Introduction
Animosity - a strong hostility towards something. An emotion we can all relate to in one form or another, whether that is in the past or now, towards friends, family, work, school and even life.
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is a film that I believe embodies this emotion. It takes characters and showcases their discontent and alienation to the situation their in, how everything seems to be perfect for everyone else but not for you. How we feel a great anger towards our own existence and all our circumstances and how we can overcome it. If you want to learn more about how I believe this is presented, keep reading.
Also, there may be spoilers within this review which are light in my thoughts but not in the summary, so if you want to go in entirely blind, please do because this anime is great.
Summary
This part is just the basic premise of the story in case you wanted reminding.
Spoiler, click to view
A guy names Tsuneo on his way back from work has a girl called Josee fly towards him down a street in a wheelchair, flying into him with her grandma chasing. Tsuneo helps them out and eventually ends up eating at their place, accepting a job from the grandma to look after Josee. At first she is hostile to him but after he takes her to the sea she opens up more about her dreams and what she wants to do in life. After the death of her grandma, she decides to give up on her dreams and tells Tsuneo to take her to the sea one more time before they leave. While crossing the road her wheelchair gets stuck with a car approaching but is saved by Tsuneo, but his ankle is broken in the process.Now in hospital, Tsuneo becomes docile and unable to come to terms to what has happened to him. He might of lost his chance to achieve his dream of going to Mexico to dive with his favourite fish, the angelfish. He loses all motivation and gives up on everything, meanwhile Josee decides to put her heart into illustrating and creates a story about her and Tsuneo's time together. She reads this at the library with Tsuneo present to a group of kids, recounting the events in a childish way and it ends with what Josee wants to happen for Tsuneo, which gives him the motivation to recover and eventually he leaves the hospital.
Of course there's more than that, its not just Tsuneo and Josee being together, but that's a basic summary of it.
Thoughts
The view on animosity is that it can envelope a person whole and take over them like a parasite. It halts a person being not only who they are but also who they want to be. At the beginning of the anime Josee is this closed off from everyone. It is clear she has a clear distaste for the world around her. Due to her past and disability, its clear she has a clear hatred for everyone. She closes away her dreams of the sea and of being a artist to her room where no one can see it. Her personality is rotten to show how this animosity has even taken over how she acts which makes her unlikable, further strengthening her animosity because the world pushes her further and further away, like its a endless cycle of hate. However after Tsuneo takes her to the sea and shows her the outside world for what it really is, she opens up. Her animosity towards the world and to people is washed away because of Tsuneo's kindness and forcing her into the world. Her real personality comes out, and she becomes the bright character who lies at a comedic level to make herself seem better. With the animosity gone she could enjoy life.
This anime's main take-away is that we need other people to feel joy. If you do not talk to people you will develop an animosity towards the world and become a version of you that is the entire opposite of who you are, and also leaving others alone will make them feel the same. If we are to overcome any animosity we have we need to be with others and also support others.
More generally, the anime is actually amazing. The VA performance of Josee by Kaya Kiyohara is nothing short of outstanding and is my favourite VA performance to date. The animation for this anime is also amazing, its so polished and smooth and is the type of animation i wish newer romance anime would stick to more. The character design is amazing as well, with no character feeling like it is just a copy and paste from another anime. Especially Josee her design is so simple yet unique that I've fallen in love with the design of her character
My main compliant about this anime that I need to tell you about is pacing. My lord for such a good anime movie the pacing kinda sucks. I understand that you have to fit all of this story into only an hour and 40 minutes, but still things move from one thing to the next extremely fast to me which makes me a little confused to what's going on for a minute. Obviously from what I've said the pacing didn't ruin it for me, but this aspect may be a deal breaker to you if that is extremely important to forming an enjoyable experience.
Conclusion
This anime movie is amazing. I believe it teaches us a lesson on how to get over our hatred of the world and how to truly enjoy our lives, by being around the ones we love most. Also this is fucking amazing, please watch it I beg. Thanks for reading and stay safe.
Spoiler, click to view
AfterwordThanks for sticking around. I feel like I do this with every afterword I do but sorry this is long again and also I think I need more tips for making my points more concise and critical. I think I had a good thing going with my point on animosity but don't feel as I got it across in the best way possible, and honestly I cant be bothered re-writing that whole section. So some tips on how to make my views more concise and to the point would be appreciated. Also I'd like to know if this layout for a review works or if I should stick to a layout where I describe different sections of an anime like the animation or plot, because I feel that's more restricting but also more to the point. Anyway thanks for reading and have a good day!