Did you cry your eyes out to the beautiful anime film Your Name last summer? Fireworks might be the movie for you.
Directors Akiyuki Shinbo (Madoka Magica) and Nobuyuki Takeuchi’s (studio Shaft) movie is an animated retelling of a 1993 Japanese television drama called Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom, and centers around two main events: a girl named Nazuna who’s running away from home because of her family troubles and a group of boys who create a bet about whether fireworks are round or flat when you see them from a different angle. The two conflicts—one that is heavy with emotional stakes and another that is a bet so childish it could only exist in adolescence—collide and give us a gorgeous story tinged with nostalgia and sincerity.
The sci-fi twist? One of the boys, Norimichi, discovers that a multi-color ball found in the sea gives him to power to turn back time. Like most time-travel stories, however, things aren’t that simple. Time-travel romance stories so often end up as manipulative ploys by male characters, but Fireworks avoids this trap. Nazuna is a fully realized character, and not just the object of the boys’ affections (though, as young boys, there are some dirty-minded moments).
The synopsis reads, “Fireworks tells a simple story of adolescent longing that taps deep wells of emotion. It is tale of youthful wistfulness, missed opportunities and long-ago dreams, of the urgency of young lovers, and the desire to create a separate universe, a magic place outside of time, where they can be together.”
You can watch the film in theaters on July 3rd, 5th, and 7th. I’d definitely recommend it too, as the firework scenes are so amazingly animated. It’s sweet and warm in the way summer romance often is in memory. Tickets available here!
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