One weekend, my hun was in the mood to watch an animated movie. We did not really have anything on our watchlist. But I have been eyeing this movie on Netflix for a while. So we just decided to check it out.

• Title: Bubble (2022 Film)
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Directed By: Tetsuro Araki
• Distributed By: Warner Brothers Pictures (Japan, theatrical); Netflix (worldwide)

This movie was set in dystopian Tokyo where bubbles made the city uninhabitable. However, a bunch of orphans lived there anyway. Tokyo was now being used as the center of parkour tournaments for these youngsters to barter and trade supplies. Hibiki was introduced as an exceptional parkour talent and a member of the Blue Blazes. He mainly isolated himself and wore headphones because of his hearing ultrasensitivity. This was very loosely based on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Or at least I think it was. There were definitely some marked similarities between the two.

The premise was interesting. I enjoyed the few parkour tournaments that were shown in the movie. I enjoyed seeing Hibiki slowly come out of his shell once Uta was introduced. He started opening up to his peers and hanging out with them. The only fleshed-out character for me was Hibiki and maybe Uta, barely. I wished that they had enough time to give the other characters a bit more meat. It was a bit difficult to know the characters, especially the ones who were members of the Blue Blazes considering that they all lived in one ship. They kind of just blended in the background.

My hun and I agreed that this would have been better as a serialized anime than a movie. Aside from a lot of the characters just being background, the conflict was resolved pretty quickly. Almost rushed, in my opinion. Basically, this happened, bubbles came down the world, accumulated in Tokyo, parkour tournament, Uta appeared, parkour tournament, then the conflict was resolved. Done. All wrapped in a 100-minute film.

Regardless, it was a pretty decent film. The animation was great. And the soundtrack was pretty good as well. I enjoyed it while I was watching it. I was engaged with the story and with Hibiki. The movie made me smile and made me cry. I cannot ask for anything more. However, it did not do anything exemplary. Would I watch it again? Maybe, but it definitely would not be my go-to.