A plucky rookie with big dreams, 18 year old Dai moves to Tokyo to become a great jazz saxophonist. Despite having just three years of mostly untrained playing under his belt, he’s determined to revitalise the jazz scene.
Upon meeting a talented pianist his own age, Dai recruits his roommate Tamada on the drums and the trio form JASS. Tamada is a complete newbie to the drums and I expected his beginner status to form a core part of the film’s conflict but he takes to it with grit and determination and Blue Giant remains largely focused on the trio’s attempted rise to stardom as they aim to make it to the main stage of the prestigious club, SoBlue.
The far fetched aspects of Blue Giant are the only thing that gave me pause. It’s one thing for Dai’s skill level to be overlooked in favour of his raw passion but for Tamada who can barely hold a drumstick at first to feasibly become part of the band stretches practicality considering Dai’s grand ambitions. We also see relatively little conflict between the band on what music to play, how to approach it and so on, which would have added depth to their characters and provided greater insight into their process versus that of other bands around them. This doesn’t detract from the story but it does make the formula feel closer to a sport anime wherein the overriding focus is a big goal to meet.
I did enjoy the film’s general commentary on the interplay of passion and skill in music. It’s heartwarming to see Dai continue to play whenever and wherever he can, even in underpasses and on riverbanks, and it’s clear that even with his lofty goals, the music itself is still most important to him. Dai describes his talent as rough and intense and it’s interesting to see this contrasted against Yukinori’s polished piano skills, especially when to Yukinori’s shock he’s criticised for playing it too safe.
The film keeps its animation style clean and simple, saving flourishes for the musical moments. These range from dynamic hand closeups to light flares, dreamy colourscapes and sweeping broad lines of sweat and movement that help the passionate crescendos really leap off the screen. The characters are animated so realistically it’s easy to forget you’re not watching real people play and the feat is worth watching this film alone to witness. My only complaint is the transitions between hand drawn and computer generated animation are very obvious and sadly the latter looks messy compared to the vibrant authentic strokes of the former.
It would be ridiculous to talk about Blue Giant without touching on the free wheeling majesty of its jazz soundtrack. I can’t help but wonder how much harder the manga must have had to work to communicate the electrifying sounds that are so central to the story’s premise but the anime doesn’t waste a single note. The pieces you hear our characters play are composed by Hiromi Uehara. I haven’t listened to much jazz but it sounded incredible to my ears. Listen to one of the standout tracks yourself below:
Blue Giant offers a solid underdog success drama paired with some outstanding musical animated sequences that place it up there with the best anime films. Watch it for those alone and prepare to be blown away.
Otaku Brit (^.^) 