This is a film to see for the music.
The film is scored by the amazing jazz pianist and composer Hiromi Uehara, and every musical sequence is wonderful. The animation is also striking, from hyper-realistic depictions of Tokyo to imaginative representations of the musicians' inner worlds as they explore the space of chords and sequences of jazz improvisation.
On the other hand, the story is trite and predictable, and the characters are absurdly histrionic (as is typical in conventional animé). It also seems more a bit inappropriate that there's only one significant female character in a film so dependent on the musical ability of a woman performer and composer.
The film is scored by the amazing jazz pianist and composer Hiromi Uehara, and every musical sequence is wonderful. The animation is also striking, from hyper-realistic depictions of Tokyo to imaginative representations of the musicians' inner worlds as they explore the space of chords and sequences of jazz improvisation.
On the other hand, the story is trite and predictable, and the characters are absurdly histrionic (as is typical in conventional animé). It also seems more a bit inappropriate that there's only one significant female character in a film so dependent on the musical ability of a woman performer and composer.