KOKORO GA SAKEBITAGATTERUN DA.

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaKokoro ga Sakebitagatterun da.

REVIEWS

• 

  TinyTim

  75/100
  When TV doesn't translate to Film

  When I first heard that A-1 Pictures would be releasing an original film project in 2015 my interest was piqued. When I heard that this project was going to be an original story from the creators and crew of one of my all-time favorite shows, the 2012 teen drama Anohana, I was overjoyed. Now almost 2 years down the line from its original release in Japan, I have finally had a chance to watch the film and I can now give my verdict.

  Did Anthem of the Heart manage to meet/surpass the standards set by its predecessor?
  No
  Is Anthem of the Heart a good film?
  Kind of
  Was Anthem of the Heart inferior in terms of story or characters then?
  No not really

  

  The Good

  Before I get into where I think this film failed I first want to make it clear that I would definitely recommend watching Anthem of the Heart, especially for those in their teens or if you're partial to coming of age stories. The film presents a well told, heartfelt story about overcoming trauma and anxieties alongside the usual themes of romance, misunderstandings and heartache found in these films. It's headed up by a diverse and likable main cast , which while fitting firmly within the tropes of both its own genre and anime in general, do more than enough to elevate themselves beyond cookie cutter stereotypes to characters we can recognise and empathise with. The relationships these characters share with one another feel organic and natural, avoiding the contrivances of many of their contemporaries, with a special mention going to the relationship between the semi-mute lead Jun and her mother. Beyond the story elements, the sound track is a good fit, while it won’t have you coming back again and again it does a solid job of complementing the story it’s trying to tell. In a similar the vein the quality of animation is as you would expect from a feature piece, with brief moments of visual flair working in the films favour, if never being all that breath taking.

  

  
  So what exactly is it that’s holding this film back from greatness?
  Well In my opinion it’s the very fact that it’s a film to begin with.

  Let me explain, when looking at the two driving creative forces behind this project you have director Tatsuyuki Nagai and prolific writer Mari Okada, both have been involved in a number a successful projects over recent years and had previously teamed up to not only to work together on creating Anohana, but also when adapting another much-loved work, Toradora, the dream team it would seem then. But on closer examination of both their credits, you quickly notice that neither has any experience with stand alone feature films. While it is true both had worked together on the 2013 theatrical release of Anohana and Okada wrote the screenplay for Hanasaku Iroha: HOME SWEET HOME the previous was in essence a compilation film of the existing story and animation while the latter was the continuation of a story and cast the viewer was already expected to be invested in, neither of these films existed within the same vacuum that Anthem of the Heart does.

  

  
  So why does this matter?

  The issue here being is that ultimately the end product is a film that feels like it should have been a short 12-episode TV show or a maybe a series of OVA’s, the kind of material these two usually put out. Without going into spoiler territory, many areas feel under developed. The entire character of DaikiTasaki, the school’s baseball ace, felt rushed and as a result, his relationships with the rest of the main cast under-explored. This is not to say he didn’t have a good proportion of screen time or even that he was poorly written, in fact the contrary is true, the character is a well realised and nuanced individual but the audience, as with many other elements of the film, are not given quite enough time to create a truly meaningful connection. This seems to be as a result of Okada trying to cram all the different elements and emotions she wants to express into the one story, something that's more possible over the course of a longer running format, instead of focusing on a select few. This desire to put so much in ultimately, in Daiki’s case, makes the conclusion of his arc feel like it comes from left field and left me strangely unsatisfied despite it being the outcome I was hoping to see. This underwhelming sensation is prominent several times towards the end of the film as key emotional threads get swamped and/or lost entirely by so many vying for the viewers’ attention.

  It wasn’t just a case of too much to take in too little time that has me questioning if Anthem of the Heart might have made a better episodic series. When watching the works of directors such as Makoto Shinkai or Satoshi Kon, or anyone who’s work is almost exclusively comprised of theatrical works, the films different acts and arcs flow fairly seamlessly into one another creating a narrative that sucks the viewer in and along for the ride. Yet however simple this might seem, when watching Anthem, there were several times I could almost hear the end credits of the episode beginning to play in my head, this was most noticeable after the fairly info-dump/exposition heavy opening twenty minutes or so after which the film finally decides it wants to get the plot moving, it goes without saying that this disjointed feeling serves to take the viewer out of the experience and as such lessens the emotional impact of the film.

  Final Thoughts

  In conclusion, as stated earlier, Anthem of the Heart is defiantly worth the watch but is far from perfect. The film has a number of other flaws as well as positives, the number of the later far out weighing the prior, that I won’t go into here to avoid this becoming a 3000 word essay. Ultimately I came away from the film not disappointed, it was highly enjoyable and I look forward to picking up the DVD/Blu-ray for a re-watch, but with a feeling of slight dissatisfaction, wondering that if the story had only been approached differently could it have been so much more.
  However it did manage to at least impart one great piece of wisdom on me.

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• 

  Lawwrence

  70/100
  The film that teaches us the power of words // Le film qui nous enseigne la force des mots

  /!\ POSSIBLE SPOIL /!\
  ENGLISH :

  Introduction :
  Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterun Da is a flilm released in 2015, created by the studio A-1 Pictures. The staff who have worked on this animation film is the same for Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai created in 2011. The film tells us a story about a girl who lost de capacity of speaking due to some events in his childhood.

  The story :
  The story begins during the childhood of June Naruse who believe in charming prince, princess and castle. Against his will she discover something about his father (adultery) and this event will cause her lost capacity of speaking because of his indiscretion. She obligated herself to not speak again to not cause other problem to her family or friends. Every time she tries to speak, she will receive a punishment Without spoiling, the story will show us a group a students who are in charge of a show for the school and they will try to resolve the problem of June Naruse.

  The music :
  The music in this film is a big part because the show is a musical comedy. We can hear a lot of classic music like the famous Beethoven "Pathetique" 2nd movement, classic we can hear multiple time in Nodame Cantabile for example. The most beautiful music in the world Over the Rainbow and some other good stuff. As I say Music is preeminent because if June is not able to speak, she can sing, and the show provides her a possibility to share all feelings she has in her for multiple years now.

  The animation :
  The animation is quite classical, it’s just good no excellent but, still good to see. It's a typical animation we can found in a lot of film or animation series. Personally, I haven't been touched by the animation of this film because the speech is more important than the animation in this type of story. However the animation of characters is pretty good.

  Personnal conclusion :
  Personally I’ve watched this film with no fear because the staff who have realized this film have made a monument (Anohana) so I can’t be disappointed by them. The story is a true life lesson for adult and child, I think because he teach us the word can be very hard for all people and they can cause some hard problem for persons who are delicate. He teaches us to take care of all persons in our family, our close people even of they’ve made some mistake.

  ---

  FRENCH :

  Introduction :
  Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterun Da est un film sorti en 2015, créé par le sudio A-1 Pictures. L'équipe qui a travaillée sur ce film d'animation est la même que pour Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai créé en 2011. Le film nous raconte l'histoire d'une fille qui a perdu la capacité de parler en raison de certains événements de son enfance .

  L'histoire :
  L'histoire commence pendant l'enfance de June Naruse qui croit au prince charmant, princesse et au château. Contre sa volonté, elle découvre quelque chose sur son père (adultère) et cet événement lui fera perdre la capacité de parler à cause de son indiscrétion. Elle s'est obligé une contrainte de recevoir une punition a chaque fois qu'elle tentera de parler. Sans spoiler, l'histoire nous parleras d'un groupe d'étudiants qui sont chargés de faire un spectacle pour l'école et ils essaieront de résoudre le problème de June Naruse

  La musique:
  La musique dans ce film est importante car June ne peut pas parler mais elle peut chanter et tout le spectacle est une comédie musicale. On peut entendre beaucoup de musiques classiques comme le fameux 2ème mouvement "Pathétique" de Beethoven, classique on peut entendre plusieurs fois dans Nodame Cantabile par exemple. Nous pourrons entendre également la musique élue la plus belle au monde Over the rainbow et bien d'autre musique de qualité.

  L'animation :
  L'animation est assez classique, c'est juste bon, pas excellent mais bon. Personnellement je n'ai pas été particulièrement touché par la qualité de l'animation de ce film. Je pense que dans ce type de film la qualité du discours la chose la plus importante. Néanmoins je n'ai pas été choqué par l'animation et les personnages sont de très bonne qualité

  Conclusion :
  Personnellement, j’ai regardé ce film sans crainte parce que le personnel qui a réalisé ce film a fait un monument (Anohana) donc je ne peux pas être déçu par cette équipe. L'histoire est une vraie leçon de vie pour les adultes et les enfants, parce qu'il nous enseigne que les mots peuvent être très difficiles à encaisser pour toutes personne et qu'ils peuvent causer des problèmes difficiles aux personnes délicates. Il nous enseigne qu'il faut prendre soin de notre familles des personnes de notre entourage même s'ils ont fait des erreurs par le passé.

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• 

  guavagudetama

  90/100
  The movie was really good, and then there was one really shit scene, and then it was really good again.

  For the people who don't want to read the full review, The Anthem of the Heart is a movie with very good characters, okay visuals, and a mostly good plot, aside from one really cliché and pointless plot point that could have been cut with nothing lost and would have given more time to give us closure with the characters. Overall, I still think it was really good. 9/10 / 90/100

  Spoilers below!

  I don't typically do this with my reviews, but I'm going to split the review into Visuals, Characters and Plot because unlike a show I think it'll be easier to talk about these seperately.

  The Visuals
  The visuals of The Anthem of the Heart are... underwhelming. I don't watch a lot of movies, but coming off of movies like Penguin Highway and Sunny Boy and Dewdrop Girl, I couldn't help but think so many times in this movie "The visuals are kinda boring." There's one scene that I do like the visuals of, which is the second egg scene

  

  I think the visual of her standing in a sea of egg yolk was pretty cool, but that's about it for visuals. Like, I get that it's set in a high school but the next most visually interesting scene I wasn't thinking about the visuals because I was thinking about how bad the scene was.

  The Characters
  Quick overview: Jun is great, Takumi is fine, Nito is good, Daiki is probably the best character in the film, the supporting cast is all great as well.

  Jun: As someone who loves characters who are mute, I knew I was going to love Jun. Her body language is cute, the way she shows people her phone to talk to them is cute, and when she sang while Takumi and Ikkun (That's what Yoko refers to him as I can't remember his real name) were fighting? CHEF'S KISS. IMMACULATE.
  Takumi: He feels bland to me, objectively he had a distinct personality but he gets outshined by the other main characters.
  Nito: Nito isn't actually interesting on her own, but she's interesting in relation to the other characters. Through her we learn that Takumi was going through tough shit, which is explained later when Jun asks Takumi's grandma about what happened to his parents. She also feels the most human out of the characters (though all of the characters feel real), like when she's arguing with Takumi and saying how she knows that he likes Jun (wrong) or how she's angry when she sees Yoko and Ikkun making out while everyone's working hard (even though she wants to do that to Takumi).
  Daiki: Daiki is framed to be a bad guy for the first like half an hour ish but it was really obvious to me that he wasn't actually bad and it was just circumstances. He has the most development out of the cast, realizing that the things he'd been saying were like not okay and that almost everyone on the team hates him. Not that the things they said about him were okay but it's an everyone's in the wrong typa deal here.

  The Plot
  It's mostly solid, I'm only really going to talk about my favourite and least favourite scene but to give a quick rundown: Our four main characters are put on the Community Outreach Committee and they decide (with a big push from the music teacher) to put on a musical. Jun writes the musical about her loss of words, is cast as the main character, and then ditches last second because she hears Takumi say that she doesn't love her when she loves him. They bring her back hella late but she gets to sing her number about not being able to speak specifically, Daiki x Jun and Takumi x Nito becomes canon and the movie ends.

  So, there's this one scene where they're at a diner, it's the first time they're discussing the plan to put on a musical with Nito and Daiki, but that's really not what the scene is about. So, this scene is basically just coming off of Takumi telling Daiki that the people on the baseball team don't like him because all he does is shit talk them and Daiki and Ikkun are like "you don't know shit" but lo and behold

  

  So obviously, Daiki confronts them, the unnamed ones immediately apologize. When Daiki confronts them, he doesn't actually mention what they said about him, he's more mad that they shittalked the new captain, Mishima. Daiki doesn't really care about the apologies and him and Yamaji have some back and forth and Yamaji ends up lashing out, and this happens. (If you're this far into the review and you haven't seen the movie please go watch it because the screenshots I'm about to lay out are so much better if you experience them with sound.)

  

  

  

  This scene is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO important because it's like literally the core message of the movie. Inori Minase (who you might know as Rem from Re:Zero or Aries Spring from Astra Lost in Space) gives an amazing performance in this scene, I literally had goosebumps when I first watched it holy shit it was good.

  And now for... the bad scene
  So this takes place towards the end of the movie when Jun ditches the musical and Takumi goes to find her. She ends up going to the Castle at the top of the hill, a love hotel and a place the musical references. The actual contents of the scene on their end are fine, it doesn't really add much to the plot, we didn't need a nine minute scene to tell us that Jun was upset that Takumi didn't love her back but sure, whatever. What I really don't like is the cliché of "It's the big day and the lead is gone we can't do the performance without her!" like that's so boring.

  At first I thought this was done to give Sora Amimiya, the voice actor of Nito, a singing role, but this was a manga adaptation and not an original film so that doesn't really add up. I think the author was trying to parallel an earlier scene where originally the story had a sad ending but Jun changed it to a happy one? And Jun was going to have a sad ending in real life but then Takumi found her and she had a happy one? That's the only thing I can think of but that's a stretch I really don't know why they couldn't have just made the musical go normally because then we would have had like 15 spare minutes to give characters closure, AND Jun can still sing the number where she says "Losing my voice brought joy to all because they hated the words I once spoke." In fact, Jun's mom realizing the play is about her family doesn't even hinge on Jun singing at all because she realizes when Nito is still playing the princess and Daiki, dressed as the egg, says "So you've lost the ability to speak! This is the punishment for your crimes. This is everyone's wish, for you to lose your voice!"

  Conclusion
  Yeah that one scene sucks lol but the rest is pretty sick. 9/10

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