Wit Studio's Bubble is a Beautiful Rhythmic Melody
Set in a parallel fantasized world, where a swarm of bubbles rain down the plight of humans on the city of Tokyo, cutting it off from the rest of the world.
The bubble caused a massacre of people. Buildings fell, and floods ensued upon impact. Fast forward to the present day, the city remains deserted, with ravaged buildings and broken bridges submerged in floodwater.
A group of young orphans, with wild and reckless characteristics, captures the viewer's attention. They form a team, Tokyo Battlekour, and take advantage of the convenient setting by playing a parkour game.
Among the young and wild boys, Hibiki is a young man and the protagonist, adept at lunging himself onto buildings and the only one who can jump and bounce off the giant bubbles floating around the place.
Hibiki appears to be distant from the rest of the people, wearing a pair of sound-reducing headsets, maybe a showy saviour who asks others to have fear in them and not just lunge themselves into the open surroundings.
Through the middle of the movie, we discover the secretive aspects of his characteristics, his hypersensitivity to sound, and how he can hear everything to an uncanny level of perfection, which leads him to suspect the forthcoming parade of the bubbles.
The spiraling cycle of human life
Makoto is a researcher in the group. He studies this occurrence and searches for reasons and solutions. He also tracks the improvement of the boys in Battlekour.
Makoto discusses the origin of the planet. Despite the extreme hazards to human life, survival of the fittest has brought human civilization to this date. The ever-evolving species of animals also contribute to this.
Her inept thirst for curiosity and the obsession to quench it made her a prominent character. The plot unfolds into a chain of mysterious events where Hibiki sets out to the tower that was first ravaged by the bubbles, where a string of red bubbles encircles it in that spiral pattern.
He happens to hear a particular melody that he had heard when he was young, and the massacre hit. During these occurrences, what arrests the audience's rapt attention to every detail of the picture is the beautiful direction by Tetsuro Araki and the beauty of Wit Studios that brought an aesthetic colour to the entire story.
The colour of rage, the colour of loss, the colour of love, regaining confidence and freedom, of retaining peace, everything has a beautiful rhythmic melody that moves the film forward to its ending.
When Hibiki tried in vain to reach the place he wanted to in the tower, he fell back into the sea where the submerged vehicles ran in the wrong direction. The motion had never stopped.
On the brink of his death, when he loses his breath, a bubble takes the form of a mysterious girl who kisses him and saves him from the untimely end. She becomes a part of the battle, but with a fatal flaw in her survival.
Whenever she touched Hibiki, bubbles would form on her skin. Despite the physical warmth, the warmth exuded in their companionship is another beautiful thing in the film.
He names her Uta, given that he heard her song from the bubbles. Both Hibiki and Uta create a beautiful catalytic relationship because Hibiki means echo, and Uta means sound, and both could not sustain without the other.
The eminent ending is a tear-jerker for the audience, as it is oddly similar to the Disney classic, The Little Mermaid, a book that Makoto reads out to Uta, and she could relate to the fate of the little mermaid.
The latter returns to the sea after saving the prince. When the volcanic red bubbles cause a stir once again, Uta is shown to advance towards it, putting her efforts to stop it from ravaging the city further.
Hibiki runs to her aid. He sees a flashback of the first day that the bubbles showered down, defied gravity, and led everything haywire. He saw that a bubble saved his life, and it was Uta. After rescuing her, he sees that Uta becomes bubbles with his touch and cannot restore her human form.
As they hug for the last timeshare their previous kiss, Uta sees what the human heart is capable of feeling, the love, the loss, the pain of losing someone, and altogether losing her conscience. Flash forward to the present day after the big massacre, and the kids' lives go on as usual.
Still, Tokyo has become a part of mainstream society again, without the threat of the gravity-defying bubbles falling again. Hibiki, along with his team Tokyo Battlekour still partake in parkour.
At the same time, the city develops into a happening city with better buildings and fewer submerged houses again. As Hibiki is shown running, a stray bubble is shown to run to him, which the director leaves to the viewer's decision to end the story believing in Uta staying by Hibiki's side in her immortal form.
Hits and Misses
Here is summary of the reviews for the "Bubble" from myanimelist.net
Overall, "Bubble" has a rating of 7.26 out of 10 based on over 96,000 ratings as of April 2023. Here are some of the hits and misses mentioned by reviewers:
Hits:
- Bubble has beautiful animation and astounding visuals.
- Intricate details of character movement/design.
- The music and sound design are effective at setting the mood and enhancing the emotional impact of certain scenes.
Misses:
- Some reviewers felt that the premise and characters looked boring.
- The character development could have been better.
- Typical “boy meets girl” story; Incohesive story.
Overall, "Bubble" has got mixed reviews, most of them have talked about Beautiful animation and awesome soundtracks, and not-so-good storyline.
Anjana Sanyal
FAQs
Who are the main characters in Bubble?
The main characters of Bubble are Minato, Kokone, and Suu, three teenagers who are friends and members of a virtual idol group called "Aquaria".
Who is the director of Bubble?
Bubble is directed by Ryoutarou Makihara, who has also directed popular anime series like Kemono Friends and The Empire of Corpses.