In 2017, director and animator Atsuko Ishizuka amazed film critics with “No Game, No Life: Zero”film adaptation of the manga by Yuu Kamiya, of which he had already directed the television series in 2014. Converted to one of the most important female figures in the Japanese animation industry together with directors like Mari Okada or Naoko Yamada, now dare with an intimate story with ‘Hasta siempre, Don Glees!’one of the titles that this year caused the most sensation on the Japanese bill and demonstrating how the animated cinema that bets on the slice of life sub-genre is one of the most interesting on the Japanese scene.
Unlike other productions like “A Silent Voice” or “I want to eat your pancreas”, Ishizuka creates a completely original story for the big screen. Additionally, when production on the film began, a manga adaptation was announced, which ran from October 2021 until February of this year, when the film was released in Japanese theaters. The director, who also signs the script, creates a friendly summer story, based on iconic titles like “Count on Me” or “The Goonies”which differentiates it from similar titles such as “Fireworks” or “El hymn del corazón”.
It is appreciated that Ishizuka also gets rid of any fantastic elements and takes the opportunity to praise the adventures of three friends in the forest in what could be the last summer of the three as a gang. Yes, the director uses several conventional elements typical of this type of story, as it is also a story about the transition from adolescence to adulthood. However, It is thanks to the charisma of its protagonists that it avoids falling into the common spaces of the coming-of-age films, added to exquisite animations, with great attention to detail, which leaves scenes that are a real ambrosia for the eyes, along with a wonderful soundtrack, composed by Yoshiki Fujisawa. Without forgetting that, although set in the present, it has a certain Eighties soul.
Character with exquisite charisma and animation that is a delight for the retina
Although it’s a costume designer’s story, it has a certain fantasy epic reminiscent of Makoto Shinkai’s cinema, especially what is related to crossed destinies, as will be revealed as the plot unfolds. Here Ishizuka demonstrates that he knows how to create films about characters who, aided by exceptional animation, are able to support a story about the existential doubts of adolescence, with the addition that the protagonists are the working class and live in a rural setting, which adds a certain level of social cinemaespecially in relation to the contrast with the city, where everyone becomes a mere number and where the system is tremendously competitive.
Ishizuka proves to have a sensitivity of her own for character narratives, as well as for stories that don’t need fantasy elements to impress. ‘So much, Don Glees!’ follows in the footsteps of that Japanese animation cinema that claims the small pleasures of life, with an artisan style that reminds us once again that it is that big industry that bets on traditional animation and its power to continue to fascinate and conquer the box office. .
Note: 7
The best: Its amazing animation, there are moments when it takes the viewer to those hidden treasures of nature that the film shows.
Worse: Despite the charisma of its characters, it is a tremendously conventional story.
Source: E Cartelera
