Tag Archives: Fireworks

Fireworks: A little Unoriginal, but Visually Stunning (SPOILERS)

If the last few years have proved anything, it’s that Anime films have lots of potential outside of Studio Ghibli. There is, of course, Your Name, which took the anime community by storm. Then came A Silent Voice shortly after, a film which showed that Kyoto Animation was more than qualified to take up the task of talking about a serious issue: bullying. Even before 2016 though, directors like Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai have been impressing, with amazing works such as The Girl Who Lept Through Time and 5 Centimeters Per Second, respectively.

More recently, directors Akiyuki Shinbō and Nobuyuki Takeuchi along with the rest of Studio Shaft decided to take up there own original IP: Fireworks. The movie initially had peeked many because the producer Genki Kawamura also worked on the 2016 hit Your Name. So, how did Fireworks turn out? Well, in a lot of ways, Fireworks is a lot like Your Name and The Girl Who Lept Through Time.

Fireworks.jpg
Left: Norimichi, Right: Nazuna

Fireworks centers around Norimichi, a middle school student, is living an average life. On the day of his town’s annual firework festival, his friend Yuusuke gets asked out by Nazuna, who Norimichi finds a strange attraction to. Things eventually get weirder as Norimichi travels through time and learns more and more about Nazuna.

While Your Name is still a great film it has a lot of problems. Its visuals are absolutely breathtaking, with Comix Waves putting every ounce of effort into making sure the animation looks visually stunning. However, as a result, the film’s story ends up being lackluster at best. A lot of the story is sort of left up for interpretation, and the hugeness of it all makes the characters seem unrelatable for a lot of the story. These same problems absolutely permeate Fireworks.

Norimichi

Norimichi, the movie’s main protagonist, never really comes into his own as a character, and neither does Nazuna. The two lead most of the story, yet the premise of the show does not give much reason to care about their relationship, other than that Nazuna is being forced to move out of the town due to her mom’s remarrying. Norimichi especially is really vanilla, and never makes it worth caring about the two’s relationship. All of the other side characters, including Yuusuke, are even less interesting, as they are mainly just used as plot inconveniences, instead of feeling like real people.

Despite its lackluster story, Firework’s visuals are absolutely fantastic. Studio Shaft and Akiyuki Shinbo brought there A game when it comes to the animation. The scenes with the time travel device especially make the whole movie worth watching. My favorite part would have to be near the end when the device shatters and Norimichi and Nazuna both get to see the different parts of their memory.

Fireworks is, unfortunately, pretty much the definition of mediocre. The story remains fairly stale and uninteresting, and its Sci-fi elements feel like they have been done before, mainly in films like Your Name. The movie is still worth seeing for sure, but if you were planning on buying a ticket to see it in a local theatre, I would wait.


How do you guys feel about Fireworks? Good? Bad? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!

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This Week in Anime: Fireworks, Mitsuo Iso, and More…

I’m becoming really bad at doing introductions for this series. You guys know the deal already, I give you some of the more important stories of the week and make sure you are all caught up.

New Anime

A couple of new animated productions have been announced for this week.

Young Again in Another World Light Novel Gets Anime Adaptation

Young Again.jpg

The popular light novel series “Young Again in Another World” has officially received an anime adaptation, according to the show’s official Twitter account. The show will be directed by Keitaro Motonaga, or Jormungand and School Days fame, and will have a script written by Takamitsu Kono, along with Touko Machida, Koujiro Nakamura, and Chabo Higurashi.

“Young Again in Another World’s” story focuses on 94-year-old Renya Kunugi who, after dying, meets a girl who claims to be god. The encounter leaves Kunugi with an 18-year-old body and new powers he must use to survive in an all-new world.

Mitsuo Iso Reveals New Anime Project

As a Key Animator, Mitsuo Iso has worked on many projects beforehand, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop, and Fooly Cooly. Aside from animation, though, Iso had also previously sat in the director’s seat during his work on Dennou Coil, a critically acclaimed sci-fi anime about the future of augmented reality, back in 2007.

Now, Mitsuo has revealed a new project: Extraterrestrial Children

Extra Children.jpg

According to Iso, the show will focus on a group of kids that get stranded in space and must rely on the technology around them to survive. He wanted to “portray a story of a group of children thrown into that environment as if it had actually happened.” There are currently no other details as the release of the show or its production, other than its character designer being Kenichi Yoshida or Eureka Seven fame, and that studio Signal.MD will be handling the animation.

New Trailers

New trailers have also been released to highlight some upcoming premieres

GKIDS Releases English-Subtitled Trailer of Fireworks

Preceding the film’s North American release on July 3rd, GKIDS has released a two minute, English-subtitled trailer for the latest animated feature from Studio Shaft: Fireworks. The trailer reveals a bit of the story of the film, showing a young Norimichi Shimada trying to help his classmate Nazuna Oikawa run away from home. Norimichi comes across a strange orb they may help the two on their journey to run away from home.

Adult Swim Releases Dubbed Trailer for FLCL Progressive

Ahead of its release on July 2nd, Adult Swim released another trailer for the sequel to Fooly Cooly: FLCL Progressive. The trailer features many of the show’s new cast of characters, including the second season’s main lead Hidomi, as well as old favorites such as Haruko. The second season will primarily center around Hidomi’s role as a new weapon in the war against Medical Mechanica.

Article Shoutouts

In this new sub-segment of this week in anime, I will be writing about interesting articles that I have read during the week, including from other fellow bloggers, so consider this a sort of weekly round-up. This week, we have two articles, both that were featured on Crunchyroll.

Cultural Mashups in the Work of Shinichiro Watanabe

In this article, Skyler Allen focuses on one of the things that makes Shinichiro Watanabe’s work so interesting: Cultural mashups. He uses both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo as examples, talking about the unique aesthetic combinations formed by the combination of these cultures, as well as the reimagining of universal truths found in each show.

An Interview with Mitsuo Iso

If you hadn’t gotten your fill of Mitsuo Iso just yet this week, then you are in luck. YouTuber The Pendantic Romantic sat down with Iso this week to discuss a variety of things, including his work on previous shows and why he has officially retired as an animator.


What do you guys think of this week’s anime related news? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!

This Week in Anime: Studio Ghibli, Anime Films Head to U.S. Theaters and More…

Well, after being on another week-long Hiatus, sorry about that by the way, I am back and ready to talk about the news for this week, and addressing some of the stories I missed from last week. Believe me, there are some things that need addressing. With that being said, let’s get started.

Studio Ghibli Theme Park will Fully Open in 2022

Originally announced back in June of 2017, a Studio Ghibli theme park is now set to open in 2022. The park was supposed to be open by 2020, but it now is slated for a later date to setbacks in construction.

The park, when opened, will consist of 5 different main areas. The first, called Youth Hill, will feature scenery from Howl’s Moving Castle and Whisper of the Heart. The second part of the park will be an indoor area open year round, complete with a swimming pool and screening area. The third area will be inspired by Princess Mononoke and will include statues of the films most famous characters, such as the Tatari-gami. The last two areas include one with scenery from Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service and the other will be exclusively inspired by My Neighbor Totoro.

There really is not a lot to say about this other than that if I go to Japan after its done, I will certainly be planning a day or two around coming here. It looks like it could be a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see pictures of it.

“Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel” and “Fireworks” Films Receive U.S. Release Date

Heaven's Feel
Source: Japantimes.com
Fireworks
Source: Fireworksmovieusa.com

As of this week, the latest creation from J.C. Staff “Fireworks,” as well as the first of the newest trilogy of Fate movies Heaven’s Feel, have been confirmed for a theatrical release in the United States. The company GKIDS announced that they will be collaborating with Fathom Events in order to bring the film to theatres in July on the third, fifth, and seventh of the month. As well, Fathom Events and Aniplex of America are looking to bring the newest addition to the Fate franchise to the big screen on June fifth and seventh.

I’ll be honest with you guys, I am really excited for one of these films, and only slightly interested in the other. I’ve been a fan of the Fate/ franchise for quite some time and considering how well the full-length TV anime adaption of Unlimited Blade Works was, I have every reason to believe the last of the visual novel’s storylines, Heaven’s Feel, is going to be just as good.

Fireworks, on the other hand, seems to be riding on the popularity of Your Name at this point, and, based on the setup and the fact that the guy producing it was also the head producer for Your Name, seems to be a bit of a copycat. Either way, I’ll probably end up seeing both of them because I like seeing anime in theatres whenever I can, so hopefully, Fireworks is not as bad as many have been saying it is.

Producer of “Darling in the Franxx” Receives Death Threats After the Release of Episode 14

Darling in the Franxx
Source: Funimation.com

As many of you may know already, because of the contents of episode fourteen of Darling in the Franxx, specifically events surrounding one of the more pivotal characters Ichigo, many of the members of the cast received hateful messages and even death threats. The largest target of the show’s staff is its producer, Yuichi Fukushima.

Fukushima and others received the threats after the episode aired, with some messages they received suggesting that it would be better if they killed themselves.

Honestly, I do not think I am really going to be saying anything original, but this story was so Heinous that I needed to talk about it.

Let’s just start off with a few things 1) anime is not real, 2) the person receiving the most threats for what happened in the story is not even the person they should be mad at. Fukushima is the animation producer. 3) Most importantly, a character in a show not doing what you want them to is not a reason to threaten someone’s life or suggest that they kill themselves.

Not a single bit of what happened last week was even remotely ok, and anyone who sent messages in that vain to any of the staff should be ashamed of themselves.


What do you guys think of this week’s anime related news? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!