Rizu to aoi tori (2018)

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Siskoid
Naoko Yamada's direction is incredibly sensitive, detailed and moving in Liz and the Blue Bird, and it therefore packs a powerful emotional punch at the end. The story is simple, intimate and contained - a young oboe player is in love with the class flutist at an all girls' school, but they can't get in sync during an important solo (well, duo). The eponymous piece is based on a children's story she identifies with - and which acts as our only respite from the school, nicely differentiated with more old-fashioned techniques, watercolor backgrounds and flatter animated figures - but her misunderstanding of its emotional core is due to her own immaturity, and stifles her performance. It's a beautiful exploration of young unrequited love, made more complex by the lead having to chart the heady waters of same-sex attraction. Music really is her only means of expression as words, for the most part, need to be encoded so as to protect oneself. Which isn't completely different from any unrequited love, but the claustrophobic repression is certain made more acute by the characters' exact circumstances. Gorgeous. 2 years 9 months ago