Equipped with his passion for diving and admiration for marine biology, university student Tsuneo Suzukawa tries his best to juggle several part-time jobs to earn enough money to study abroad. But one night, in a fateful accident, he meets a girl in a wheelchair, driving his current path into a detour.
The girl, Kumiko—who prefers to be called "Josee"—initially comes off as rude. Tsuneo, however, is then convinced by Josee's grandmother to take on the paid job to be Josee's caretaker. Despite being annoyed with her bossy demeanor, Tsuneo sees the opportunity to save more funds to support his academic dream. Nonetheless, after putting up with Josee's behavior for some time, Tsuneo tries to quit, only to discover Josee's dreams of traversing the outside world—to experience a life free from her crippling condition.
Changing his mind, Tsuneo decides to accompany Josee in exploring the wonders that the world has to offer. Through their time together, the two begin to realize that the traits that bind them may be vital toward fulfilling their respective aspirations.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
LoneAce
Let me begin by saying I've been waiting for this movie for a little more than 4 months, so although there is bound to be some bias in this review I will try to keep it as balanced as possible and write as if the anticipation was less. I will also try my best to include as little spoilers as possible, but if you have yet watched the trailer, you might get spoiled in the smaller parts Plot - 10/10 As you might have read in the synopsis, Josee met Tsuneo by a chance encounter (check out trailer if you want to know what happened) and decidesthat despite her disabilities, she wants to see the outside world. If you have seen the trailer beforehand, you will know that both of them sneaked out when her grandmother took her naps, and they explored the world Josee had never seen or had not seen for quite a long time. It was during those times that she experienced more of the outside world, an experience that she found very exciting and scary at the same time.
I think the best part of the movie was when everything goes wrong, one after another. I know there is bound to be people who say something along the lines of "oh, but the climax was cliché" and I won't say they are wrong. But the way it is depicted in this tale is not very usual, and some scenes forces you to try sympathize with the characters due to how heartbreaking the implications and the events can get. Also, I can safely say that this is the only movie in which the storytelling of a children's book can be phrased in a way that makes the audience very emotional, so look forward to that.
Art - 9/10
The art in this movie is average at best. If you have seen Garden of Words or Your Name, then you might feel that the art in this movie is mediocre. This is where I disagree. The art serves as a support for the plot that we are paying our money for, and the art in this movie actually supports the plot well. You will not find yourself feeling left out by the characters who look so unrealistic that they seem to be of a different world. In fact, you might actually be drawn to the characters because the art makes them feel real, and the fact that a simplistic art style makes it feel realistic is a selling point of a movie.
Sound - 10/10
Now many people might be reviewing this based on the ending song Ao no Waltz by Eve since the Eve music video in Youtube had been very popular before the movie's release and had been the reason why many people watched the movie in the first place. While that song itself was good, we can't discount the fact that you only get to hear that during the last few minutes of the movie. So instead I will share about the ambient sounds and the speech patterns of characters in the movie.
The sounds in the movie are engineered in a manner that will leave you breathless. Some scenes include a lot of atmospheric noises which will improve the already realistic feel of the movie, while others uses the strength of silence to emphasize the feelings each character holds true within themselves. The way each characters spoke really reflects what is actually on their minds, rather than the words they actually used and the message they actually tried to deliver.
Character - 9/10
In terms of character development, I feel that it was done in a rushed manner and although it explains every character, their personalities, and their behaviors well, it does not give you time to process the string of information. However, I can’t say that it was done in a bad manner, it isn't. The main goal of this rapid development is actually to let you immerse yourself in their world and experience and understand more about the characters with the characters themselves. Confused?
Let me give you a rundown of my argument. Would you find watching a movie which tells everything you need to know about a character or one that makes you go in the same pace as the characters? I think the fact that we do not know everything about a character is realistic in the sense that, in the real world, we do not know everything about people we interact with, and instead only know what had been displayed by that person.
As for the characters themselves, there is not many to talk about, but there is much to talk about them, but I won't, you have to see for yourselves. There are some you hate but will grow on you, some you enjoy looking at, and some you might loath so much because of how rigid their minds work. It is this good blend that reflects how the real world actually is, and that’s how the movie makes its characters so relatable and not flat.
Enjoyment - 10/10
Won't go into too much details here since I've been waiting for this movie and it’s only natural that I will enjoy myself. However, in the theatres I was watching at, people cheered at the end of the movie so I guess it was enjoyable enough even if you watched it without any background information.
Overall - 10/10
Summary of this review, it's worth it to watch. Give it a shot.
eroticmixologist
I watched this in theater recently and decided to write a review, will keep it simple for those who's curious about this movie. In summary, this romance drama is pretty standard as it goes, so if you expect something new or something compelling then you won't find it here. Animated movie formats in general are fast paced due to its short run time; relying on common tropes, character archetypes and melodrama to convey the story quickly and efficiently; it simply can't be fleshed out like a TV-series, and this movie is no different. Of course, this isn't a bad thing - what I want to addresshere is to know your expectations before watching this (and pretty much anything else). I personally watched this because I want a light-hearted casual show with nice interactions between the main duo. And yes it is a cute show which satisfied my needs, so if you watch the trailer and like what it has to offer then you should definitely give it a chance. Next up are my personal thoughts of this movie with no spoilers.
The main duo Josee and Tsuneo got to know each other during an accidental encounter. Tsuneo, as a poor college student, was offered a job right after by Josee's grandmother - it is to look after Josee and keep her safe from the outside world due to her condition. It wasn't easy for Tsuneo to earn the trust of a wary and awkward Josee who's confined from the outside world most of the time, but eventually he got through. And from there Tsuneo slowly helped Josee to see the world that she always wished to see; became more independent and overcome her physical condition that greatly hindered her life. You should be able to guess how the rest goes.
The movie doesn't waste time elaborating, it set up the story and the arcs quickly and efficiently. You will feel the quick pacing of the film (due to the format's limitation like I mentioned at the start), but it isn't feel rushed. The first half introduced our characters and established the duo's dynamic, and then it shifted gears right away into the second half where the drama starts surfacing. The general flow of the movie was decent from start to finish - exciting and cute at first, then it gets heavier during the drama act, goosebump during the climax and lighthearted in the end with a happy ending. I was pleased with the movie's general execution, although the first act where it established the duo's dynamic was kinda short in my opinion.
Tsuneo and Josee are classic characters you usually see in a romance drama, but what matters is the execution, and it was well done. Tsuneo is a hardworking college student who loves ocean life and want it to be his career goal. While Josee dreams of exploring the outside world, especially the sea. She loves drawing and her topic has always been about the world under the water. It is the love of the sea that draws these two together, and from here we see their relationship started to develop. Tsuneo is level-headed, matured and responsible; while Josee is a bit hot-tempered, and awkward due to lack of interaction with the outside world (which her overprotective grandmother played a big part in). But as she grew more comfortable around Tsuneo, she became expressive, happy, easily excited (and sometimes embarrassed) over the most mundane things of the outside world and it especially peaked when she saw the sea. It melted me a bit seeing these sides of Josee. During the second half we will see how the duo helped each other to overcome their struggles and life misfortunes. I won't dwell too much into this, but it was well paced and ended on a good note like I mentioned last paragraph.
The relationship dynamic between Tsuneo and Josee for the most part can be described as cute and light-hearted. Their interactions and dialogues remind me of Korean romance for some reason - short remarks; bashfulness between the two, especially from Josee as she became fond of Tsuneo, but for the most part, light-hearted and pleasant. Their voice acting are on point as well. There's only one gripe I had - I wished there was more development and connection between the two as they talk about their love for the sea because I love sea themes in general and unfortunately the movie doesn't cover this too much, which was a bummer.
The supporting cast are nothing special. They serve only as plot device, nothing more, nothing less. There's a love triangle but it existed only to move the story forward and the melodrama was rather awkward but ultimately it served its purpose and wasn't dragged out, which was a relief. Moving on.
Art, music & general direction was nice. You can check out Eve's MV Aono waltz to have a feel of everything. Unfortunately, 90% of the eye candy visuals and the most beautiful shots are all in that 4-minute MV so you won't find much more in the movie. Don't expect it to be stunning every frame like Makoto Shinkai's productions.
All in all, this is an enjoyable show and I had a good time watching it. Hopefully this review will help you make up your mind and have a casual, realistic view of what this movie is like.
Daxonzion-
[tl;dr is at the bottom of the review] Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is a movie that tells a story heavily focused on Josee (the disabled girl shown on the poster) and Tsuneo (the boy who walks besides Josee shown on the poster). When you saw this movie's poster for the first time, you might be thinking that this movie will tell one hell of a sad story. You're not wrong, but you're not completely right either if you think like that. My suggestion if you ever wanted to watch this movie, do not take your expectations too highly. I've heard a lot of positivethings about this movie before, and that obviously made me expecting things highly from this movie. The movie did not live up to my expectations, but it did have it's own redeemable quality to be called "good".
Now, let's get to the review:
Story: 5/10
The story is as generic drama as it could get. As I've mentioned as an opening before, this movie is heavily focused on Tsuneo and Josee. Why did I say it's generic? Because this kind of story has been seen and used lot in the drama romance genre.
[This is a paragraph worth of recap of the plot. You can skip it]
It's a story about Josee who has a deficiency locked up by her overprotective grandma in her own house for too long, and that made her has a dream to see the outside world by herself. Tsuneo on the other hand, is a "normal" boy who has a part-time job that needed him to explore the ocean and has a dream to become a student in a foreign university. One night, Tsuneo came across Josee by accident and that somehow made Tsuneo became closer to her. Their journey exploring the outside begins there, and guess what? Yes, they slowly grow a feeling into each other.
Okay, the main problem is not how the story is oftenly seen on the screen, but it's the way how the movie tells the story. There's no proper explanations on how and why these things on the screen happening. Things just happens like that, and it tricks you into thinking the movie has explained the important parts when it's actually not. I sat there watching confused with a question like "How? Why?" most of the time. Being "mainstream" is not enough to call this kind of story generic, but looking at how lacking the storytelling is kind of backing my statement about it being generic. The pacing on the other hand, is kind of balanced in a way even if it feels a bit forced sometimes. The flow from the happy introduction, to melancholic complication, then going back to the happy vibes in the end feels nice and balanced. As I said, Nothing bad, nothing good.
Art & Animation: 9/10
Probably the best aspect of the movie. The artstyle is absolutely smooth and detailed, it made my eyes almost reached the orgasmic point. Animation is also feels and looks smooth. I'm sure this alone could make you hooked into watching the movie more.
Sound: 8/10
The voice acting is very good. The dialect that Josee spoke feels natural, and every other voice acting of the characters here is also feels natural, even the screams could make some goosebumps here and there. The sfx is nice, and then the music. Eve takes part in this, and boi it did make the show better. I almost shed a tear when Eve's music starts to play in the middle of the movie as it fits perfectly with the scene that the song placed in.
Character: 5/10
Even though the movie is heavily focused on Josee and Tsuneo, they both did not have a proper background, but I'd say it's still tolerable. Their backgrounds might be little, but their journey on the movie could make the viewer cares about them.
The other characters though? They seem to be exist only to be a plot device. No proper backgrounds and not enough screentime to make the viewer at least lay an eye on them. There's one scene that made me scratched my head out of confusion. One character that is supposed to be an important character, just got removed without an explanation. Imagine one neutral scene where you're not supposed to expect something, the show gave you a sudden turn anyway. It's not a shock value, but it's still something. Something to confuse the hell out of your mind. The scene is supposed to be "powerful" but it's just, they don't seem to even care with the characters other than Josee and Tsuneo. Also, the whole "love rival" just came out of nowhere, and the show expects the viewer to care about it?. I mean, again, because there is no proper explanation on it.
Enjoyment: 6/10
Even though this movie did confuse the heck out of me, and dissapointed me since i had high expectations on it, it somehow still made me almost sheds a tear. And that artstyle, my eyes highly appreciates it. Also, Josee's cute not gonna lie.
Overall: 6.6 - (7: Good)
tl;dr - This is a heartwarming and cute movie. Best watched with your close ones and enjoys it together. Even if this would made the viewer confused with it's way of storytelling, but it could still make the viewer cares about the two main duo of the movie, as it is their focus of the show. It's a good watch overall even tho there's a lot of downs from the movie.
And yes, i'm sorry if this looks like a rant rather than a review.
ziIIa
"Grandma, the outside is not scary at all." Josee, the Tiger and the Fish may have had a slightly bumpy start, but it knows its own strengths and uses it to build its momentum. At its apex, this film shines in all its beauty and fills you up with all sorts of emotions. What you will witness from this anime is the clear result of a passionate team that knows how to delicately craft a story that is able to stand out among the crowd of modern anime. Josee's story contains several tropes, including cliche ones, but it is able to execute them when time is appropriateand the result is of praise. The main characters, Josee and Tsuneo, got to meet each other through a coincidence, which is nothing special but certainly not bad. Their relationship went off to a rocky beginning, however, when both of them realized their similar interest for the ocean, it kicked off the steady climb in terms of their understanding of each other. That is great and all, but it was not yet what I was looking for. Josee always had a love for drawing of the ocean and fishes. She even dreams of her swimming as a mermaid in an underwater world with fishes. The part of the story that heavily stuck out to me was the scene where Josee reads a storybook to the children. Every page of the storybook was painted by Josee; every page of the storybook encapsulates Josee's love for the ocean. The story? An analogy of her dearest memories with Tsuneo. It really pulled my heartstrings. I teared up.
Alongside the story, Josee featured spectacular technical qualities. From the art to the voice acting, there is nothing I can really complain about at all. The soft lineart along with a colorful palette really suited what this film is about. They were consistent with it, and it allowed for dynamic facial expressions as well. If I were to nitpick something real quick, it would be the 3DCG standing out at times during certain parts of the film. Although that's not too much of a concern since most of the movie uses animated drawings, I figured to still point it out as a room for improvement. Other than that, I was particularly impressed with its lighting. It's something a lot of studios tend to cut corners on, but in all honesty good lighting can give your film an entire layer of color.
The OSTs for Josee were good, though I would not go out of my way to say it is breathtaking. Even so, Eve's 'Ao no Waltz' was quite powerful and incredible, what else can I really comment on. The voice acting, however, was really something else. Kaya Kiyohara really outperformed herself with the Kansai accent and the passionate immersion in her role; but that might just be me with my soft spot for Kansai accents.
In a romance film, what really matters is the character dynamic. How was it? I do not think their dynamics are original in any way, but it was executed in a manner that did not feel excessively tropey and overused. Pretty much what you might see in other romance series or movies, two main characters and two supporting characters, with the two girls soon falling in love with the same guy. This dynamic faintly reminds me of shows like Toradora, but with a lot less pointless drama. The latter factor allowed me to enjoy this film much more, and I am glad for that. I found the interactions between Josee and Tsuneo to be really cute though. I am weak for blushing, but they just kept blushing in romantically adorable ways. I give them an additional 10 points for tugging my heartstring.
On the whole, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish does use tropes, it does have character dynamics that have appeared in other shows before. At the same time, it features a promisingly solid story with its own times to truly shine alongside a magnificent production quality. Personally, I am biased to a cute romance couple so I enjoyed it a lot. Would I recommend it? Sure, it is a great film to just watch with a friend or even alone.
288124
This movie sounded amazing. Evan Call's soundtracks really elevated some of the more emotional and dramatic scenes, and Eve never ceases to amaze me with how good their songs are. Studio Bones absolutely nailed the animation too; from super detailed (and really cute!) characters to beautiful scenery shots, they certainly brought their A game here. 9/10 for both Art and Sound, for sure. Unfortunately, the positives kinda stop there. What followed from an enthralling premise and a breathtaking first half-hour was a runaway train towards narrative disaster. I really wish I could tear into how poorly executed its dramatic lows were, but I want this reviewto be as spoiler-free as possible so I can hopefully warn potential watchers on what to expect.
Story - 2/10
It's your run-of-the-mill romcom, sure, and it is fairly cute and heartwarming at times, but don't expect any form of realistic or sensible drama. Everything in the story conveniently happens to push the sickeningly cliched plot forward, to the point where its ludicrosity transcends into comedy. Even ignoring that, the general plot direction is so boring that I could name a dozen similar, but better executed shows. Bunny Girl Senpai's movie comes to mind - the dramatic climax and aftermath is pretty much identical, but the build-up to that in this movie was far shallower and more contrived. The movie then becomes obsessed with digging the drama hole further and further, layering more and more tragedies onto the characters until it barely feels tragic anymore. As if it couldn't get worse, this is followed up with the cheesiest rendition of 'Hopes and Dreams will Save the World!' that I've ever seen. Ah yes, hopes and dreams are able to resolve physical and practical impossibilities. As long as we believe, we'll get the perfect relationship out of an extremely frayed and toxic one just 10 minutes prior! But that leads me on to...
Characters - 3/10
No, Josee making snarky, rude quips at random points in the show does not make her a well-written character. She is exaggerated past any reasonable point - I get the defensiveness and spite towards the world around her, but the movie is so quick to make 180 degree switches between that and her completely happy and trusting side so... anything gives? The male protagonist gives me heavy harem MC vibes - dense, overly nice for no reason, and somehow every female in the show falls in love with him, despite completely missing backstories for some of them. Speaking of which, the side characters were somehow done even worse. Not a single one managed to remotely stand out, and got so little development and screentime that I couldn't even remember their names. The characters are only marginally better than the plot, but that's honestly because nothing can get worse than the plot.
Overall/Enjoyment - 5/10
All in all, it's not all bad. The story occasionally hints at the start of potentially good ideas, and its latter half makes some attempt to link to its promising first half-hour. But virtually everything that made that first half-hour stand out - the main duo's hobbies, constraints, and budding friendship (which was actually really nicely developed) - gets thrown out of the window once the drama hits. For such a talented production team, it's a real letdown. At least I got a couple nice additions to my playlist out of this.
-Pharos-
THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE. The concept of having a handicapped one step by step gaining the recognition from others is not something new to anime fan, but hardly all of them are good enough to be watched with pleasure. Even “Koe no katachi”, one of the best amongst the genre, still receives conflicting opinions as it digs real deep into a sensitive and thorny problem that modern societies are witnessing – discrimination and despising ones with impairments. I’m not going to compare “Koe no katachi” to “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish’, but as it comes to movies about this topic, the former had somewhat set away too high standard, which really blurred several other films coming thereafter.
However, I have to admit that somehow Josee caught my attention from its very first trailer, and this might be the case when it hardly gave us any details about the movie and awakened the intriguing part inside of me. What Josee had to cope with, why did it happen to her, how did Tsuneo become her caretaker, why did real harsh things were said to her,...
Well, not all of them were answered throughout the movie.
Let us discuss its shortcomings first.
Movies about disabled people, and anime to be specific, usually tell a seamless story, from indicating their past of having impairments to how they coped with them in normal day life, then the story might show up some tragedies, displaying their sense of helplessness and ultimately they found the courage to overwhelmed them altogether. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish”, however, followed an unfamiliar pattern, which skipped the very first step and jumped right into the next one by introducing Josee, her disability and the other protagonist – Tsuneo – all at once. “She was born like this”, said by her grandmother, and that’s all what we know about her impairments.
Having said that, there was a real quick scene displaying her condition drawn by her own in her room, but as for my opinion, this indication was hardly noticed by viewers and not something that should be done instead of having a small story on how she grew up with it. Either a quick flashback or a cut of her afternoon dream would be clearer.
Storyline pacing, which should have not been a problem, is yet a huge question mark. The first 40 minutes was perfectly slow and gentle, but then 2 tragic twists came up one by one without any signs, too abrupt that the empathy of viewers for the first tragedy had yet to come when the second one stroke onto Josee. This was a huge trouble as one thing distinguishing this genre is the power to move viewers’ heart and touch their compassion.
These abrupt shifts somewhat created a slight sense of confusion amongst viewers instead of gaining their sympathy, thereby may lead to misleading thoughts or difficulties in perceiving moral lessons displaying throughout the movie.
Aside from above drawbacks, the studio (Bones) and the movie director did not let us down in terms of visuals and BGM. Such detailed every scene was that reminded me of Shinkai Makoto’s products like “Your name” and “Garden of Words”, which made it easier for the storyline, the characters, and the movie as a whole to fulfill viewers’ enjoyment.
The design of characters was not something so odd, but it still somehow stood out from other movies lately, and this might be the case when there were just few of them that required being polished. We got to see Tsuneo’s 2 colleagues, along with their boss at the shop, Josee’s grandmother and a librarian being well-drawn to every single gesture or action. Others, however, did not follow this same pattern when their faces as long as their movements seemed a bit raw; and even if this may look like I am too tough on it, this is the one that should have been better done by the studio due to the fact that those characters listed above had their time on-screen and played their particular role in contributing to the development of our 2 main characters.
The storyline, which I first thought would be complicated and lackluster, was surprisingly slow and simple. It clearly illustrated the movie’s purpose and moral lesson in a real predictable way, but still somehow managed to present a slight sense of confusion. Therefore, it is hard for one to recognize it as good or bad, vivid or dull, worth-watching or not; but from my point of view, how straightforward the story was something we could accept because it was not the real point of the whole movie.
As I proceeded to watch the movie after feeling quite cringy about 2 consecutive tragedies striking, I figured it out that those 2 were just some tragic twists in order to emphasize the moral lessons about the courage to never give up. Predictable? Yes, it was. In addition, there was a whole screen of Josee’s storytelling at nearly the end of the movie which I adored so much, talking about not only giving unlucky people impetus on continuing their dreams but also pinpointing the peak of character development throughout the entire movie.
Another aspect of “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish” distinguishing it from lately anime is the changing of colour tones. You can easily notice how nebulous the movie was at its very first 10-20 minutes, which marginally turned brighter and brighter as the connection between the 2 main characters being developed and hit the highest note at the finale. This was not something new to anime because we witnessed the shift of “music colour” in “Your lie in April” or the voices in “Koe no katachi”, but using colour as a way to depict the development of relationship was quite exceptional and amazingly well-performed by Bones.
The movie itself was not fantastic, but it stepped beyond the mediocre standard of its kind and left behind several authentic marks.
It was enjoyable because of the straightforward and simply predictable storyline.
It was a sweet pie for whom being alone.
It was a picture of modern society’s thorn about how we treat people with less luck than us.
It was meaningful because of hidden lessons and motivation.
And it was a real memorable movie thanks to its ending song along with an adorable after credit.
PiedPiper_
Mediocre story, dull progression , one dimensional characters, zero emotions, over-dramatic premise = Josee, the Tiger and the Fish I have been waiting for this movie for quite sometime, because the Korean Live Action of this is one of my All Time Favourite. I haven't read the original source material on which one followed the source faithfully but this anime adaptation is abysmal to say the least. Story : Mundane story, with tons of events and drama with out any substance to it. I thought the story might delve on the issue of person going through disability and might touch on it a bit more. But thiswas all about our characters having little shenanigans for getting other's attention. If you thought synopsis on MAL was monotonous, I'm afraid movie is even more lacklustre.
Characters : Everyone in the movie was uninspiring dull, one dimensional card boards. I couldn't feel the emotions behind any of these expressionless characters. Josee our female lead despite being 24 acted as if she was 12 or something. Petulant, up her own ass and yearning for pity. Meanwhile, our male lead after a certain point (despite being serious I found that incident hilarious) in the movie became a dick, despite everything being his own choice. But as you might expect from Anime, Power of Words and friendship swayed his heart. As for the rest of the cast they're there for fan-service and filling screen space.
Art : Art was extremely good and really adored all the visuals of the movie.
Sound : Nothing special in this department as well. I wish Voice actors could have put more emotions to make these lifeless characters more real life. Also, Ending song felt more like "Your name" wannabe.
Finally, do yourself a favor, instead of wasting time on whatever nonsense this version tried to pull, I highly suggest to watch the Korean live-action of this movie. It is 100 times better than this garbage.
SexSpray
I was a little excited when I found out about this movie, since it have a great score and it's on top 100 anime on this site, so I decided to watch it with my friends. I already watched most of the top anime movies so I was in search of even more great movies and me finding about this anime was a perfect fit for this situation. Now let's get into it- This movie from the first 10 minutes was bad, everything, except for the art style was so bad I couldn't even comprehend the entire thing. The story was a poor excuse for a clicheichtype of thing that you usually see in american based style of movies, therefore being a very poor choice to combine the simplistic western style type with a story for an anime. I see that anime movies start to do the same with other stories, especially those that are fairy tale Disney type of thing, which in my opinion strip the beauty and "specialiy" that all anime bring.
Now about the characters all I can say is that they were so bad and lacked personality so much that at the end of the movie I forgot even their names. I never felt any emotion for any of them especially for the girl in the wheelchair which they gave the "I'm angry cause I'm not healthy and I have the right to treat others like I want" type of cliche that threw me off from the start. Other characters felt soulless and they never gave away any true emotion, not even in "sad" parts of this movie.
Not even for the romance moments I never felt any true feeling from them, it was all like a forced "connection" between them.
The art style was the only thing that was good, in fact very good about all this anime, as expected from studio Bones, but it still felt like I was watching a 2010 anime movie(not a problem though).
Everything sound related from music. osts etc were so simple and poor that made this even harder and boring to watch.
Overall I do not recommend this at all if you are in search for a emotional, romantic, drama story. Just pass this onto your next option, I can almost 100% guarantee that your next option will be way better than this failure.
If you read until here, then thank you for your time, and know that this was my first review ever.
Wrote this cause this was the worst anime I had ever watched, so I wanted to let you know how bad truly is from someone perspective other than the usual people that are satisfied with absolute simplicity.
LordVolkath
Overall i`ts a good movie. I love how they`re make Tsuneo become a caregiver for Josee, which is not in the LA version. The seiyuu of Josee is my favorite, the accent she has really fit on the Josee character. Visual and art from studio bones is goddamn good and also the music from E ve gives me a goosebumps on the cinema. some people tell me that the pace story of this movie is too fast but that`s acceptable for me. and the most important things is the ending, it`s feel like a cure for my dissapointed on the LA version LOL
LoliXSlayer
I just came back from the theatres and I want to say that this movie is really good. Watched this with the bros and we enjoyed it. It has a great soundtrack, beautiful art and the story is pretty good. Corona ain't stopping me from watching this but remember social distance and wear your mask. As you go into the movie you will start to fall in love with the characters. You got the girl in wheelchair, josee(best girl) . Black hair kind dude,tsuneo and the other few side characters. Well designed and the VA they chose for the characters did a good job. Theart is beautiful 9 to 10/10. Thank you for blessing my eyes.
Story is probably the weakest part I think but its still pretty good. It's something abit different and they don't waste your time on dumb shit and executes it really well. I didn't get emotional though but it got me feeling empty.
The music in this anime is AMAZING. It's made by eve (The dude that made JJK opening)
OVERALL 8/10 which is really good definitely recommend you to watch this but it will make you feel empty. Wish i had a girl like josee by my side
poirotto
Will be a controversial one but i don't think josee deserves a good rating. It lacks in character development and the build up is extremely rushed that it loses its essential. All the climax and supposed-to-be emotional moment feel so bland because the lack in character introduction Story suppose to be great, i mean - a broken dream and hopeless disabled person and its struggle to achieving their dream is supposed to be sad, right? but sadly its not executed well. The movie feels so bland with side characters that are not giving any significant contribution to the story. All the emotional moment came with littleto no backstory that makes the audience doesn't feel the same sadness as the character feels
The art is nothing too amazing, either. The animation in this movie is very advertisement-like and its nothing really special and nothing to be mentioned about. The music are nice, thats a good point and there are some wholesome moment in the start - but the execution and climax is so bland - and the ending feels a little bit weird by jumping from one story arc to another real quick.
A forgettable movie, but still pretty enjoyable. Especially if you love this kind of sad ambience
P.s: Josee is the worst tsundere ever make an appearance lol, she makes nino nakano in season 1 looks a bit better
Inudrew
Josee, The Tiger & The Fish is a beautifully animated story about the growing relationship between a mobility aid-bound girl named Josee & Tsueno, who becomes her caretaker and helps her get out of her home and explore the world. Story 10/10 One of the most true-to-life stories I've seen. Something I have seen happen and something I personally connect with being a person who works with people with disabilities, it's so true to see both the sad moments like the sense of people not caring based on a simple disability, a family that can be overbearing with fear for their loved ones, the sad moments ofnever being able to truly experience a certain aspect of life for themselves. But also the best things like self-improvement coming naturally after a hopeful moment, family and friends finding faith in their loved ones, and the triumph of people to overcome obstacles because of people they love inspiring them to chase their dreams.
"The world isn't all scary"
Art 10/10
The expressions are beautiful, but this film solely needed to look beautiful not because of it being "cool" or "standardized by modern anime" but because of the character in Josee's love for art and paintings and how that conveys her dreams, stories, and inner expression throughout the story.
Sound 10/10
Things just feel like it's everyday natural occurrences, so when the more imaginative and magical moments happen, it feels like a truly special moment that's just for the characters. It's so true, the older you get the more you find moments like these are what is offered in reality.
Characters 10/10
Josee is one of the most beautiful written characters, not attempting to define her by her disability alone but to showcase her growth through her relationship with Tsuneo, who himself is given such a down-to-earth spirit that is more relatable than serialized as the film progresses. The supporting cast also shines in different ways that highlight their own values and struggles for which all relate back to the theme of some who are afraid to try because of obstacles.
Enjoyment 10/10
One of the sweetest, most realistic, and imaginative films I've seen in a long time. It radiates with hope, but doesn't spoil you with expectations of some of the realities that life throws at you, but doesn't say it's not possible to overcome, especially through factors that connect you to people, culture, art, and the world around you.
Overall 10/10
It's a beautiful story that will tug at your heartstrings while showcasing the power to follow your dreams in spite of disabilities and other obstacles that life throws at you.
Fully recommend it to everyone
myronator
While this is going to be a mostly negative review, I have to disagree a little with the other negative reviews here. The premise for this film has enough to carry the film and the characters have enough depth to fill out the 1.5 hours. Josee is struggling with having confidence, control, and autonomy, while Tsuneo is pushing himself to reach dreams that would make most people burn out if they tried to do anything similar. Tsuneo is balancing his high workload with social life and keeping his dream alive, Josee is dealing with an overbearing grandmother who is against Josee having any autonomy orfreedom. It is clear that this film has set up plenty of themes and conflicts to explore. The issue I have with the film is that it chooses to ignore its characters to follow unnecessary plot twists and tragedies.
The first interaction between Josee and Tsuneo is very cliche for anime (Josee falls onto Tsuneo then proceeds to do a ridiculous tsundere move). It continues being a little ridiculous with their interactions, but it gives the feel that it is building up to a good exploration of their characters; their dreams, fears, and how their relationship grows. However, instead of going further into this, we have a tragedy. Following this tragedy, we have characters being assholes for no reason. Then this is followed up by another tragedy. The film follows this pattern until it finishes with a cliche that should be seen as an incredibly awful thing to do; not picking up someone who is being discharged from hospital and running away.
It seems to be common for highly rated anime to follow the same line of story telling. It reminds me of how I would write when I was 10 years old and didn't have any understanding of themes, character exploration, and how the conditions one grows up in shapes one's life. Therefore, I wouldn't know how to finish my stories because it would require a deeper understanding of how people behave and committing to the themes that are set up in the first half of the story. This is seen in many other anime and its the same here. Josee and the Tiger and the Fish leaves you incredibly unsatisfied and bored during its second half, making it a very disappointing film.
I can't go without mentioning how beautiful the art is. I hope the artists got a payrise for this.
Atlos
(TLDR at the bottom, thanks for reading.) Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is another one of those heartstring-pulling anime but this time done well. Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (which I will now just call tiger and fish) is a pretty standard affair in terms of the fact that it doesn't bring much new to the medium of anime, although it does have a few twists and turns which can be unexpected (from my personal experience). Narrative: As you can tell from the poster the main character, Josee, is in a wheelchair. While this doesn't seem like it will affect the story you can probably guess howthis anime will go just by the fact that there isn't much anime about wheelchairs but luckily it doesn't focus too heavily on the fact Josee is in a wheelchair (thankfully).
The film starts with an accidental encounter between our two main characters, but the focus of the film is laid squarely on Josee, Tsuneo is only really focused on in the final third of the film. The film then carries on at a fairly quick pace, showing us an organic development of Tsuneo's and Josee's relationship. But the film goes out of its way to show the viewer its "secret weapon" the fact that Tsuneo wants to go and study in Mexico, giving the film a specific point where everything will have to end. This combined with some other events is what makes up the 2nd act of the film.
The events of the second act are sparked by the death of Josee's grandmother, which leaves an issue. Does Tsuneo leave Josee all alone to pursue his dream or does miss out on this opportunity and stay to care for Josee? There isn't really an easy answer, especially that it is suggested that Tsuneo is developing feelings for Josee. But the world doesn't wait for Tsuneo, it moves on, people move on and make their own decision, after Josee finds out that she won't be able to be with Tsuneo she tries to cut him out of his life, she can't just say no to someone she cares for so she tries to irreparably damage her relationship and tries to radically change herself to become someone new. But this isn't what Tsuneo wanted and after Josee's wheelchair gets stuck in a pothole disaster strikes, Tsuneo is hit by a car.
The directing in this scene is very impressive, the paramedics rushing to make sure Tsuneo is ok, spliced with a completely black frame with only one central siren pulsating, the breathing with gets faster and faster, combined with the music the is quiet enough to put focus on the heavy breathing but still noticeable. The music swells up until a breaking point and then silence, all the sound is gone and it is just Josee crying in a bleak hospital room. The music starts up and the rain drowns out any other out, then Tsuneo wakes up. The reason I am focusing so much on this one specific scene is that it perfectly creates an atmosphere of panic, while the film has focused on death before the focus of the film has always been on Josee so to see that the focus of the film has been ripped from her was a welcome surprise. Some other cool directing tricks are used, mainly Josee entering the hospital but having her head out of the frame, only showing us her wheelchair, with other shots making sure to have tunes leg near the middle of the frame. It's small directing tricks like this that manage to convey information to the viewer without having the characters physically explain it.
This bit isn't perfect however, I've referred to this as the second act and that because the film follows the three-act structure almost to a tee. For those of you who don't know the three-act structure is one of the most simple ways of structuring a story. The first act is usually used for build-up or establishing the characters relationships, the second act refers to some conflict normally due to rising tensions throughout the story and the final act is the resolution. The reason I am bringing this up is because of the structure of this film the main conflict is resolved before the film actually ends, Tsuneo comes to terms with what has happened and is already working to improve himself. But because of the loose threads, the film has left a few loose threads it stumbles around before it can reach its actual conclusion, taking the viewer out of the experience. It sometimes feels as if the film is bouncing back between whether it wants a happy or sad ending. But while the ending of the films feels a bit confused it isn't enough to dampen the overall experience.
Audiovisuals:
This film is stunning to look at all the characters look great and the overall visual presentation of this film is frequently great. The audio is also praiseworthy, while not being especially memorable it complements certain scenes well and never feels too intrusive.
TLDR: While tiger and fish is nothing revolutionary it effectively accomplished what it set out to do while being pleasantly entertaining. Don't go in with high hopes and you leave feeling pleasantly surprised.
MugiwaraValerio
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish Review | Written analysis. This movie fails in every way, it fails as a drama, fails as an inspirational movie, fails overall. The soundtrack is one of the most fundamental and basic aspects when directing a film of this type, but I feel that the soundtrack on this occasion was abused and poorly used at times, for example, in the first dramatic scene, where the girl falls down the slope a soundtrack sounds not according to the drama that the scene deserves, speaking of said scene, we are only told that someone pushed her, but how could this happen? Who was?We are not even shown a silhouette of who or how he did it, which I find incredibly forced and flattering with respect to the plot. Then the way in which the relationship is built in principle does not convince me at all. She gets angry with whoever saved her and calls him a pervert and accuses him of "following them"? How does she come to that conclusion? I don't know. Later comes the crucial moment, he begins to work with them after accompanying them home and is put in the position of servant with Josee. Here begins his "servant" relationship with her, she gives her absurd and useless tasks. One day Miss Josee escapes (which is not her real name), she only chose it because she is a fan of some books by a certain author. I do not want to question why she likes the books of the author Sagan since that is indifferent to me in relation to the events of the present but at least they would have made an explanation of the plot of these books, or at least why she likes to be called"Josee "Of course, I, yours truly, took on the task of looking for said book and studying said character and this was what appeared to me:
"Josée, typical rich and frivolous young woman who fills her life using others just for the mere fact of feeling something different and new."
Webster, Paul (2002), "The tragedy of Françoise Sagan" Elmundolibro (09/24/04). <http //: www.elmundo.es/elmundolibro>
What is the relationship between said character and the girl? Well, ask yourself what is the relationship between airpods and a fish, the answer in both is the same.
And so, their relationship is building in a moving way, but not at all plausible, however, a bit cute to mention a positive aspect of the film. And so, we arrived at the scene of the sea, there are two of these during the film and the contrast that exists between them is clear, in the first one a world with color was seen, the protagonist had his dreams and hopes skyrocketing, the girl was traveling after being imprisoned by her grandmother, and here it is revealed to us why she wanted to go, the reason being that her father had asked her the question of what the sea smells like and she wanted to be able to answer it, obviously her answer was salty and she begins to cry, well, how emotional, no?, but at least they would have explained their relationship, or at least if the focus of the story is going to be on said disability they would have explained how it happened, things that could be explained in a basic way but decide to be ignored pile up to the amount of flaws in the movie. The second scene in contrast is OVERLYDRAMATIC, and when I say overlydramatic I mean it with the full sense of the word, the atmosphere is stormy, the sky is gray, and there are tears from the characters, as if that were not enough, it begins to rain!,how shocking!, later Josee is stuck in a pothole in the middle of the road (very convenient, right?), and well the protagonist gets crashed at running towards her, the car who provoked the accident does not even bother to get out of the vehicle(probably in shock but not a clear damage was made to the vehicle) and the protagonist falls to the ground, a whole dramatic atmosphere,forced and cheap, with overused items, literally the only thing missing was that the god of thunder himself coming down and killing the cat that lived in the girl's house.
Now, let's talk about the cast, the side ones are bland, literally taken from the mold, we have the young "15034" who is a friend of the protagonist and flirtatious (the only good thing he does is give oxygen to the protagonist and take him to the library where Josee reads), and the girl who likes the main character number 123010, who well at least is better than the previous character since she is cruel to the girl in the beginning and even lights the flame that leads to the second scene of the sea (when she tells her that the main character only spends time with Josee because she is disabled and feels pity), and finally, the grandmother, who imprisoned Josee, and once Josee begins to leave they use the most dramatic and cheap resource possible: kill her, I am not saying that this is wrong, but at least to add a little more substance, not only "my work here is already done, now I can die in peace." Finally, the relationship of both characters, which is good, although I am not the biggest fan of its beginning, however I must admit that the execution is quite good, as they get to know each other, they are motivated, influenced and directly affects the life of the one of the another, the allegory with the story of Josee, giving wings to the kind heart of the protagonist, is also quite nice and good and I think the most remarkable thing about the film, speaking of the two of them, also mentioning the message of the film: see the front or "Face to face" with our tiger, or our defects, adversities, circumstances and problems of life as such which, although not very original, is good and effective. Also seeing how the protagonist solves his disabilities could have been better told, for example, as they do in "Real", but hey, I am not going to go into much detail in this regard. Finally the final scene, working directly the same as the scene of how they are known in the beginning, the girl falls due to a very forced accident down the hill (let's see, I'm not an expert in physics, but I feel like falling the way that sHe did it is a bit impossible, especially taking into account that in this second scene the slope was covered with snow) and is saved by the arms of the protagonist, yes, very nice, but with a construction that leaves much to be desired, here we come to the conclusion, the protagonist decides to pursue his dream by going to Mexico and Josee decides to follow her dream and be an illustrator of stories with drawings, and thus the once feared exterior filled witg "tigers" is no longer to be feared, since she and he had already faced it face to face.
Zeryphalix
(No spoilers) This is my favorite anime movie of all time from what I've seen so far, the themes and the emotion put into this made this movie so lifeful. Story 10/10 - Such a wonderful story, I loved it from start to finish! This movie is truly inspirational and meaningful, as the themes of this story are never giving up your dream and growing up. The events that the main duo and everybody else go through are done to an almost perfect extent.. The romance is bliss, it wasn't forced nor was it cringe, it had a perfectly natural flow, and it was truly atreat to see. The atmosphere and tone here are consistent and impeccable, it made the movie, like I said, feel more lifeful. The narrative from start to finish was absolutely stunning and immersive.
Art - The movie had good art, though to movies like Garden of words, it pales rather averagely... Is what you'd think, the simplistic art is wasn't a drawback at all! It in fact made the movie much more... Real maybe, it gave an immersive feeling and it was also another factor of the amazing atmosphere it had.
Characters - 10/10
Now my favorite part of this movie... The characters. The main duo have amazing character development and character progression. A truly beautiful take on "growing up with each other" kind of development. What the movie is trying to tell us is shown through the growth of the main duo
The main duo undoubtedly have the best dynamic out of any anime movie I've seen thus far, and their dynamic is what made us feel emotions for the two, and the dilemmas and struggles they face through the movie made it hit more hard because of that. The sympathy you can feel through the character's hardships are due to how real the characters feel.
The side characters also serve a good purpose within the story, and are solid characters themselves.
Sound - 10/10
Amazing soundtrack! the sound is also a factor of the realistic atmosphere it gave, the use of sound through each moment was fantastic! The emotional feel it gives elevates every scene, the music also interprets on how the characters feel.
Enjoyment - 10/10
I have never enjoyed an anime movie to this extent! well maybe, "night is short, walk on girl" is pretty close but still! The emotions this movie gave me... are really like none other. The beautifully executed themes, the immersive growth of the duo and their romantic moments and the overall purpose and message of the story.
Overall - 10/10
Many thanks to the people that read this review fully. To conclude my review, I will just say that please, give this movie a shot, it's amazing. Thanks for reading.
ag_
Recently, the anime community has been going on and on about a new movie made by Bones. There was no doubt it would have fantastic art and animation, and the fact that it was a dramatic slice of life related to disability and the growth of university students instantly made me interested. However, was the hype really worth the hour and a half watch time? Personally, I don’t think it was. The plot itself is fine, nothing special really. Like I mentioned previously, the plot is literally just that of a standard drama series, which is completely fine, but it doesn't try and do anything special(or even go simple). This can still work, but I'll explain that part later.
That being said, even besides that, it did have a few plot twists going on, but in my opinion, they were very predictable. For some people, that wouldn't be a problem, but these two things make me think that JTTATF has very little identity for itself. It feels almost as if it's scared to stray away from the standard tropes that dramas have, and I often just found myself comparing it to other dramas. I will say that it isn't exactly a bad plot, but I wasn't a fan of it myself.
The characters are the major selling point of this movie, but if you weren't a big fan of them, then you probably won't enjoy this at all (which is why the story didn't sell me). Unfortunately, besides Tsuneo, this wasn't the case for me. I honestly didn't like Josee at all. She was really annoying for the majority of the movie, and while I get some of that was due to outside influence, I just thought that the way she was didn't make up for it, especially considering her age. Her progression was okay, but I still didn't really like her. Tsuneo, however, was great and was a really interesting and likeable character; he had many relatable or emotional moments which did really resonate with me.
The rest of the supporting cast were extremely forgettable and/or served as a plot device. One of the characters is literally only there to form drama for absolutely no reason, and that annoyed me a lot when it happened, because it was so unnecessary to the plot.
The art and animation themselves were absolutely beautiful, as to be expected from Bones. Every shot and scene was animated absolutely beautifully, and the animation was superb. It felt almost like a mix of KyoAni and ComiX Wave. The music was fitting at almost every part, but unfortunately, I don't really remember any of the tracks. Eve did a good song for the ending with Ao no Waltz. The voice acting was fantastic in my opinion; despite how I feel about Josee, I loved her voice.
Now, with all of that said and done, I do have one thing to say which massively lowered my enjoyment, and that is how it portrayed disability. At the start, it seemed fine, but as the movie progressed, it seemed to literally only be used as a plot device, despite it being a major problem with Josee. It barely came up unless it had to in many parts in the second half, and I feel like the whole idea about that twist (also related to disability) was another plot device to push the romance. Plus, Josee herself was borderline toxic, and I felt like the movie was almost glorifying the fact that she was disabled, and let her get away with anything because of it.
Overall, I do think this movie could have been way better with only a few very small and simple changes. There were some fantastic emotional climaxes in the movie, especially involving Tsuneo, but some equally low moments that involved Josee or the rest of the cast. I do wish it tackled disability realistically and that Josee was more likeable, but besides that, I feel fairly in the middle about the movie. If you're into melodramas or maybe even standard drama series, check this out, but I wouldn't recommend this movie to many other people.
Gween_Gween
Tackling the concept of disabilities and mental frontiers, Josee get us through an oceans of emotions in her effort to touch the limits that she couldnt think that she could meet. The kick off of this journey is her meeting with a new acquaintance, and how the perception of her own self and the whole world changes with that Josee takes itself seriously from the beginning, offeringmesmerizing visuals and designs that got my eyes blurry and wanting for some more. The art, the shots, everything comes together to deliver something, to convey an emotion, or to convey a message. In this way, this movie is highlypragmatic, there is no pause, everything serves a purpose, it is provocative, it makes you think about it.
The story itself is quite simple though, indeed, if we reduce it to the simplest form it would be a classical romance, a cliche one certainly. This isn't a problem though, many times I've said in the past that the main objective of a media shouldn't be necessarily directed to be innovative, sometimes it could offer other things, and hell yeah does it present another exciting feats. The way that every little point goes to another point makes complete sense both emotionally and rationally.
Jesee character is completely understood from the beginning, maybe because as an spectator I've seen it before, maybe because it was conveyed in a crude manner, but it doesn't matter, it works. Tsuneo reactions to what is suddenly happening around him is realistic, there is no other way to put it, and that makes him wonderful, since you can feel that the reactions to what he does and his own reactions have truly a meaning and an emotion attached to it that is organic, emotionally tangible
The unfold of the story is quite tragic, while the parallels are obvious to the naked view, the execution of how every piece start to stick together makes it worth the time. As I said before, there is no break, there is no interlude, when shit hits the fan you get the moment to reflect on it and it doesn't drag, it goes just into action.
This story doesn't try to be subtle, but the raw emotions that the climax gives you should be enough to make you feel something, to get something, and to at least remember to your own self that there is something else to live for, to not give up for, a cliche message that is somehow, as I said before, done greatly by the execution and direction of the story. Indeed, the fact that this message is so flat and nothing new works well with the movie, the main character have forgotten that too, have lost its hope, its aim, and the own story makes him understand what he made her understand at the beginning. The hope that he gave to her was returned, he was reminded of his own self
As a conclussion, Josee is a nice piece of media that is worth to be seen. The art is beautiful, as you should expect from a movie nowadays, the soundtrack and shots are memorable, the characters are well defined and enticing to see, and the story is correctly executed in its own banality. It was a good ride, even in its own predictability and wicked fates
8/10
Faiz_pro
The art in this anime? Straight-up beautiful, man. It made me feel warm and comfortable, like I was just chillin’ in a safe space. I really liked how it looked — soft, clean, and full of emotion. What really got me though... was the story. No powers, no magic, — just real human stuff. And that’s what made it a masterpiece for me. The way it was told, the emotions, the struggles... it all felt real. Like, I actually connected with the characters in a way I haven’t with any other anime. Josee's journey, the way her world changed, and how Tsuneo played a part in it— all of it touched my heart. It’s a simple story, but damn, it hit me hard.
This anime proves you don’t need wild action to make something unforgettable. I 10000000000% recommend it to anyone who wants to feel something real. No cap — this one's special.
