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I love music. I love drama. And I love anime. And there’s a ton of movies that satisfy my thirst for such good films.
But, you know, there are some movies that experiment with something new. They keep their characters in a creative situation, as if just to experiment what will happen once the dominos start falling. These films play with their characters, keeping them in awkward and tough situations that even though are unrealistic, they seem too realistic to be true.
One such movie is Her Blue Sky. It’s based on the theme of love and romance, as most of them are, but it expands it ... to so much more. It had this eerie similarity to Anohana—and that’s when I found out the main creative team behind the two were the same.
It gives its characters stories and experiences, and then throws them in a situation that they can’t really comprehend. And it then observes what the characters do, and how they do it—carefully documenting each shot.
And I’d love to yap about it.
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Plotline
Firstly, let me acquaint you with the plot of the movie. Her Blue Sky is based on Aoi, the little sister of Akane. Their parents had died thirteen years ago. Akane had wanted to go to Tokyo for college with her boyfriend Shinnosuke, but now that her parents had left them, she had to be in the city, taking care of her little sister Aoi.
Shinnosuke, or Shinno as his friends called him, was really passionate about music. He was a guitar player and he wanted to make it big as a singer, hence his dream of going to Tokyo. But, now that Akane was not going with her, he made a tough choice—he left her behind. He left her in the town to leave for the big cities, searching for his big break. But he made a promise to himself—that he’d come back. When he makes it big, when he’s achieved all that he could, he’d come back to take her up.
And thus, Akane was held back in town by her responsibilities, especially toward Aoi. Aoi hated this. She hated that her elder sister had to constrain herself so much because of her. Akane, all through her life after their parents’ deaths, had worked so hard to raise Aoi. And now, Aoi was about to pass high-school. Just like Shinno, she was passionate about guitars, and wanted to leave for Tokyo to make it big. But more than that, she wanted to free her sister from her responsibilities. She wanted her sister to do stuff she couldn’t just because she had a little sister she had to feed.
And that’s how this story begins—Aoi and Akane are peacefully living their life together, until something unbelievable happens.
Shinno from thirteen years ago comes back.
Aoi was in the back of an abandoned shrine, or something like that. It was a place where Shinno and his band used to practice, along with Akane and Aoi by their side. And, one day, Shinno from the past is there.
It confuses both Aoi and her friend Tsuga. Wait, he’s named… Masatsuga… in MAL. Why was his real name never used in the whole freaking movie?!
Anyway, Aoi couldn’t believe this. She and Tsuga—I mean, Masatsuga—find out that it’s a “living spirit”, created from unresolved conflicts or needs or something. I don’t remember. But they get that if Shinno ends up with Akane in the present, this spirit would vanish.
Shinno had been Aoi’s inspiration to take up music in the first place. And it was evident how he cared for her in the past—he called her “Eyeball Star” and would always say how he wanted her to be the bassist of his band. And somewhere, she’d begin to like him.
But there’s another thing, now. Another guy—Tsuga’s father, a divorcee, who was also Shinno’s and Akane’s friend in the past, wants to marry Akane. But Akane is not interested.
Aaaand there’s another thing, now. Shinnosuke, from the present, has come back to the town. As the backup guitarist of an Enka singer who’s called to the city to perform.
And this Shinnosuke has changed.
The singer’s bassist and drummer poisoned themselves with food—and I don’t know how I can edit such an abomination of a sentence. Anyway, they can’t play now, so Akane suggests that Aoi can replace the bassist, and Tsuga’s dad can be the drummer, since he was the drummer of their childhood band.
Shinno hates the whole idea. He’s constantly talking about how he doesn’t want to play with amateurs, is always pointing out Aoi’s mistakes, and is overall very rude to her.
She couldn’t believe how much he’s changed. He used to call her his “Eyeball Star” and how it’s like he hates to see her face.
So there’s the dilemma—she wants Akane to end up with Shinosuke because Akane loved, and maybe still does love, him. But she also wants Akane not to end up with him because this Shinnosuke is an entirely new person than who he was thirteen years ago. But she also wants the past Shinno to vanish, but she also wants him not to go anywhere.
It’s confusing, yes. It’s so confusing I didn’t understand the situation completely until I wrote it down like this. It’s confusing for Aoi too, and you feel this confusion in the plot. I won’t tell you about what happens later, since… well, I don’t want to ruin your plot. And I don’t quite remember most of act-two. But let’s assume that the other reason doesn’t exist.
Anyway, I like the idea. The concept of someone from the past coming to the future is something that still feels fresh, even though there are so many anime that follow such a troupe. I can see how much I’d love to talk about its theme. But before that, lemme rant about the characters
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Characters
The characters seem more of archetypes than real people, I’d say. But they’re really well-developed. They all have their backstories and arcs that are worked upon.
Firstly, let me talk about Aoi. She’s one of those teenagers who, because of their puberty, think they can do anything. She’s always making these plans about how to make her sister, Akane, end up with Shinno or Tsuga’s dad or whoever and whatever. She wants to go to Tokyo and thinks she can do it. She can, but it’s clear she doesn’t really have a hold of her life that she thinks she has. Even though she’s always thinking about her sister’s love life, she could do little to nothing about who Akane chooses. And the way she talks about going to Tokyo seems childish too, like she doesn’t really know what’s actually gonna be ahead of her once she steps foot in the city.
Her arc was interesting too. By the end, she begins to realize that even though Akane is her sister, she does have a life after her. Aoi is her everything, but Aoi doesn’t rule her life. Akane is strong-willed, she never regretted staying back in the city, and she certainly doesn’t need Aoi’s help in her love life. And Akane really is that. She is strong. But she’s also kind and nice.
Shinno is another character that I’d love to talk about. He’s passionate about being a musician. And he’s left his town, the girl he left, and so much behind to go to Tokyo and make that dream come true. And in the process, he’s lost himself. He’s lost his charm. And the sparkle in his eye. And I’d talk more about him later.
Chika is a side-character in the story. And she’s there to… well, just being there. As Aoi’s friend. But she looks cool so props on that.
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Theme
The story as a whole brings in new concepts and ideas. The premise of meeting your past lover thirteen years later and being still in love with them is something I’ve not really seen so much, except in the epilogues of Your Name and other anime films as that, maybe. But it was the first time I saw this idea explored with such depth.
And let’s talk further about Shinnosuke. I loved the theme his story symbolizes. I believe Shinnosuke tells the story of most of us who leave something behind for the dreams that we’ve seen as kids. And as we tread through this path, we face the realities of this world. And that passion… We kinda lose that. Maybe it’s just temporary, maybe not so for some. But there’s a change.
We get tired as we face rejection, as we plan day in and day out about our big breaks, and how we constantly see them never happening. And then we try again. That’s what it has been like for me as a writer, to be honest. I write a book, dream about it being published, being something big, but soon I see how messed up it really is. And then I throw it away and start writing another one.
Shinnosuke symbolizes that childhood, that passion that we lose as we face the complexities of the real-world challenges with this dream in our minds. But sometimes, all we need is to look back. Look at that child who dreamed of doing something, becoming something. And we need to see how far we’ve been, and how far we’ve wanted to go, and how far we still gotta go to make that dream a reality.
When the younger Shinno meets his elder counterpart, he tells him what a disappointment he’s turned out to be. He didn’t want to be a lame-ass background guitarist, a backup, for a goddamn Enka singer. He tells him how he can’t believe he’s standing calmly, waiting for someone to do something, when Akane goes missing. That’s when the present Shinno realizes the dreams he once wanted to chase. And how much he loved Akane.
Aoi and the spirit Shinno try their hard to bring the spirit out of the shrine—for some reason, the spirit was unable to leave it from the very beginning, because of some invisible walls. And as they’re pushing and pushing so that they can go search for Akane, who they can’t contact and who no one knows is alright or now, the Shinno’s old guitar in the background starts to struggle. And as he gets out, the guitar breaks. And not many people might realize it, but the writer wanted to show how much Shinno, especially the present one, was bound by his dreams—that of becoming a musician. And how he had just been freed of them. Yeah, now that I think about it, the scene really freed him. His conversation with his younger self freed him from the burden he was carrying. Music was a passion for him, not a job. He… can’t give up now. He can’t give up on music and come back to the town just because it’s convenient for him. But his aim was not just to be a musician… he still has stuff to do. People to prove.
And that scene shook me to the core. We as artists are slaves to the art. We strive for perfection. We strive for people to see our art. And we got to free ourselves of this burden to make art that actually matters, to make art that actually frees you, not burdens you. And that’s such a powerful message.
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Conclusion
Sorry, I yapped too much about the theme, LOL. I really liked Shinno as a character, probably because how much I resonated with him and Aoi.
Her Blue Sky is not just about romance across ages. It’s also about passion. And struggles that come with it, to some extent.
[For more such reviews, head over to fictionstudent.wordpress.com]