Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

Spoilers Ahead

The movie when I first saw it stood out for me so incredibly, right from the start the art style is so different from any other movie I’ve seen by having dazzling types of high contrast, flat colors with little shading which looks like something that Takashi Murakami would make. Even though it has this unique art style, it still feels like a real movie and the bright colors really make everything pop, with shots of scenery that I really loved when I first watched this anime. The anime is about a girl named Smile which she calls herself that and is an idol on a livestream app. She meets a boy named Cherry, where all the characters do not have actual names except one minor character. They both share insecurities, Cherry has social anxiety and uses headphones to comfort him and Smile is conscious about her teeth and uses a mask to hide while also being a micro idol online. When Cherry gets too overwhelmed, he turns red hence why he is called Cherry; it shows the problems they have very well and makes you relate to them as they’re both common insecurities.

They both cross paths from bumping into each other and mixing up their phones, from an altercation with a trouble maker kid knocking one over into the over like it was fate. Cherry boy being a fan of writing haikus which he thinks of in different situations, and when they meet the words he thinks, when he says them to Smile he feels bubbly and shown with bubbles appearing on the screen. It may be to symbolise butterflies in his stomach from speaking out loud, that I find super cool way to portray this start to the innocent romance, as someone who has had anxiety since I was a child it really hits home seeing this character with similar issues to me and is a realistic way of showing anxiety because you have to see it from a third person. So, using these artistic ideas of stepping out of your comfort zone and a metaphor for words bubbling up like a soda pop is incredibly smart and makes me love this anime so much. Some people say slice of life is boring, slice of life a lot of times goes for realism and being down to earth; which so many in the genre are doing is cool to see innovation in concepts going on.

A slice of life movie is very rare to see, the only other one I can think is Garden Of Your Words; usually these movies are always to show off what they can do with higher budget for 1 to 2 hours and is amazing when they use such an easy genre as slice of life so they have to try and make it work for the format. This movie definitely pulls this off as the art is so good looking and vibrant, but something of this style I have never seen before, alone the art is at a 10 for. Smile loves his Haikus that made him develop feelings for her and then she likes his posts of the haikus, but her sisters steal her phone and spam like him which was funny. This anime also has the character development and bonding through situations they go on in this shopping mall through their daily lives as she joins him where he works; where there’s some comedy in the anime that makes watching this more enjoyable as well. This anime is not too long, so it’s something you can watch easily, if you don’t enjoy the 12 episode slice of life where they don’t really do anything plot wise. This anime has a simple plot of romance and slice of life, having aspects from anime like A Silent Voice but as a nichijou-kei.

Being together and becoming friends they both try to gradually overcome their weakness, Cherry is seen without his headphones around her and the story is like a very cute romance anime that is super simple, yet effective. They have to find this vinyl and she basically asks him to go to Hanabi Festival, but he is moving and doesn’t tell her, which she gets disappointed and leaves. He put the headphones on and the noise was cancelled out. The sign says words are meant to be expressed which I think captures this anime and scene perfectly as he has trouble with words except for his haiku’s so without words he cannot express him and his feelings for her. Which adds insult to injury and more emotion to this scene. This simple scene is a creative way to add some meaning to it and make the viewer think about it, it is very ingenious of them and I love anime that have a lot of hidden meanings or symbolism, which is drizzled a bit into this anime to not be your run-of-the-mill slice of life anime.

The anime ends on a happy note though, with Cherry fleeing the car to go to the fireworks while the bubbles following showing his nerves, and he takes the microphone and says a long poem confessing his love for that has the words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop etc in it. He likes her teeth and likes her so she overcomes her insecurity because of him, as she helped him with his nerves. In the end he didn’t turn red and she removed the mask, which just got to me as who doesn’t like a happy ending; and I felt many emotions for their endeavors and the ending or anime may have been super simple but it was very sweet. Not every anime has to have so much going on and it’s a break when you can enjoy something with little thinking, that’s why I love this movie. Just because the art style was so unique and having a story with it was super enjoyable; it did an amazing job on the romance side of the anime and I’d recommend anyone to watch it.

Thanks for Reading!