talking about how the “movement” of the film was constantly bringing him to tears. Everyone laughed as if he was joking, including himself, but he insisted he was serious, and when asked to elaborate, he just kept repeating that same word. “Movement.” While Bubble didn’t move me to tears or anything, I completely understand what he was saying after watching it. I wasn’t terribly invested in the story or characters, but I understood and appreciated them, and with even such a simpleminded connection established, I was able to get swept away by Araki’s sheer creative vision.

People, generally speaking, think I’m a cunt. They think I hate anime, and I just make excuses to bitch and complain. They think I nitpick and overemphasize every tiny little issue I can find as a cynical excuse to hate on whatever anime I’m talking about. I insist this isn’t true. I insist my harsh analytical criticism is merely a product of my high standards, and should an anime meet those basic standards—a competent production, a competent script, a competent director, and so on—then I’m actually extremely generous. As long as an anime has a solid foundation and doesn’t actively annoy me, I’m very easily entertained, and Bubble is irrefutable proof. It’s not that the film is nothing special, because it is special; it’s that the film isn’t tremendously deep or complex. If, by the sound of things, you think you’re too good for something this fast and loose, then Bubble may not be for you, but I cannot say the same for myself. Indeed, this film may just be too good for me.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 31, 2022

Shmanny12

Mixed Feelings

Bubble had a beautiful world with an even better soundtrack and astounding visuals. Although it blew me away with its animation and the intricate details of character movement/design, it is extremely held back by the way the story starts itself off. it came off to me as an incohesive story and I felt no connection to the characters whatsoever. The ending definitely started to pick up and showed nice contrasts from the beginning leaving it off on a really good note I feel. I can say wholeheartedly that I'm glad I watched it just don't know how much I could recommend it. :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 28, 2022

KANLen09

Not Recommended

The latest movie to get released from Netflix in a nutshell:
Imagine Makoto Shinkai's somewhat lackluster Tenki no Ko a.k.a Weathering With You, except there's bubbles and parkour to create a decent movie.

No doubt that this insanely high-profile Netflix-exclusive movie is the work of acclaimed people (most of them being from Shingeki no Kyojin a.k.a Attack on Titan since this is Wit Studio with producer Tetsuya Nakatake, director Araki Tetsuro, sound director Masafumi Mima), along with writers Gen Urobochi and others, plus the musical genius of HiroyukiSawano. With a high-calibre staff team like this, this Netflix release must look and feel the part of accomplished veterans, ... and just feels incredible...music and production-wise only.

In a very simple storytelling way (because it really ain't much), Bubble showcases a post-apocalyptic Japan where people can parkour to their liking, so much that it created a competition-like feeling to the young-uns living there. And in comes the supposed "The Little Mermaid" twist character Uta, birthed out from saving this somewhat closed-hearted Hibiki from drowning, only to land at his familial ship Reiyo of Team Blue Blaze, became human and lead Hibiki to be a better parkour player. While it showcases that, it also does is focus on the romance aspect of both Hibiki and Uta in terms of "noise", showing that hearts can resonate together when they hear the same vocality. Case in point, this feels like a combination of 2 other movies: Belle and Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru a.k.a Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop on both music and romance aspects but with the classic Attack on Titan twist. The other characters weren't so memorable, and as mentioned, they're only there to service for numbers and progress the plot.

Honestly, when you take the entire package as a whole, it feels half-fulfilled, half-empty at the same time as well. Both Wit Studio (and their core staff) and HiroyukiSawano absolutely delivered in their craft, as are the theme songs from Eve and Riria that shouldn't come as a surprise for fans of either entity and people behind this movie. But the structure of the movie being like this just wasn't a good one, and for a movie that's very highly anticipated (or if you're one that got spoiled by reading the pre-review in the forums that was posted months before the Netflix release), it just felt disappointing and underwhelming.

I don't really want to say this, but Bubble is one recent anime movie that I felt can be labelled as "mid". I usually take everything into consideration, especially when it comes to movies, but sad to say that even with the talents of Wit Studio and HiroyukiSawano, it's the scenario and character writing in this that suffers tremendously. This is a movie that's all about the musical and graphical showcase (since it has a higher budget than regular TV anime no matter the source which is Netflix or otherwise), not one that's too focused on story, though it would help if the story was written better for a more immersive experience.

Can someone PLEASE make a movie that's not so heavily inspired by Makoto Shinkai for a change? Because the anime movie landscape is getting stale at this point if most movies now are created and attempting to imitate the success of the prolific author-cum-filmmaker.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Bubble Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) KANLen09 - Apr 28, 2022	178 replies	by GenesisAria »» Nov 20, 1:48 AM
	Why spend so much time, resource to animate such generic story!? ( 1 2 ) Sandro8604 - May 24, 2022	63 replies	by Jonas-K »» Nov 28, 2023 10:24 AM
	That's crazy ('spoiler–ish) jussypuicey - Sep 12, 2023	7 replies	by Jonas-K »» Nov 28, 2023 10:21 AM
	Impressed with Wit Studio here, what a gem of animation Rob7 - Mar 11, 2023	13 replies	by IceCreamScene »» Mar 14, 2023 9:39 AM
	So, this is basically a light version of "The Song of Saya". antohachan - May 20, 2022	11 replies	by Adnash »» Jan 7, 2023 6:43 PM