Blue Giant (2023)

This title is better known for a manga series. Indeed, the film adaptation doesn't get its own Wikipedia page; it rates merely a few paragraphs on the manga's page. Nonetheless, it enjoys high ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, so I got curious.

At 18, Dai (Yuki Yamada) moves in with long-time friend Shunji (Amane Okayama) in modern Tokyo, hoping to succeed as a largely self-taught saxophonist. He discovers Yukinori (Shotaro Mamiya), a same-age yet mature jazz pianist who started taking lessons at age four. They take to practicing together, and Shunji joins in as a complete tyro of a drummer. Despite Yukinori's misgivings, they perform publicly as a trio called JASS. (Hey, it's Japan, where many adults have never heard jazz.)

You may expect that Yukinori is the best player and Shunji the worst, but it's not so simple. What Shunji lacks in experience, he partly compensates for in enthusiasm; in a matter of months, he sounds much more professional. (Some would contend that there are no errors in jazz anyway.) Dai's fervent independent study is a mixed blessing, giving him a distinctive style but leaving him ignorant of a few basics. Yukinori's flaw is all too common for his age: hubris. It takes a blunt critic to awaken him to this.

Strange that a manga should focus so heavily on music. No wonder it became a movie. As for why a story with no fantasy or sci-fi premises is animated, not only does it retain the visual style of the manga, but the images become as wild as the music in several sequences, almost like a Fantasia segment. Or a crisper version of the original Cowboy Bebop opening. Animation also makes a grievous third-act injury more bearable to look at.

I must say, no other flick about jazz musicians has gotten me so, well, jazzed about what they do. Probably nothing else in my life has. I consistently felt the way most of the cartoon audience did. The JASS sound is still in my head as I write this.

You don't have to like anime or jazz to get something out of this picture. You just have to appreciate what can come of youthful passion.