, also known as ''Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?'' is a 2017 Japanese

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

based on

Shunji Iwai is a Japanese film director, video artist, writer and documentary maker. Life and career Iwai was born in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. He attended Yokohama National University, graduating in 1987. In 1988 he started out in the Japanese entertainment ...

's live-action television film of the same name. It received mixed reviews from critics who praised it for music and animation, but criticized the narrative and characterization. It is the sixth highest-grossing anime film of 2017 and has grossed over worldwide. It was also released by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...

Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, b ...

and

GKIDS GKIDS is an American film distributor based in New York with, according to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS releases critically acclaimed, mostly hand-drawn, international films—such as the works o ...

Plot

Norimichi Shimada and Nazuna Oikawa live in the town of Moshimo (Japanese for "if"). The students make a bet regarding whether the fireworks are either round or flat in the sky. After Nazuna finds a small glass marble, she, Norimichi and Yusuke compete in the swimming pool race. Yusuke wins and Nazuna asks him to go on a date. Nazuna packs a suitcase and plans to leave home. Yusuke bails on the date and Nazuna is taken home by her mother. Norimichi throws the marble, wishing for luck and causing it to rewind time. Back when the race occurred, Norimichi wins this time around and Nazuna asks him on a date. They head to the train station, but are caught once again by Nazuna's mother and her fiance. Norimichi learns that the fireworks are flat and is aware he is in an alternate timeline. He wishes for another chance to escape with Nazuna. He throws the marble from a lighthouse and reverses time again. He helps her elude the family and board the train. They are caught again by the others. When Yusuke pushes the two off the balcony, Norimichi uses the marble once again, wishing for no one to see them. Time jumps back again and the train takes a different route, leaving the two in the same town encapsulated in a glass dome. After a pyrotechnician uses the marble as a leftover firework charge, it explodes in the sky. After seeing the future within the shard, Nazuna and Norimichi embrace. The next day, the school notices the absence of Nazuna and Norimichi.

Voice cast

Production

On December 7, 2016, the film was announced with a release date of August 2017. Hitoshi Ōne added modern elements of the film. The cast and crew were also announced. On April 14, 2017, a second teaser trailer for the film was released. A 30-second trailer, the third promotional video for the film, was released in June 2017. The film's theme song, " Uchiage Hanabi", is performed by

Daoko is a Japanese singer and rapper born in Tokyo. She started her career when one of her uploaded videos on Nico Nico Douga received attention at the age of 15 in 2012. Career The name Daoko (ダヲコ) was originally her web nickname. Her first ...

and

Kenshi Yonezu is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and illustrator who began releasing Vocaloid music under the stage name in 2009. In 2012, he debuted under his real name, releasing music with his own voice. He has sold at least 4.2 mi ...

. The music video has garnered more than 500 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, and is 1050th place on Top Viewed Videos on YouTube.

Release

The film premiered in Japan on August 18, 2017, and in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2017. It was distributed in 110 countries and regions in July 2017. Edko Films Ltd released the film in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

on October 31, 2017.

released the film on October 5, 2017. It was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on November 15, 2017. Madness Entertainment released the film in Mexico on February 16, 2018.

premiered the film in the United States on July 3, 2018, with the wide release on July 4, 2018. To promote the release, GKIDS released the trailer and images on May 23, 2018.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed from 133,000 admissions, from 220,000 admissions in two days and grossed a total of (US$4.2 million) within three days of the premiere across 296 theaters, ranking at No. 3. The film placed at No. 4 on the second weekend. It stayed at No. 4 on the third weekend, where it grossed from 78,000 admissions and earned a total of ¥1.1 billion. The film had grossed () in Japan. It grossed worldwide on 3 December 2017, including in China, Singapore, Malaysia and United Kingdom, and in other territories including Japan. The film grossed $11,943,229 in China, $525,280 in North America, $46,664 in Thailand and Bolivia, $191,137 in South Korea, and $91,155 in Spain and the United Kingdom, for a global total of .

Critical response

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an

approval rating An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...

of 43% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 4.94/10. The site's critical consensus states "''Fireworks'' seeks sparks in an ambitious blend of storytelling genres, but this misguided anime effort never truly takes flight". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 40 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film received praise before it was released from several critics and journalists. Musician Koremasa Uno lauded the voice acting and said the film "doesn't feel like a work from Iwai or Hitoshi Ōne, the scriptwriter. Rather, it feels more like the anime of the studio creating it, Shaft, and its producer, Genki Kawamura." Film writer Tatsuya Masutō wrote on his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that the "expectations surrounding the film did not disappoint, and the anime could be better than the original live-action drama." He also noted that the anime is "more than just a remake" and the "90-minute run time compared to the 50-minute original helps add to the content". Kim Morrissy of Anime News Network gave the film an "B" grade and applauded the "great music and voice acting" and the "simple yet emotionally compelling plot" but criticized the film's production values and visuals that "don't really add anything to the film except to broadcast that it was made by SHAFT". Mark Schilling of ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...

'' gave the film a rating of 3½ out of 5 stars and praised the film's "pure-hearted love story". Mark concluded the review by writing, "''Fireworks'' nails it again and again—or maybe that was just me, slipping back into long-ago dreams of the perfect girl gazing into my soul, forever out of reach."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * {{Akiyuki Shinbo 2017 films 2017 anime films 2017 science fiction films Japanese animated drama films Animated films about time travel Anime film remakes Drama anime and manga Films based on television plays Films about runaways Films about wish fulfillment Japanese animated science fiction films Japanese children's films 2010s Japanese-language films Japanese science fiction drama films Shaft (company) Soft science fiction films Toho animated films