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I am not the kind of person to be well-informed or influenced by the staff behind an anime production. Which isn't to say I don't care, but it wasn't until recently that I started to take note of key animators, of directorial touches, and so on. That said, my reaction to the staff behind Bubble was still a first.
A feature length Netflix film with character designs by Takeshi Obata (Death Note), written in part by Gen Urobuchi (Fate/Zero), and directed by Tetsuro Araki (Attack on Titan)? I shouldn't even have to explain why something like this comes across as a big deal.
I will clarify, right from the get-go, that Bubble is bound to be a divisive film. There is no question whatsoever that where it succeeded, it soared, but the elements that didn't reach the same heights are bound to leave a bad aftertaste. Your final judgement may depend on the weightages you assign to these moving parts, but if nothing else you'll want to experience its highs for yourself.
The Setting
The worldbuilding of Bubble is interesting enough on its own. Set in a version of Tokyo where the accumulation of strange "bubbles" has drowned most of the old city and given form to a new kind of parkour sport, I should give immediate credit to how meticulously organic the setting and backgrounds are.
The submerged and wrecked remnants of Old Tokyo lend themselves perfectly to the parkour at the core of the narrative, but they manage to feel strangely... natural. Awkward though it is to say, some of the pictures Bubble paints of contained water bodies and overflowing foliage would be incomplete without the partially collapsed buildings and floating debris. These artificial components add some asymmetric variety to the setpieces that keep them from becoming monotonous.
I can also appreciate how the obvious dangers of the setting and the parkour sport itself play into the characterisation. Hibiki—our taciturn protagonist—is depicted to struggle with hyperacusis, a hearing disorder that turns the humdrum of a bustling city into agony, justifying his choice to retreat to the abandoned remains of Tokyo, escaping the noise. Similar beats can be seen in most of the parkour kids, creating a solid basis for the ragtag squad and their dangerous misadventures.
Showstopping animation
I cannot go any further without talking about the elephant in the room: the animation is good. The animation is really good. Coming fresh off the heels of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Demon Slayer, I can honestly say this movie is the best looking media I've seen in recent memory.
The art style is vivid and expressive, with nearly every frame having more colour than a day in my life. But the portions that wouldn't let me breathe were the parkour scenes. I don't know much about Tetsuro Araki as a director, but if there's anything I expected from him, it's the dynamically choreographed spectacle of his ODMG scenes, and he brought his A-Game.
The camera work on extended parkour cuts was truly phenomenal, helped in no small part by how fluid the character animation itself is. Not only do the backgrounds move with the camera to jawdropping results, the choreography on the parkour itself leaves nothing to be desired. It takes full advantage of everything in the setpiece, and each individual characters movements alone are expressive enough to carry a scene.
Pointer: highlight the blacked out portion to reveal spoilers.
I can say, completely candid, that Bubble didn't even need a plot. It could've shown me its characters running for 90 minutes straight and I would've come out satisfied. Special mention goes to Shin's prosthetic breakdancing. It wasn't great characterisation, but the sheer spectacle made up for it.
The Little Mermaid
The setting and parkour notwithstanding, the narrative itself centers around a self-aware retelling of The Little Mermaid. Not the Disney movie, fortunately, but the original story by Hans Christian Andersen. After Hibiki is saved from a near-fatal drowning by the spontaneous... "emergence"... of a girl he dubs "Uta", the movie is quick to draw parallels between the girl and Andersen's mermaid, and it's not subtle about it in the least. They literally have characters read out the story and point out the similarities.
Those familiar with the original story know it's not destined for a happy ending (and those that don't will after the movie spells it out). What I can appreciate, however, is the awareness with which the characterisation takes place. Unlike the mermaid, Uta only just came into existence, and as her sense of self forms, her bond with Hibiki, her forthright personality and self-comparisons to the mermaid are understandable: she's at an impressionable stage.
The issue, however, is Hibiki himself. Unlike Uta, he can't hide behind the Little Mermaid caricature and expect it to completely explain what he's about. While there were some memorable story beats about him coming to accept his teammates and just generally opening up, there was no meaningful resolution to his hyperacusis, nor did Uta's role in his life really amount to much.
Where the bubble bursts
All things considered, I actually came to quite like the characters. There was some contrivance to the way they progressed and interacted, but it was within the realm of tolerance, and I did like the sports anime-esque development of Hibiki and his team because, well, parkour's fundamentally a sport, and team sports do that to a person.
What never really sunk in though, was the role of music in the film. Not the soundtrack, mind you. (The soundtrack was pretty good, and served its purpose well, though I can't say much more about it.) Music seemed to play some kind of role in Hibiki's past and his relationship with Uta, and while I'm pretty sure it had something to do with his hearing disorder and traumatic past, I still can't say what the exact purpose of it was.
Honestly, I can say the same about the conclusion in general. While the narrative progression makes sense in the context of The Little Mermaid, the development feels forced and sudden. The Morticians, framed as the main antagonists of the movie, suddenly drop out of the story, leaving some plot points dangling and making us wonder what the point of the middle plot even was, then.
I can sympathise with Uta's side of the story: her acceptance of her fate and bittersweet celebration of life are decent characterisation. The climactic portion of the movie won me over with its music and direction presenting it as a struggle against fate. Viewed in that lens... it felt sincere... even touching.
What I can't understand, though, is how Hibiki develops appreciably from this, beyond reacting to the scenario. This mostly comes back to how the romance between our two leads is sorely lacking. Although there are elements to their interactions that show the significance of their relationship to each other, I can't see in the slightest why this implies a romantic bond between the two. They just lack... a certain spark to their dynamic, and frankly, the movie could've benefited from fleshing that out instead of hinging their entire relationship on that final rescue and goodbye.
Closing thoughts
If I came across as critical in this review, it's only because Bubble gave me scope to criticise it. In spite of some structural and characterisation flaws I may point out, the movie's still an experience. Even where the narrative fails to really hold its own, the raw emotion and energy of its presentation is powerful enough that I was sucked in during my first viewing.
It ultimately just comes out as a matter of redundance: there were some elements that didn't add much to the final product despite taking up time and attention. That said, much like the titular phenomenon, Bubble is a movie meant to be experienced in the moment, during which the calibre of its production and general charisma bulldoze most criticisms.
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