What makes a show to be a golden standard? Is it the animation, the story, the characters, the comedic timing, or is it a mix of all of that? It varies by person what “the golden standard” is but Josee has become my “golden standard”.

Warning, this review is not for anyone who has not seen the movie yet unless you want to be spoiled.

Now that anyone who has not seen the film has had the chance to click off, let's continue

Part 1 - Story Telling

Josee the tiger and the fish does a great job at telling its short but impactful story. Even though it has its cliche moments it holds together unlike our hearts as we slowly realize that Josee isn’t going to forever be the dommy mommy we wanted. The movie progresses at a quick pace as movies do but it feels a lot longer than it actually is. I realized after sitting there for 20 minutes that I was only sitting there for 20 minutes, I thought I was there for 40 already. I was that heavily entranced with the way the movie was showing us the world around our main characters and their goals in life.

Josee has the dream of being an artist and drawing the world in her own way. Due to her disability it is revealed she sees the world in a much different way, we find this out really quickly after Tsuneo entered her room without her knowing as she was in the process of trying to run away. When Tsueno confronts her about this, she gets upset about him going into her room but doesn’t say anything more as inside she is truly happy about the compliment he gave her. Their bond only deepens from here, but this was the true start of their friendship. Tsuneo realized how his comment affected her and instead of just leaving like he was going to he went back and brought her to the ocean. He knew he was risking his job by doing so, but he did it anyway seeing something special in Josee. This brings me into my next point, The characters

Part 2 - Characters

The main characters in Josee are all great, Chizu is your older more down to earth grounded character who sees the issues with the world, Tsuneo is the embodiment of fulfilling dreams, Mai is that one girl that everyone knows is going to lose but for some reason doesn’t have blue hair and Hayato is that one guy who is always a joke but is serious when it really comes down to it. Now, I know I didn’t mention Josee in that list and that's because she doesn’t fit any character tropes. Josee is unique, it's the same way she sees the world in a unique way. I’m going to go over each character one by one here with what makes them great and I’ll go over Josee last.

Chizu was a short lived character, well, not literally but she didn’t make it through the whole movie and gave us a really shocking scene. Out of absolutely nowhere we see a funeral taking place and shortly after learn it's for her. She died due to having a bad heart, but it never seemed like she did. She was always going around doing things, I guess they might have tried to show us this by telling Josee they can’t go on walks anymore but yet she went to the casino earlier in the film as well as just moments before she died showed us her dancing around and laughing. There really was no sign that she had a bad heart, while yes the scene did its job and was impactful on the characters and the viewers, it felt like nothing more than a plot device. While that is not necessarily a bad thing it's not really something you want to see in a movie. Her character was well executed but I feel that she was not given enough time.

The next character I want to speak about is Hayato. Hayato is your standard comedic relief character but he wasn’t always slotted like that. At the end we got to see a more grown up side of him that really started to show how much he cared. I really don’t have much to say about his character, but I’m really happy they changed him up at the end.

Now, let's move onto Mai. I’m gonna keep this short before I go on a 15 minute rant about why this character fucking sucks. She was absolutely the most bland character in the film, nothing more than a character whose only purpose was to cause drama. She even gave Josee a chance and let her know she confessed like, “Bitch do you want to lose”. In the span of typing this out with my friend, he managed to forget who she was not once, BUT TWICE.

Now, we have a man, who everyone can confuse with the dead bodies of a game of Valorant with the way he got hit by a fucking car, Tsuneo. Yes, it was super cliche how Josee said “The healthy will never understand” and then he was no longer of the healthy variety of human. However cliches aside, he was a really great and enjoyable character. He was the embodiment of Hopes and Dreams or at least that was yet he was supposed to be at first. Until we painfully watched everything get ripped away from him and those around him affected by losing their up-beat loveable friend and seeing him become this really depressed sack of shit who has no will to do anything. His character was much more than just that however, he was able to see things in others as I mentioned earlier. The way he saw Josee’s potential in the way she saw the world differently and really started to like her from there. This eventually turned into a really fleshed out love story that was cliche but enjoyable. I have much more to say about him however I don’t want to go on for 20 minutes about a single character so this is just a summarized version.

Finally we have Josee, the absolute best character and also the most unique out of this entire movie. I tried to find a cliche character point she fits into, but she is just such a mix. At one moment she is the girl you want to dominate you and the next she is the cutest fucking thing in existence she could make a puppy cry. Her character is just special compared to any other character in the show. Her charm is obvious but yet the hidden messages in each scene involving her are well hidden. The story of someone locked up, encaged by her disability trying ever so hard to find the key to the lock like a scene from one of those escape room shows. She aspired to become an artist only to have all her hopes crushed by corporate people from Japan trying to give her a stable job that will allow her to live her life with her disability, however once she finds the motivation she really shows her passion managing to write her own children's story based on her recent experiences. This really brought a tear to my eye while watching the film and is part of what made this movie such a big deal to me. Even though she had her only family that was left taken from her she still managed to get through the depression and follow her dream to the end. Josee is great for that reason, she took what most people are unable to do and did it, using the little motivation she had to make big changes for herself.

Part 3 - Art/Animation

The art of Josee the Tiger and the Fish was certainly something different from the normal stuff we get from Studio Bones. Everything was really well done from the drawings on Josee’s walls to the large amount of detail in small background things such as her kitchen. A lot of budget was put into this film, and holy shit it was well worth it. They gave us stunning visuals including the best ragdoll scene you will ever see. Honestly the way they were animating that wheel chair going across the snow I could have mistaken it for a Shinkai film if that was the only thing you showed me. Overall the animation was just amazing and there isn’t that much to say about it though.

Part 4 - Overall Thoughts

I believe this to be the best anime film we have had since… Kimitsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train…….. COME ON ANIME INDUSTRY ITS ONLY BEEN A FEW MONTHS. There is so much to love about this film but I also can see things on the other side. Other people might not praise it as much as I do, but even with its cliche flaws it has taken the place as my new “Golden Standard” when it comes to animated films.