Bubble
a review by liliphobic
a review by liliphobic
SPOILERS TAGGED (but it’s just like two things that aren't really that important)
Personally I try not to go around writing reviews for stuff that already has a large amount of them, but I just couldn’t help myself with this show. It’s so cliche it’s painful, and so captivating I started writing this review with thirty minutes left to go. The characters are poorly written and underdeveloped, and the story is hardly anything more than The Little Mermaid (Sci-Fi Edition). Not to mention the voice acting sucks and the subtitles (English at least) have numerous mistranslations. The animation and music are about the only redeeming points of this show, and even those have their poor moments too. I would not recommend watching this unless you’re desperate for a predictable story with shallow characters.
I’ll start with what I like about this show, which shouldn’t take too long. A lot of the animation is really well done, especially during the action scenes. The CGI was incredible throughout, and I loved the bubbles themselves. There were a few shots of the characters that weren’t in the regular animation style, and while they were pretty, it was a little disorienting to switch from one style to the other and back again.
I also liked the music. At first the eerie music from the tower was a little too weird for me, but as I got more accustomed to it, I found it very fitting for the show and the events. The music during the action scenes was quite good as well—honestly, throughout the entire show it was really good. Uta’s singing reminded me of given, oddly enough, but I think the way she sang and the way Sato sang his little tune just sounded sort of similar to me. Take that how you will, I suppose.
And now, on to the bad.
“That was the movie my 8 year old sister would have liked”
—my boyfriend
As someone who is considerably older than 8, I feel like this sums it up pretty well. She likes 5-minute crafts and Raya the Last Dragon, if that’s any indication of what she enjoys. Nothing against his sister, this show is just not good.
The first problem I have with this show is the characters. Characters are the most important thing for me as far as enjoyment goes, so without good characters and good development, it’s very hard for me to enjoy a show. This was no exception. Pretty much everyone felt too underdeveloped, even the main characters, and the side characters seemed like extras that were added to keep the cast from being Uta and Hibiki. They may have been necessary to the concept of the show, but they didn’t feel necessary to the execution of it.
The story had some potential, but it simply wasn’t a fractured fairytale that worked for me. I think the comparison to The Little Mermaid was a little too on the nose for me since Uta repeatedly had moments recalling it. They also didn’t explain some elements of it very well, glossing over facts that could have used a little more elaboration and making the pacing feel a bit off. Not to mention so many elements were nothing more than poorly executed cliches—there’s nothing wrong with moving from cliche to cliche like this movie did, but the problem here is that they were just so poorly done that it drags the show down. I also got a little confused at the climax, although that could entirely be my fault because I was writing this review instead.
Some other subpar elements were the voice acting and Netflix’s translations. I had hopes for the voice acting looking at the cast, but it seemed below average to me. As for the subtitles, I’m not anywhere close to being a fluent Japanese speaker, but me and my boyfriend (who is currently studying Japanese) both agree that the translations were a little off. Not inaccurate, but not entirely accurate either.
Overall, this show was boring and cliche. It was pretty average, I’d say, definitely nothing I’d recommend or suggest. I’d watch it again if it was with someone else but there’s high chances I’d fall asleep. I almost fell asleep watching it the first time, in fact. I don’t even know what I’d change if I was in charge of it, there were so many things wrong. But, if you go in with your expectations set low, then you may be able to enjoy it. Or, apparently, if you’re my boyfriend’s 8 year old sister.
*a 6 on my scale is “average but mildly enjoyable”
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