“ Don’t tell people to disappear like it’s nothing. Words can hurt people! And you can’t ever take them back. Even if you regret it, you can never take them back! ” - Jun Naruse.
Word. A very powerful tool. Given the right circumstances, words can mend someone’s broken heart when phrased correctly. But those same words can also become sharper than the finest of blades, causing deep invisible wounds. To brew a nuclear bombardment the first thing that is required is words. Then again words can also stop that potential war. On one side, words can be a signature of peace but on the other side those very words can be the signature of massacre. Speak the right words at the right time and you can get yourself a happy family. But start talking inconsiderately and you drive that healthy family apart. All because of a few words. Powerful indeed.
Jun was a very cheerful and dreamy kid with a potential of talking relentlessly. A born chatterbox as her parents described her. One day she saw her father coming out of the castle of her dreams located on the top of the mountain (it was a love hotel by the way) with a woman (who is not Jun’s mother if you haven’t guessed it already) and happily reported it right back to her mother who was coincidentally preparing lunch for her husband at that very moment (‘Thank you for your hard work’, it said on the lunch box. (*Insert "come on man" face)). Predictable things followed and Jun’s father blamed his kid daughter for the inevitable (not surprising coming from a douche-bag).
That blame hit Jun pretty hard. She ran out of the house and met an egg. That egg told her all the potential troubles her words could cause and suggested that she zipped her mouth up for good if she wants to have a castle and prince of her dreams (it was actually her aim in life) without any troubles. So, scared Jun’s mouth was shut by an egg and she stopped talking for good.
Jun stopped talking. Not because she was mad. It was not a moody brat’s retaliation against her parents who wouldn’t buy her the toy she wanted. No. It wasn’t that she wasn’t speaking. She couldn’t speak anymore. She was traumatized and that trauma led her to the egg that sealed off her voice. Of course the egg wasn’t real, just a product of her subconscious mind out of the shock which she had to create in order to justify her actions. She subconsciously gave herself reasons to seal off her words from the world. A very normal reaction from a child her age.
There was a reason to imagine an egg here as well. Japanese beliefs. Some believe that if you can’t say the words you want to say to someone then speak those words to an egg and that egg will hold those words for you. Jun offered her words to an egg and had it take care of it for her.
Fast forward a few years and Jun is now in high school and no one in her class had ever heard her speak before. She, along with our main male protagonist, Takumi Sakagami and two others, Natsuki Nito and Daiki Tasaki gets chosen as committee members for Community Outreach Program and decide to do a musical. Jun couldn’t speak anymore and just trying to say a few words gave her an acute stomach ache. One day when she wanted to deny her position as committee member and wanted to talk to the teacher about it, she over hears Takumi singing a song about the egg business and thought he was looking right through her (it was really a coincidence, nothing more). Jun here found her prince. Takumi Sakagami, who can somewhat understand what Jun was going through. Takumi was the one who suggested that Jun try talking through singing as it might not trigger the curse. And needless to say that worked because the egg told her to refrain from talking, not singing. This motivated Jun to try even harder, push herself even further to break her curse, break the egg that contained her voice and she was gradually reaching that point.
Motivated Jun started writing story for the musical. She wrote the story. It was her story, story on her life. It was realistic and great. The team members turned that story into a musical and presented it in front of their audience. But things happen in between.
Here I’d like to point out the team that worked on this movie. Led by Mari Okada, it was the same team that made AnoHana. Now I may be biased about the results because of this little fact. AnoHana, the very first romance anime I watched, holds a special place within me and still is one of my favorite animes. So the team that produced this movie may get a biased opinion from me. Still, this movie maybe drama based but it’s definitely not the load of teen drama (that deals with nothing but complicated romance and love polygons and whose dialogues are way too hard to understand) everyone makes it out to be. The drama here gives the characters their developments. Tasaki being an asshole to Jun at the beginning realized how much suffering she had to endure and how hard she is trying to get over it and express her truth. This caused him to see the light in his own issues with the baseball team. He was finally able to come out and say what he wanted to say to his teammates and juniors of his baseball team instead of just bossing them around to make himself feel better. And poor Tasaki fell in love with Jun (well, Duh!).
Not only Tasaki but the members of the committee, our prince Takumi and Natsuki were also influenced by Jun’s actions. Takumi and Natsuki used to date each other in middle school but things didn’t work out between them because Takumi didn’t reach out to her because of his barrier. Natsuki thought Takumi now has feelings for Jun because he obviously cared about her. Somehow the night before the musical Takumi and Natsuki started talking about this and Takumi decided to tell her his true feelings.
Yeah, unrequited love and a losing heroine wasn’t something I was expecting out of this movie. Actually at first it seemed impossible. Jun found salvation in Takumi. When everyone else was making fun of her Takumi was the only one who encouraged her. How can Jun not end up with Takumi? But that’s exactly what happened. Natsuki still had feelings for Takumi and Takumi reciprocated that. And guess what? Jun heard it and got her heart broken and got confronted by that egg again. That egg said it was time for Jun to say goodbye to her words because she was trying way too hard to express them. Not through words but through her heart. Anyways, Takumi came to her rescue and made her break the shell she had built up around herself. Jun can finally speak again and she sang in front of a hall full of audience. She finally spoke the words of her heart.
Jun’s words come directly from the bottom of her heart. The words she told as the story of the musical, the lyrics she sang in front of the audience, in front of her mother are the words she wanted to shout for a long time. Those words define Jun’s heart. Thus making them the anthem of the heart.
The fact that Jun got over her curse kind of gave me "A Silent Voice" vibes. The way Jun got over her fear of speaking was very similar to how Shouya got over his anxiety and fear of looking others at the eye. In fact I'd say "The Anthem of the Heart" is the closest thing to "A Silent Voice". Both in terms of plot and art style. By the way, if you still haven't watched "A Silent Voice" then please watch it as well. That movie is on a whole different level.
Now back to the topic at hand, the whole unrequited crush thing was a surprise factor for almost everyone who watched this film without getting spoiled. And this surprise was not something they wanted so it triggered a lot of people. But I’d say this ending gave the movie more meaning. Instead of forcing a happy ending to make the audiences satisfied they decided to go with the ending that gives more credence to the songs. So I’d say it worked out pretty well.
Even after Jun stopped talking she carried the same energy she had as a child. Although forced to reserve herself she still contained the aspects of the extroverted girl she once was. Her expression allows the viewers to read her state of mind even though she wasn’t speaking a single word. Her expressions are really well defined here and mixing her childish nature with those expressions makes her a very funny character. Both to us and the characters around her. Props to the animators. Aside from this, the art wasn’t something that catches your eyes because given the setting there was very little need of that. The art suits the theme. Very 'A-1 Pictures' like.
Jun tells her story through a musical. The songs they presented here tells the story of her life. So the performance was one of the key moments of this movie. Takumi once mentioned himself that he can’t write original songs on his own. He just puts some lyrics to an existing music. And that’s exactly what the class did for their performance. The songs performed here are not original in terms of the music. They are remakes. Remakes that are actually pretty good. Instead of writing original music for that last show, the sound directors did what Takumi does and presented remakes that suits the show perfectly.
When Jun made her entry into the performance she was singing a song “Watashi no Koe”.
Haven’t heard such on-point, contextual song that strikes right in the kokoro in a long while. The lyrics are perfect. The timing of the song, the environment that was built up around it and the fact that Jun sang that song herself in front of a full house just goes to show her misfortunes and the guilt that crushed her. When she was down about her lost voice and struggled, everyone around her were rejoicing at that very same fact. The lyrics of that song really hits man. At first I thought that this music is original but it isn't actually. Here’s the original song in case you are interested.
The last two songs (well it was actually same music but the lyrics were different) Jun and Natsuki performed simultaneously just gives more support to the ending they pulled off. Jun’s story had two endings and the songs depict each of them. Jun finally broke her cage but she couldn’t have done it alone. Takumi supported her all through this and he was the prince Jun always wished for. When she finally regained her voice she thanked him for everything. She embraced her past which made her who she is now.
Words can both help and hurt people without you even realizing it. Jun learned this the hard way. But this doesn’t mean that just sealing your voice shut will do you the trick of not hurting others. The important thing here is not to compress what you’re thinking. Speak up. That’s the lesson I learned from this movie. Yes, it may not always be pleasant for you or the others around you and you might get hurt in the process but shutting it up will just make the situation even worse. Express yourself. Be it via words or songs or arts. But do it.
In the end, it was a great movie in my opinion with a bittersweet ending given to Jun (I’m a sucker for bittersweet endings). This movie definitely had its share of issues like those few minutes of Jun getting rejected on the face by Takumi when he went to rescue her wasn't really necessary I'd say but ... well, screw that. It’s still an awesome movie to watch. Now go check out the movie.