Love, Animation: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (Dir. Kôtarô Tamura, 1h38m, 2020)
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| Josee, the Tiger and the Fish Japanese poster |
No examination of the world of animated romance would be complete without a visit to Japan. Shoujo (girls' comics) have cornered the home market and beyond in terms of romance in comic format, and, through anime series like Fruits Basket (2001/2019-2021), Sailor Moon (1992-97/2014-16), and Horimiya (2021-2023), they're threatening to take over the small screen too. The genre's reach doesn't stop here, as noted last time, the popularity and multiplicity of anime romance films (and original video animations, or OVAs) is such that one could easily (and may-watch this space) present an entire season of just shoujo cinematic outings.
For now, though, one must suffice; released in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and concentrating on the odd-couple romance between a would-be marine biologist, and a wheelchair-using budding artist, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (Joze to Tora to Sakanatachi) is a charming, if occasionally over-sweet adaption of the classic 1980s Japanese novel by Seiko Tanabe, scripted by J-Drama veteran, Sayaka Kuwamura.Like much of Tanabe's work, the film's backdrop is Osaka, but not the Osaka of the 1980s in which the original novella, and the 2003 Isshin Inudo adaption take place-the latter skewing far closer to the original novel than this anime adaption-but the Osaka of the present. Here, we're introduced to university student and keen diver, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa in Japanese,
Howard Wang in English), working part-time in a diving shop.
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| Josee (Kaya Kiyohara/Suzie Yeung) and Tsuneo (Taishi Nakagawa/Howard Wang) grow closer on their adventures |
It's worth saying at this point that, with Studio Bones, the studio behind series as diverse at the famous Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia, shoujo series such as Angelic Layer and Ouran High School Host Club, at the helm, the animation is strikingly rendered , the character designs by Nao Emoto, also responsible for some of the key animation, charming. It's, as shoujo often is in both drawn and animated incarnations, meticulously presented, and sweetly made. Tsuneo is also, for his part, typical of the genre's tropes. Whilst the film later reveals his parents are divorced, and that his passion for marine biology was largely driven by an encounter with a clarion angelfish in a pet store as a young child of divorced parents, he is otherwise the typical male shoujo protagonist-charming, funny, largely likable and self-assured.
Against him, through a chance encounter, as her wheelchair careers down a steep street, and Tsuneo comes to her rescue, is Kumiko Yamamura, the self-styled Josee (Kaya Kiyohara/Suzie Yeung). She is also the best thing about this film, and this film is as much about her growth as a person, gaining confidence in herself and her passsions as her relationship. At this intial meeting, however, she starts off as quite aecerbic, immediately rounding on Tsuneo after his would-be rescue of her, and continuing to snap at him after her grandmother, and guardian (Chiemi Matsutera/Casey Casper), invites him in for dinner. She continues to be standoffish through this sequence, putting words to the local stray cat's hostility, and even branding Tsuneo a letch as she tries to drive him away.
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| Whilst distant at first, much of the latter half of the film follows Josee's passion for art |
Yet, Josee, far from the often cold figure of Tanabe's novel, largely seen from Tsuneo's perspective, and certainly a world away from the novel's rather dated perspective on disabled protagonists, is a far more complex figure than the film first suggests. Much of this comes in the film's middle third. Despite her initial hostility-there's a whole bevy of scenes in which,she sets him difficult or plain odd tasks, many of which mask her frustration at not being able to go outside-the two of them unexpectedly bond over Josee's wish to see the sea, shut down at every turn by her well-meaning but overprotective grandmother. What follows, is a largely dialogue-free sequence in which much of her own frustrations at her own physical limitations, and the uncaring crowds that bump and jostle her wheelchair give way to utter joy, as, Tsuneo carrying her, she feels-and tastes-the sea for the first time, thus fulfilling a childhood wish she could never fulfil with her late father.
Despite a few rocky moments, the duo go on a number of adventures-the film is much stronger in terms of these adventures. There's a somewhat overplayed moment where, face to face with his colleagues and fellow divers (including Mai (Yume Miyamoto/Dani Chambers), whose relationship with Tsuneo may be more than just friendly), Josee bolts for freedom, whilst her occasional snide remark at her "caretaker" does wear out its welcome quickly. The adventures are much more fulfilling, giving Josee an independence, a excitement that at points borders on the infectious, as she begins to get to grips with the world around her. This includes giving the formerly sheltered Josee the freedom of the local library, something that gives her both the ambition to become an artist-her underwater world, recreated in her bedroom, is vividly brought to life in one dream sequence, Josee transforming into a mermaid-and a friend in the form of the librarian, who spurs her on to create.
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| A film not just about folowing one's dreams but weathering the storms to reach them |
However, tragedy soon forces her to turn away from her passions. There's something of the skewering of the bureaucracy of the Japanese welfare state in the visitation of two civil servants who pour cold water on her dreams of becoming an artist-whilst the film seems set to bring a confrontation between Tsuneo's friends and Josee, as it grows increasingly likely that he will stay in Japan, rather than follow his passion for marine biology to Mexico, only for further tragedy to strike. If the film has one flaw, and this is one undeniably borne of its genre, melodrama is laid on with a trowel, and the cavalcade of tragedy and twists and turns in the final act do become a little overbearing, its balancing act of at once attempting to keep the downbeat tone of the original novel whilst presenting a far more upbeat denoument, occasionally faltering.
Yet, there is a charm to Josee as a romantic drama-it's one of the few examples of the genre in any medium, A Silent Voice (2016) being another, that concentrates upon protagonists with disabilities, and never feels like it's playing this for mere exploitation or 'Oscar bait', whether it be emotionally resonant or otherwise. Its central couple may be formed from familiar cloth, and the film may skew a little close to safety in what's basically, compared to the more mature novella, an occasionally bellicose teen drama, but, through Tamura's direction and Kuwamura's script, we cannot help but root for our heroes as they chase their dreams.
There may be better examples of the shoujo genre's cinematic outings, and no doubt, more will be discussed in this column, but the disarming Josee, the Tiger and the Fish's sweetly mismatched-and refreshingly representative-couple win out, in a tale of creativity, passions, and a young woman finding her place in the world.
Rating: Highly Recommended
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is available to stream via Crunchyroll,
and on DVD and BluRay from Anime Limited. It is also currently available to stream via Crunchyroll,
and on DVD and BluRay from Crunchyroll in the United States
Next
week, we conclude our animated romance season, in, of course, France, with the horror-rom-drama, I Lost My Body
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