Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
netflixContinuing Netflix's recent pursuits to establish themselves as a major player in the anime market, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop comes as the feature directorial debut of long-time tv anime director Kyohei Ishiguro and tells the story of a young boy and girl who spend their summer at a local mall going about their own adventures and their eventual friendship. While the film might not be a true animated masterpiece, its undeniably successful vibes and enjoyable enough story makes the film a worthy – even if it’s just a simple summer watch.
What will immediately stand out to fans of the anime genre is how breathtaking the animation within the film is. While causal anime – tv or feature – tends to have rather solid animation, a distinct style isn't found that often. The work within Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop almost feels reminiscent of the recent work of Masaaki Yuasa with its unique identity in colors and linework. Kyohei Ishiguro commands a unique and successful style that hasn't been seen in his career up to this point but immediately makes the director a voice to watch going forward. The one issue, at times, is the framing of certain scenes; it can feel a bit more like tv anime than feature anime, but this is incredibly minor. Not only does this visual style lead to a visually rewarding film but it also causes the world to transcend the screen and embrace the audience in its mood and tone.
Above and beyond anything else, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a celebration of the summer, and it is hard not to feel the summer sun and heat creep from the screen into whatever space the audience is enjoying the film in. The film is an impressively competent blending of mundane drama and environmental emotion that almost feels in the same vein as some of the work of the early Studio Ghibli. For audiences wanting a lighter watch that will go timely with the current summer season, the film will undoubtedly scratch that itch and even has the possibility to become a regular piece of the summer viewing schedule.
The emotions given by the environment of the film are crucial as, beyond that, the film is rather simple and basic. Both the main characters Cherry (Ichikawa Somegorō VIII) and Smile (Hana Sugisaki) are likable but basic. They are the average innocent yet quirky characters one would expect from a film like this, with the journeys they go on being equally basic. Nothing plot-wise within the film is fresh or groundbreaking, but at the same time, it is in no way painful or boring either. Audiences will root for the characters but also never like they won't accomplish their goals or predictable character arcs. It is satisfying, but really never that impactful, which doesn't necessarily hurt the film but rather just establishes the film as never being able to truly reach masterpiece level.
Overall, while Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop might not be memorable, it is fun and overall feels worth the watch considering the film is widely available on Netflix. The animation is genuinely quite stunning and the project does feel like it could serve as the breakout start that Kyohei Ishiguro needs. The feature anime industry is rapidly growing with multiple unique and compelling voices rising around the once dominating Studio Ghibli, and if his future works continue to at least looks this good – if not also continuing to have the same charm as this film – it easily could be seen that Ishiguro would add his name to that growing list and make an impressive career for himself.
