A Film directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa

The moment that I first saw the trailer for Yuzuru Tachikawa’s film Blue Giant, I knew that it was something that I would absolutely need to see. I’m not even a fan of jazz music, have never read the manga that the film is based on, and am not too familiar with anyone that made it. That all said, Blue Giant is the sort of property that absolutely needs support so that anime companies can see that it’s safe to bring things other than films based on Shonen manga properties over to the west. Even ten years ago, it would have been unheard of for a film like this to get released state-side, but this is a new era and 2023 has been especially great for anime fans! Sure, I was excited to see this film and hopefully help the American anime market, but little did I know that Blue Giant would be one of the most impressive animated films of the year in a year full of strong contenders.

“Dai Miyamoto’s life is turned upside down the day he discovers jazz. A former high school basketball player, Dai picks up a saxophone and begins practicing day and night, determined to become one of the greatest of all time. He leaves his sleepy hometown for the bustling nightclubs of Tokyo, but soon finds the life of a professional musician is not for the faint of heart. His passion eventually wins over the cocky but talented pianist Yukinori, and after Dai convinces his friend Shunji to learn the drums, they launch a new jazz trio whose rough sound contains a raw energy that quickly wins attention from local audiences. But what does it take to truly be great? From director Yuzuru Tachikawa (Mob Psycho 100) and based on the award-winning manga, Blue Giant is a moving ode to the power of music and the artist, featuring electric performances and a stunning jazz soundtrack.”

Based on the manga by the same name by Shinichi Ishizuka, Blue Giant made a splash at the Japanese box office earlier this year and was thankfully released in America for a short theatrical run over the Columbus Day weekend. The film was directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa, who is a rising star in the anime industry and is perhaps most known for being the director of Mob Psycho 100 and recent Detective Conan films. Even though he has largely overseen adaptations of manga into film, with Blue Giant no exception, one can see that he has a great eye for his compositions, and if anything, Blue Giant makes me excited to see what the director produces next.

The story somewhat follows a lot of the tropes one can find in many music manga and anime productions (Hell, even movies like School of rock follow this pattern), but since that entire genre is basically unheard of here, so something like this stands out a LOT. The story follows three young men with a single goal – to play at the Tokyo’s hottest jazz club while they are still teenagers. Dai Miyamoto plays tenor saxophone (self-taught) and is known to be an unbridled well of pure talent that needs structure to truly succeed. He finds that in a chance encounter (in a public restroom no less!) with gifted pianist Yukinori Sawabe, who has been playing since the age of four, but perhaps plays too mechanically to truly succeed in jazz. Dai brings on his novice friend and roommate Shun Ishikawa as a drummer, and what he lacks in technical ability he makes up for in pure heart and determination. Together they form a band called JASS and begin a long crusade to hit it big in what many think is a dying genre. As one character states, it was the best 18 months of their lives, and viewers have a front-row seat at seeing the whole thing unfold.

Blue Giant has the appearance of being somewhat bland in the art direction department at first. It’s just a slice of life anime with guys sitting around in bars with no real wonder or energy at all, or that is what I thought until the characters started performing. Once the notes start flying, viewers get a taste of some truly solid animation that mixes different technical applications such as hand-drawn 2D animation, 3D animation, and even motion-capture.

Throughout the film, the main character Dai frequently talks about the emotional aspect of jazz, and that is on full display with both the music and animation. The characters and audiences alike are moved into near trance-like states when they start experiencing the music, and beads of sweat roll off them and onto their instruments for some genuinely great shots when mixed with soft lighting. When things start getting intense, raw, almost psychedelic, animation begins to be implemented, signifying perhaps the improvised nature of the music being played. It’s honestly hard to explain, and it must be seen to be genuinely enjoyed.

For example, characters such as Shun go from a nervous wreck, in his first performances, to a determined and capable drummer letting it loose on his first solos. The moment he truly feels enough confidence to move past being a “bare minimum” drummer, and lets loose on his first solo, it’s an almost euphoric scene in the film. The colors, the lighting, everything comes together to let the audience know that crap is going down. Scenes like this are the equivalent to Goku, of Dragonball Z fame, going Super-Saiyan for the first time and are every bit as satisfying. He’s not the only one to have a moment like this, as all three characters have motivations of their own, and their character arcs all come to culminate in the aforementioned big show at one of the most renowned clubs in all of Japan.

The audience at the show I was at were on the edges of our seats throughout the film – no small feat for a movie about jazz music of all things. It was a somewhat packed house, which was surprising considering this was a small release without a big “Studio Ghibli” branding to drum up interest. For the first hour and a half everyone enjoyed a well-done drama/comedy about some guys in band, then something happened. SOMETHING BIG.

There is a scene that I won’t go into too heavily (to avoid spoilers) where on the eve of the big show, one of the band members has an accident. There was an audible GASP in the theater, and you could hear murmurs all around. The whole gig is put into question and when it does happen nobody was sure what to expect with a member of a trio down. JASS goes ahead and delivers a solid performance despite the adversity. That alone was a great ending to a film, albeit bittersweet. Then it happened, in true sports movie cliche form, the injured member shows up for the encore and they play one final song – the last of the movie and likely the band itself. Something similar happened at the end of The First Slam Dunk, another exceptional film that came out this year, and it played very well in that film as well.

In the movie itself, this scene was incredibly intense and memorable, and it actually brought members of the audience to tears. Not just movie audience members either, there were people around me, in real life, including the girl sitting next to me, openly weeping during the finale of the film. I’ve cried during films, and I’ve been in theaters when sad moments hit that make people cry, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a music film get so raw and emotional in its finale that people started losing it. It was a powerful scene, and perhaps one of the best bits of anime I’ve seen all year. I mentioned before that I am not really into the genre, but the performance in the film was amazing. Maybe I like jazz more than I thought?!

Speaking of the music, I will have to look more into the people that made this film what it was, because a movie about Jazz without music is basically worthless. There used to be a weird trend where anime about bands used to not have much music in them, likely because it was hard to animate something like that, or they didn’t have money for actual songs. In my review for T-oy, I mentioned that people would just stand there with their mouths open like a montage made of concert photos in a magazine while some un-related 80’s synth music played. Thankfully, we’re past that and the performances and music come together to really make this what it was.

According to the press release for the film:

“World-renowned virtuoso pianist Hiromi Uehara composed the in-story original music played by Miyamoto and his jazz trio JASS, and additionally plays for the character Yukinori Sawabe. Drummer Shun Ishikawa, of the global hit band Millennium Parade, and saxophonist Tomoaki Baba join Hiromi Uehara in playing for the characters Shunji Tamada and Dai Miyamoto respectively.”

Blue Giant was one of the most surprising films for me all year. I went in cold, not expecting much at all, and came out of one of my surprise hits for 2023. The movie hits all the high notes one would expect from a movie about a band trying to make it big and has all the drama one would expect from a big Hollywood flick. The animation is a bit slow burn but becomes amazing once paired with the music. The story is great, and the film is packed with fun characters – you really can’t help but root for all the characters when it’s all said and done. I’m pretty sure the manga has more story than what is depicted in the film (I just bought volume 1 so we’ll find out!), and I’d love to see that as well. Even if a hypothetical “Blue Giant 2″ never gets made, this film will go down as perhaps one of the greatest examples of music anime of all time.

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