Bubble

[Note: Mild, unimportant spoilers may follow. Story-specific and important spoilers will be marked with the tag]

For many, Bubble promised to be the next big animated movie out of Japan and, understandably so, with the film featuring the likes of Tetsuro Araki, Gen Urobuchi and Hiroyuki Sawano among its staff. And while Bubble does end up being enjoyable, it never really reaches the heights that many had probably expected.

Make no mistake, the movie is absolutely phenomenal in terms of its visuals and animation. Bubble's scenes often feature a wide array of colors that are utilized beautifully, with a lot of the frames looking like they are straight out of paintings or artworks. The exceptional use of colors is most evident when the main characters Hibiki and Uta tend to a garden, or when countless bubbles surround the Tokyo sky. As for the animation, Wit Studio continues to showcase just why they're considered to be one of the best studios around. The animation of the movie is consistently great, with the transitions extremely smooth and near-flawless. The parkour scenes, especially, are extremely well done, and give the viewer a real sense of excitement and thrill. CGI is used in a few scenes as well, but are mixed in well and so aren't glaringly obvious or egregious.

The soundtrack is another highlight of the film. Hiroyuki Sawano's compositions for the music in the background of the various scenes are, in one word, magical. While I personally did not enjoy them a lot, the opening and ending tracks, too, are solid in their own right. The voice-acting, however isn't much of a standout. The performance of the two leads felt a bit flat; Hibiki's voice actor, in my opinion, did not seem like a good fit for the role. The supporting cast, however, did a pretty good job in their respective roles.

What really hold back the film are the narrative and the characters. The story itself had a very interesting premise where

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Tokyo has been abandoned due to a phenomenon known as the Bubble Fall.

However, it falls apart in the second half, as the narrative seeps into "generic" territory, with the proceedings in the latter half strongly reminiscent of uninspired science fiction flicks, and not in a good way. There are also exposition dumps in several parts of the film, and one dump in particular, near the end of the film, feels completely underwhelming, as though the writers had become unsure of how to conclude the story properly and, thus, somehow bundled everything together. The characters, for the most part, are one-dimensional as well. Only Hibiki gets some development, and that too feels as if his personality undergoes significant change in too little time.

Overall, Bubble is a visual spectacle that also boasts a spectacular soundtrack, but is held back by an underwhelming story and cast of characters. Maybe with a bit of polishing, it could have been a real standout, but it is still an enjoyable film, provided the flaws do not bother you too much.