Cello Hiki no Gauche (No Spoilers)

Cello Hiki no Gauche or Gauche the Cellist was originally a short story written by Kenji Miyazawa, who is said to be one of the greatest poets and novelists of the 20th century period of Japan. However, most people didn’t know of his work during his lifespan, and he died mostly unknown. But then there was a resurgence in the later years of the 20th century that brought back his work and became popular with his well written and enticing stories. Cello Hiki no Gauche was one of these stories that was adapted by Isao Takahata, who would later become the co-founder of famous animation studio, Studio Ghibli. However, as intriguing as that might sound, this movie is not for everyone. This movie is a good example of how a well written story, decent animation, and beautiful music can still not leave everyone satisfied.

The plot for this story stars our main character Gauche as he struggles with being just a mediocre cellist who must get better for an upcoming concert playing Beethoven's sixth symphony and anthropomorphic characters who help Gauche during the night. It almost plays off as if it’s a children's fairy tale, with woodland creatures coming to help the lonely and sad hero in need. However, it’s a much deeper look at the pain, internal self-doubt, and loathing that a musician faces when practicing and playing the profession that they have chosen for themselves. Kenji Miyazawa was a cellist himself and if you are a viewer who has either practiced an instrument or studied music as a student, a professional, or anyone who enjoys the medium of music there is a feeling that is radiated through the movie that anyone can surely relate to.

That being said, there are a few parts that I feel could ruin the experience of anyone watching this movie. The voice acting in particular isn’t the easiest to enjoy, it’s not bad by all means, but for some I know it will be irritating. Next comes the animation, this movie was released in 1982, which for the time it has fairly decent animation which I would say still holds up today. However, that being said, in recent years the trend has been smooth and seamless animation that has distorted many viewers from wanting to watch anything with older animation styles. Those are genuinely the only complaints that I personally could see people personally having complaints with (besides a general dislike for music movies).

Overall the conclusion I came to while watching the movie was that it was an amazing story with decent animation and beautiful music. It’s not a movie that everyone will love and that’s perfectly fine, but for the people who do enjoy it are sure to love it. This is why I’m not giving this anime my personal score and instead a general score that I think everyone else would agree is a good ground point.