In the film “Blue Giant”, you will follow the life of Dai Miyamoto (Yuki Yamada) who is a small town boy who owns a saxophone and desires to become a professional jazz artist having all the big nightclubs in mind. Practicing in freezing snowy weather at late hours amplifies his romanticized imagination about the big city. His strong determination lands him in the most epic place for Jazz which is Shinjuku City in Tokyo. He visits his old friend Shunji Tamada who lives there, later he also meets Yukinori Sawabe, a talented pianist, and they both with Shunji, establish their own band JASS, aiming to conquer and rock the Tokyo nightclubs. Despite his struggles to survive in an increasingly artless era think, together, they embark on a heartfelt adventure full of success, rescue and camaraderie as volunteers.
There’s hardly much out there in terms of original content when it comes to “Blue Giant.” But factors such as power, teamwork and rejection fuel this unique story. And sometimes that’s all there is to it. The story portrays a drama between sports and music and features innocent self-devised characters and a cherry on top, is an underdog story. “Blue Giant” merges its traditional method of storytelling with modern details to satisfy its audience. Not to sound harsh but a direct condemnation to the audience would be, You have a void in your life and need to see a therapist. Anyone and everyone who has ever been chewed up and spat out by life screams injustice! “Blue Giant” caters to friendship, sports and music, making it multifaceted and interesting. One specific subplot depicts Shunji and his newfound passion to learn how to drum. While he does struggle to catch up with the rest of his friends, he has this raw unpolished element to him that makes his character so alluring. In all honesty, the end result speaks for itself.
Manga never fails to be brought to life visually, with Ishizuka being a fine example, however the more pressing task that stands out is seamlessly merging with the universe of music the ‘Blue Giant’ portrays. With JASS performing powerful original songs across venues, integrating the world of live performances with the form Hiromi Uehara is seen to master allows her to showcase her talent in her debut film. Every album together makes an irrefutable set piece, and everything feels awe inspiring as Uehara translates Ishizuka’s essay onto the screen.
The only task left for Yuzuru Tachikawa is to execute these performances dynamically whilst being in charge of the visuals. Managing and undertaking shows such as “KILL la KILL“, “Attack on Titans” and “Mob Psycho 100” gave tachikawa the experience to be able to create and transition from one type of drama to something much more high scale. With Dai’s saxophone’s flames burning gold, one should be prepared to engage in some beautifully made montages which involve JASS performing together.
Tachikawa collaborated with the director of photography Kasumi Togo alongside the 3D director Masato Takahashi integrating cutting-edge 3D alongside traditional 2D animation in order to make the most out of each performance peak such as flashing between a crowd and a blackhole. The blend between music videos and an emotional story is sensational, while on its own every performance would be remarkable, connecting them makes them even better.
With a length of two hours, “Blue Giant” tends to get slightly too overbearing with each beat, similar to Dai’s solos, however it is impossible to point out the flaws when the performance is executed that well. Every department that was a part of the making of blue giant did an extremely well job depicting Dai’s aspiration of using sound to echo every emotion. The visuals of passionate creatives depicting raw performance in order to capture the story behind the movie, and in the end, the movie is ton the to what its named after.
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