Young teen Norimichi seems to be settled in to spend the town's fireworks celebration with his motley friends only to be caught up by his crush Nazuna's sudden wish to escape to the city and a peculiar orb that allows him to reverse past outcomes. FIREWORKS instantly gets docked some points for breaking the cardinal sin of having the same title of a famous movie, namely Takeshi Kitano's highly acclaimed 1997 feature film. However, given how long and complicated the original title is, exceptions can be made to GKIDS for picking something more digestible for American viewers. As for the film itself, it's a breezy teen romantic drama with a hint of sci-fi that will win over some hearts. Realists will scoff at its appreciative look at teen runaway love and others will be dismayed by its one-sighted viewpoint of the relationship but it's hard not to be swayed by the rush of heightened emotions and the yearning of the potential couple for one special night together. The time travel mechanic is welcomingly fresh, forgoing the standard forcible reset to the beginning format set by GROUNDHOG DAY. Instead, it settles for a model where time is a series of chapters and the traveller can only return to the latest key moment in order to alter it to the path he wishes for. The wings of this love story however do get clipped by a couple of missteps. The animation is quite delightful but often seems to be more of the true focus of scenes rather than the story itself. The biggest offender of this comes when there's a weird and long exposition retread of the time traveling between the two teens on a train but the scene is framed from the outside simply to show off Shaft's CGI rendering skills. The other big head-scratcher is the ending, which doesn't feel as impactful as it really should be and comes off as just another wannabe poetic conclusion. The voice acting is very good, headlined by Suzu Hirose's marvelous turn as the rash yet beautifully wishful Nazuna. I also liked Masaki Suda as Norimichi but boy howdy the actor is either a little too old for the character or the fictional teen must have had one hell of a puberty to earn a deep voice like that. FIREWORKS is a charming little anime feature and a quality choice for those that need some love to brighten up their night.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
