I just saw this screening in it's limited run in the USA. The movie was subtitled for me, so that is what version I will be going off of for my review.
Plot overview: This film tells the story of a schoolgirl who finds a pretty transparent ball by the sea, on the day of a fireworks display of a religious festival in a seaside town in Japan. She plans to run away from home to escape from her unhappy home, as her mother is about to remarry for the third time. However, her escape fails until her male classmate finds out the supernatural power that the transparent ball has.
Plot review: The story had a lot of potential had it been executed better. The perspective shifts from multiple people (Yusuke, Nazuna, Norimichi) to almost exclusively Norimichi by the half way point. The "time travel" ball was not explained (and never is) and it begins to affect the world (certain things don't appear as you would expect them to, and at the end at one of the final iterations, the world is very distorted). But none of that is explained, none of the details about the worlds they are in or the repercussions of using the orb are discussed (besides the altered effects of their surroundings, people seem unaffected). The end is abrupt and doesn't really address the importance of the character plots they tried to develop. The film couldn't decide if wanted to be a sci-fi movie, youth romance, or coming-of-age, and tried and failed to be almost all of those at once. It's unfortunate since Your Name., while not a perfect movie, found a way to balance all three of those items from both a male and female perspective. Fireworks unfortunately couldn't handle any of them well.
Characters: The characters in the boy group are initially very off-putting with their first introduction being them arriving at school and discussing girl cup sizes and their teacher's large breasts, eventually discussing how one will get an up-skirt panty shot of their teacher as a prize for their bet about fireworks. It's probably meant to come off as "oh those silly boys" but in the current climate (at least in America) it came off as crass and made me dislike the boys initially. After that, they really don't seem to do anything devious and are generally tame, so not sure why they focused so much on their sexual deviance as the first point of introduction as if that was a big issue their group would have to answer to or learn about (never happens).
Nazuna appears to be an enigma early on but later on just becomes some naive princess who thinks she can run away as a youth and make it as a pop idol in Tokyo or hostess at a club. It's clear she isn't completely serious about it, but they devote so much time to her talking about it that it doesn't come off as a thought in jest, but as an honest plan for what she'll do if she can run away. Had they stuck to the "I just want one day to make memories" the movie would have made a much bigger impact.
Norimichi is fairly bland and doesn't have a lot of character besides seemingly trying to do the "right" thing in most cases, or at least what he thinks is the right thing. There is very little story or character development given to him and he actually is just a tool to keep the story going by resetting the time with the orb and changing plot points as he and Nazuna try to run away (at least for a little).
Yusuke appears to be a main character but by the half way point he is nothing more than "one of the boys" and has very little contribution to the story / group dynamic besides being mad that Norimichi is with Nazuna (since Yusuke likes Nazuna too).
Animation: I liked the overall animation (high quality, good colors, clean) but it's use of CGI in random scenes was jarring in some cases like switching from the boys riding down a hill on bikes / skateboards / scooters in traditional anime style and then arriving at school in a CGI rendered in anime style. They also show a lot of scenes in purely CGI like the school staircase, over and over, which, again, is jarring when the rest of the scenes are not CGI (at least in that same style). There's also a very odd scene about Nazuna singing and transporting herself and Norimichi to a princess land with very poorly executed CGI. Overall had the movie ditched the CGI many of the scenes would probably have had better impact and been less distracting. Other than a few scenes of poorly used CGI, the animation is great and very pretty to see (like the CGI fireworks, which blended well with the animation).
Other:
Overall: While most of the things I said have been negative, it is still an enjoyable movie when taken at face-value, it's just far short of what it could have been given the premise and those involved. Had they fixed the ending, added some scenes explaining the ball and what it does (alternate dimensions? time travel? dreams?) and developing the main characters better, the movie could've been much better.
Plot overview: This film tells the story of a schoolgirl who finds a pretty transparent ball by the sea, on the day of a fireworks display of a religious festival in a seaside town in Japan. She plans to run away from home to escape from her unhappy home, as her mother is about to remarry for the third time. However, her escape fails until her male classmate finds out the supernatural power that the transparent ball has.
Plot review: The story had a lot of potential had it been executed better. The perspective shifts from multiple people (Yusuke, Nazuna, Norimichi) to almost exclusively Norimichi by the half way point. The "time travel" ball was not explained (and never is) and it begins to affect the world (certain things don't appear as you would expect them to, and at the end at one of the final iterations, the world is very distorted). But none of that is explained, none of the details about the worlds they are in or the repercussions of using the orb are discussed (besides the altered effects of their surroundings, people seem unaffected). The end is abrupt and doesn't really address the importance of the character plots they tried to develop. The film couldn't decide if wanted to be a sci-fi movie, youth romance, or coming-of-age, and tried and failed to be almost all of those at once. It's unfortunate since Your Name., while not a perfect movie, found a way to balance all three of those items from both a male and female perspective. Fireworks unfortunately couldn't handle any of them well.
Characters: The characters in the boy group are initially very off-putting with their first introduction being them arriving at school and discussing girl cup sizes and their teacher's large breasts, eventually discussing how one will get an up-skirt panty shot of their teacher as a prize for their bet about fireworks. It's probably meant to come off as "oh those silly boys" but in the current climate (at least in America) it came off as crass and made me dislike the boys initially. After that, they really don't seem to do anything devious and are generally tame, so not sure why they focused so much on their sexual deviance as the first point of introduction as if that was a big issue their group would have to answer to or learn about (never happens).
Nazuna appears to be an enigma early on but later on just becomes some naive princess who thinks she can run away as a youth and make it as a pop idol in Tokyo or hostess at a club. It's clear she isn't completely serious about it, but they devote so much time to her talking about it that it doesn't come off as a thought in jest, but as an honest plan for what she'll do if she can run away. Had they stuck to the "I just want one day to make memories" the movie would have made a much bigger impact.
Norimichi is fairly bland and doesn't have a lot of character besides seemingly trying to do the "right" thing in most cases, or at least what he thinks is the right thing. There is very little story or character development given to him and he actually is just a tool to keep the story going by resetting the time with the orb and changing plot points as he and Nazuna try to run away (at least for a little).
Yusuke appears to be a main character but by the half way point he is nothing more than "one of the boys" and has very little contribution to the story / group dynamic besides being mad that Norimichi is with Nazuna (since Yusuke likes Nazuna too).
Animation: I liked the overall animation (high quality, good colors, clean) but it's use of CGI in random scenes was jarring in some cases like switching from the boys riding down a hill on bikes / skateboards / scooters in traditional anime style and then arriving at school in a CGI rendered in anime style. They also show a lot of scenes in purely CGI like the school staircase, over and over, which, again, is jarring when the rest of the scenes are not CGI (at least in that same style). There's also a very odd scene about Nazuna singing and transporting herself and Norimichi to a princess land with very poorly executed CGI. Overall had the movie ditched the CGI many of the scenes would probably have had better impact and been less distracting. Other than a few scenes of poorly used CGI, the animation is great and very pretty to see (like the CGI fireworks, which blended well with the animation).
Other:
- The movie has some symbolism that is a little on-the-nose like a light bulb with filament that spells out "IF" and the town being called "moshimo" which is Japanese for "if".
- Some of the discussions are repeated over and over and over and over.... like asking whether fireworks are round or flat when viewed from the side. It's a wasted discussion and if they were going to repeat it, could've done so with a different spin, more stylized, or found a way to make it mean more than just understanding that the ball flattens fireworks and round things the more that it works.
Overall: While most of the things I said have been negative, it is still an enjoyable movie when taken at face-value, it's just far short of what it could have been given the premise and those involved. Had they fixed the ending, added some scenes explaining the ball and what it does (alternate dimensions? time travel? dreams?) and developing the main characters better, the movie could've been much better.