Bubble

Plot Summary: Five years before the film starts, bubbles start falling from the sky all over the world. After a random explosion occurs in downtown Tokyo, the bubbles coalesce to form a giant bubble around Tokyo. Although most of the people from Tokyo relocated to other places, a scientist and groups of orphans have snuck back into the city to live. In order to share resources, they have created parkour teams. Whichever team wins a parkour race gets some supplies or food. Hibiki is the best parkour athlete, but usually keeps to himself because his supersonic hearing hurts his ears around other people. He can hear a song coming from the tower where the explosion happened. While trying to climb it, Hibiki falls off and almost drowns, but is saved by a girl made out of bubbles. Hibiki names her Uta, which means ‘song’ in Japanese. She joins the parkour team. Since she is made of bubbles, she is very light. After they win a parkour tournament, another shower of bubbles makes it impossible for the teams to survive in Tokyo. Uta goes to the tower to try and stop the bubbles. Hibiki and his team go to save her. Hibiki finds her. As the tower falls apart, they both fall into the ocean. Unfortunately, when Hibiki touches Uta, wherever he touches her she turns back into bubbles. As they fall from the tower Hibiki cradles Uta to protect her, but in consequence, she turns entirely into bubbles. This act of sacrifice makes the other bubbles go away and Tokyo can be rebuilt (Araki, 2022). In the film, Uta reads the original Hans Christian Andersen version of The Little Mermaid. Uta is analogous to the mermaid and Hibiki is a representation of the prince.

Author Background: Tetsuro Araki was born in Sayama, Japan. His first job in the Japanese film industry was a production assistant at the animation studio, Madhouse. His first big directing job was the Death Note series and its offshoots. Death Note's debut was in 2006. He also worked on Attack on Titan and High School of the Dead (IMDb, n.d.)

Critical Evaluation: The animation is typical of Japanese anime. The colors are vibrant and the scenery is very well done. While the drawings are far from photo realism, the buildings where the characters have parkour competitions have details to them that show how skilled the animators are. The characters have a variety of looks and features. However, they all have the large eyes of anime characters. Uta, in particular, has large eyes and an outfit that looks like a schoolgirl outfit worn in several anime films and TV shows (Araki, 2022).

I like anime. Like many people, I started by watching Miazaki films and anime TV shows in the late 90s. Bubbles is a heartfelt new addition to the medium. I feel like the Japanese version, with English subtitles, is deeper even though technically the same words are used. For me, there’s something about seeing a movie in its original language. The story was interesting, but it was simple. It was the underlying themes of love, friendship, and loss that kept my attention.

Speed-Round Book Talk or Short Book Trailer: Due to a phenomenon of bubbles that fall from the sky, Tokyo is uninhabitable. Groups of orphans and some scientists still live in Tokyo. When a strange girl made of bubbles joins them their society changes forever.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: Bubble is a tale that has environmental overtones. The bubbles that first descend on the world then concentrate on Tokyo can be a representation of any number of environmental and social issues. Among these are air pollution, acid rain, harmful chemicals, and nuclear fallout. Environmental activism can be a hot button issue where some people are opposed to action because they feel it invites government intrusion on businesses and individuals. However, stories and information that touch on these topics, both explicitly and implicitly, are essential. Teens need to be aware of how the Earth is affected by the actions and choices they and society make.

Reason for Inclusion: Selfishly, I just like anime and wanted to include one. I picked this one because of the environmental themes as well as the representations of resilience, friendship, and the love story.

References

Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Outer banks. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/outer_banks. 

Fizzy Sketch. (2022, July 18). How to draw anime girl Uta from Bubble- Anime step by step. [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns0Oe0retTM.

IMDb. (n.d.). Tetsuro Araki. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2013928/. 

Jen Campbell. (2017, August 24). The true history of the little mermaid/Fairy tales with Jen. [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuSqIpqJ-Xc.

StuntsAmazing. (2012, December 2). The world's best parkour and freerunning. [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX7QNWEGcNI.