Josee to Tora to Sakanatachi
Watch Links: Crunchyroll
Synopsis: Tsuneo, a university student with a love for diving and marine life, grows close with a wheelchair-bound girl around his age who doesn’t get out much as he’s tasked with taking care of her.
Score: 5.5/10
This film is perfectly fine, something I would describe as adequate romance fluff. There are themes present, but they were kinda hit or miss at parts. I do generally like stories about working hard to overcome adversity, but this film is quite odd in how it presents and explores this. Tsuneo is a pretty strong figure through most of the film, working hard to achieve his goals. So, when he ends up faced with adversity partway through the film, I was pretty taken aback by how easily he gave up. I do understand the frustration of being presented with a situation which isn't entirely in your hands, especially when he’s presented with a time sensitive opportunity. He instantly folds, though. The way Josee gains motivation is also really weird. I get the sense that, when she's confronted by Mai, the other love interest for Tsuneo, either Tsuneo will go with Mai and give up on his dream or Josee can get off her ass and help Tsuneo, but I wasn't convinced that this was enough to shake Josee from her funk, especially after she'd had her feelings about not being able to overcome disability confirmed by Tsuneo himself when he folded. I guess we had to have one of them overcome their disability to get the other out, and it's apt that it was Josee, so not too big an issue, but it turns what could have been the film’s greatest strengths and the core of the film into something half-baked. Josee’s storybook was weird too, but overall it worked fine as a representation of Josee working to overcome her own adversity, and that working as inspiration for Tsuneo to overcome his adversity.
Structurally the film was super standard, if a bit short in terms of second act. I liked some of the early segments with the two of them hanging out and Josee exploring the world. I would have liked more time put into exploring Josee's artistic side, but it was still nice seeing her try and pursue her artistic goals.
I found myself a bit conflicted about these adult characters acting like children in a lot of ways, particularly in how inept they were at communicating with one another. But also I know enough adults that are shit at communicating, so fair enough ,I guess. I dunno why Josee put so much stock in what Mai said about him only hanging out with her out of sympathy, and also why she didn't just talk to him about it? Maybe she would rather close herself off to him than hear him confirm what Mai said, but it was still like...pls talk to each other…
I enjoyed the film moderately for most of its run, with only a few moments really where I was mildly annoyed. Nothing in this film felt super strong, just everything was pretty alright.
