In This Corner of the World (2017)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I'll tell you why so serious

How sad is this?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie will show you a totally different perspective that you never imagined. Because of the movie and its characters are so beautifuly balanced its portraits a way of life that was, is and could be. Its shows us or rather teaches us how things can always be worse than they appear and how in the end one can always find the light to any of our actions.Over all this movie is a wonderful piece of art, a piece of history and I for one would not change a single thing about it, I just love it as it is.

Suzu is a young girl living in a peaceful seaside Japanese city. It's revealed to be pre-war Hiroshima. Her family farms seaweed. At 18, she receives a marriage proposal from a relative stranger, a young earnest man from Kure who fell in love with her at first sight. She marries and moves in with his family. Kure is a Navy town and everybody works at the base. As food gets rationed, she finds ways to adapt. She continues to draw and is beloved by her adoring niece Harumi. The winds of war blow harsh as life grows ever more difficult.The animation is simply beautiful which contrast nicely with the fear of impending doom. I really liked not naming Hiroshima at first. I'm sure everybody in Japan noticed the building right away but outside Japan, the audience may not catch on. It would be more compelling to stay silent on the city name longer. I actually expected more of a love triangle especially with that amazing sea rabbit drawing. It didn't turn out that way which is perfectly fine. I grew to like Shusaku which is exactly what Suzu does. There are some devastating drama but it also leave some heart-warming turns for the audience. Hiroshima is handled with class. It's Fireflies without the unrelenting depression.

There have been few anime movies which have not left me deeply moved, and this is no exception. Mixing cute anime characters and their straightforward lives (at least on the surface) with the chaos and trauma of the Second World War may seem like an oversimplification of the war and a cheap, melodramatic effort at invoking sadness and tears, but there is a depth to the characters and emotions in this movie, and the ultimate message of the movie is not just that war is devastating and destroys the lives of countless innocents, but also that life moves on in spite of all the carnage, and people change and discover new qualities and things about themselves, transforming them into different (perhaps better?) versions of themselves.The movie follows our female protagonist Suzu through her childhood to early marriage to the tumultuous years of the War. Suzu is a lovable and cheerful protagonist, gentle and kind but also clumsy and forgetful, redeemed by her artistic talent and her perseverance, but there are hidden depths to her that are only partially revealed through some odd sequences in the first part of the movie, and come into the spotlight in the second part after her traumatic brush with the War. The animation is beautiful, and the attention to detail is superb, transporting the viewer effortlessly to rural Japan in the 1940s. The cultural quirks of this place and era are delightfully presented in the first half of the movie, during which it feels like a gentle slice-of-life movie. Once the War begins in earnest, we see the effect that it has on the ordinary citizens. While there are some traumatic sequences, the movie does not linger on them, and instead it focuses on how the characters handle the changes and come to terms with them, often questioning the futility of all the devastation (especially after Japan loses the War) but also forging new bonds among each other and finding hidden depths in themselves. One stark criticism of the movie is that some important supporting characters are not properly introduced, and Suzu's own feelings and desires are not properly explored, so that some revelations later on feel artificial and we never really entirely understand Suzu's actions and her motivations. Apparently, an extended version of the movie is being prepared which I feel is definitely required to understand this story in its full details.

This is my first anime film and I am glad I chose it. It combined a good (if meandering at times) story, excellent animation, unique art, and appropriate history together to produce a wonderful (if long) film. The characters do not take advantage of the medium except in dream sequences or when something untoward occurs. This keeping the film in reality is one of its strengths. Another strength is what I feel to be the accurate portrayal of Japanese citizens during the war. I have read a great deal and feel this might actually be a very good teaching tool about the hardships and loyalty born by the Japanese people during WW2. And, finally, with my limited knowledge of Japanese culture, I thought this offered a valuable insight into how the culture works and what is important to the people. For all these reasons, plus the beautiful animation and art in the film, I am glad this was my first experience with anime.