A WONDERFUL STORY OF A LOVE / FRIENDSHIP / DEPENDENCE RELATIONSHIP WITH A GENTLE FAIRY-TALE TOUCH
I started following the Sound! Euphonium series recently and I could only say good words about it. Today, however, I venture into my first review of a movie, going to talk about the part that most impressed me of this series.
Liz and the Blue Bird tells the story of Kasaki Nozomi and Yoroizuka Mizore, characters we have already learned about during the 2nd season of the TV show. The movie, being dedicated to them, obviously treats their relationship in a much more characterizing way than the series, exploring all the psychological aspects that describe one of the most beautiful relationships I've ever seen between 2 anime characters. But the thing that makes this work more special is the juxtaposition of a fantasy tale (which has the name of the movie as its title) that revisits the relationship between the two girls in a more fairy-tale key. In fact, the parallels between the 2 stories (in which initially Mizore represents Liz, a lonely girl who one day meets a blue bird, represented by Nozomi, with whom she befriends and the two become inseparable) are really of great impact.
The film alternates these two "narrative dimensions" in order to keep the parallelism constant. Mizore sees herself in Liz mainly in the characteristic of "loving the blue bird to the point of wanting to stay together forever, even at the cost of preventing it from taking flight and reaching its maximum potential". While Mizore, however, thinks exclusively of Nozomi during her days, the partner does not show the same emotional attachment, hiding important personal life choices and not considering her his one and only friend. Hence a very bittersweet feeling arises in Mizore that during the movie seems more and more to turn into a kind of dependence, rather than a friendship. All this up to the turning point that occurs in the last 30 minutes of the movie that will definitively complete the relationship between the 2 companions (I avoid continuing to talk about it to avoid excessive spoilers).
All this surrounds the more "material" plot, that is the preparation of a new song (obviously entitled Liz and the Blue Bird) to play in the next competition of the band .
To partially close the speech related to the plot and the characters, I congratulate the author on how she managed to write such an impactful and emotional story by basing it exclusively on 2 secondary characters who during the series had only a handful of dedicated episodes. From this point of view, the series seemed to me quite exhaustive to make me fully understand the relationship between Nozomi and Mizore. It didn't take long for me to completely change my mind after seeing how this work managed to describe it in a much deeper way and to make me much more attached to their characters.
Speaking instead from a strictly technical point of view, I can't help but congratulate Kyoto Animation and all the people who worked on the movie for the wonderful work done with regard to the graphic aspect of the anime. As always, Kyoani never denies himself from this point of view and the way they draw this type of story greatly helps the viewer to get excited and feel involved in the events. In addition to this I also infinitely appreciated the pacing of the film, perfect regarrding the developments and moments of quiet. Despite being a part essentially focused on the development of a relationship between characters, we never have dead, unimportant or boring moments, all the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly and nothing else can come out but this masterpiece. I also greatly appreciate this new character design, which is very different from that of the series: the bodies are more slender, the eyes are smaller and for this reason the characters seem more mature, unlike the series in which they are portrayed as classics high school students. (down here the comparison movie-TV show)
P.S. I am not a native English speaker so I apologize for any mistakes.