In 2000, while on a camping trip to the woods in Japan, Yusuke and his friends come across a friendly robot called Tetra, who had been sent in the future for protecting the planet from an alien attack. To help Tetra defend the planet from the incoming attack, he starts making a weapon with the resources that Yusuke and his friends provide him along with the support of Soichiro Kanzaki, who owns an electronic shop.
The works of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, for example, have heavily influenced American science fiction films, and it should be easy to see why. It may be exhibited too much that the film does not have much of its own. This aspect, however, probably will turn some viewers to the movies that were used as a source, although “Juvenile” is still notable for its other features which make it also worth watching. For example, it captures the child-like feelings well enough and blends these with the science fiction genres that a number of children growing up in Japan used to love. The film is split between the children’s perspective and the imagination and reminiscing everyone’s most cherished childhood memories of developing an engaging story about growing up, and all the fun that comes with it waiting for a new possibility to jump into a role. Everything is so cute and all the players surely help it.
The most uninspiring portion of the storyline is provided by the aliens, who are simply standard bad guys and whose aspects are very rapidly discarded after being featured with some fascinating concepts in the first act. They are simply an antagonist the children have to fight for the rest of the movie. Had there been a few revisions the invasion plot thread may as well have been cut out completely and the focus shifted to just the subset of the narrative which follows children with the exception of the time travel aspects and the relationship that the leads make with Tetra.
In light of the historical context of the film’s production, I believe the film itself was also a product of that era. More funny is the Sony advertisement that Yusuke’s character uses a PlayStation 2, which is integrated into the robot costume later in the film by Tetra, e.g. The name attached to the mech suit “Gangelion” is a wordplay title of two well-known anime “Mobile Suit Gundam” and “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” A lot of other pop culture references are poorly disguised like Pokemon for instance.
Even though the characters and plot are not that intricate, the actors gave fascinating performances which made the characters especially memorable. Some of the lead child actors Yuya Endo and Anne Suzuki did well in particular as Yusuke Sakamoto and Misaki Kinoshita in the respective roles. Tetra the robot that is Yusuke’s friend is also very nice, and their relationship is sweet. Megumi Hayashibara is the actress and the voice of the friendly robot from the film and she did a great job. Hayashibara is then seen in the film as a female scientist on one occasion. To conclude, Soichiro the owner of the electronic shop is a source of humor and along this Katori Shingo does a great job with his comic appeal.
In general juvenile is a well directed movie and is also the first of many films by Takashi Yamazaki and the cinematographer Kozo Shibasaki It’s a bit disappointing but the two share interesting visual effects. On a positive note, the animatronics intended to give life to Tetra were very charming and aided by simple but very nice and appealing design. The interior of the Gangelion robot was also quite impressive set piece. But the CGI looks a bit dodgy. The late 90s and early 2000s were a period of Japan that ventured into the unknown for CGI and where close to Julie Gilmores pic technology the. All these were of a greatly ambitious nature and so the results ended up being unpredictable shrugging from decent accompanying to bad looking. In addition, the pictures feeling and aliens feeling the designs of the aliens do not help as the designs of the aliens are generic and unexciting. But Yamazaki would get better with time when it came to CGI. I quite like the music score which is performed by Yasuaki Shimizu, and the song by Tatsuro Yamashita which is also the end credits song goes by the name Juvenile Theme Rainbow in the Eye.
Against the backdrop of John Hughes lighthearted comedies and classic science fiction charm, ”Juvenile” feels warm and appealing to children and holds mesmerizing performances that sell the experience. At the very least, it foreshadows the director´s future works that Takashi Yamazaki was to offer as a director.
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