The Concierge

Watching this anime movie makes me believe in the better of people. It conveys the message of how everyone who works all around you, despite the cynical truth of just wanting the paycheck at the end of the day, still wants you to at the very least enjoy yourself. This works really well with the animals being part of the setting as a way to display the harmony of society despite certain animals being shaped differently and in size, even accounting that some are natural predators to others. The Concierge is essentially the story of Akino as she begins her job as a concierge in-training, and from this we get to see her slowly get better at her job in entertaining customers. Being able to see her overcome trials and tribulations is just incredibly uplifting and makes it so you really want to root for her in becoming a competent concierge.

What is most likely to hook someone in watching the movie has to be the Hokkyoku Department store itself though, with its colorful cast of animal customers each with their own quirky personalities and wants in arriving at the department store. The highlights of this movie has to be in learning what their problems are and seeing how Akino can help in resolving them, creating this believable environment of a location you want to visit yourself. There was also some grand message about the reason of the Hokkyoku Department Store existing and its ties to the extinction of many animals with a lot of plot points meaning to parallel to real life events but I’ll be honest, I’m no expert in all that but it's definitely interesting to follow especially if you’re knowledgeable on the topic.

Being a feature film, the movie boasts a presentation befitting of its scope. The department store is portrayed beautifully with its bright yet warm colors, and every sector of the building feels incredibly distinct especially the interior of the individual stores. The character designs for the animals make each one distinct from each other which made it easy to differentiate even with the same species, but were also very close to the actual depiction of the animal without resorting too far in anthropomorphizing them. The human characters were also great with their designs really highlighting each personality quirk a person had which can be best seen with how stern the floor manager was and how his figure depicted that. Sound design was also great with a fitting soundtrack exemplifying all of Akino's struggles and solutions in balancing to please her clientele.

Overall the movie was simply entertaining on the base level and is a very comfortable seventy minutes in getting lost in a fantastic imagining of a Department Store following Akino’s struggles. Since it ran for seventy minutes, it’s only natural it would be a 7/10.