Director Ayumu Watanabe (Kaijû no kodomo / Children of the Sea) heads up the heirs of Studio Ghibli, here deploying people drawn in the style of Takahata's Hôhokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun/ My Neighbors the Yamadas or Omohide poro poro / Only Yesterday against realistic backgrounds for a coming of age soaper - the combination is unfamiliar and works out pretty well.
Boyish Kikuko (voice Cocomi) tells us the story of traveling with her obese mother (Shinobu Ôtake) who pairs with a succession of no hopers. Mother and daughter land up living in a boat moored next to the small harbor cafe where Nikutu has a job. It looks like mum is pairing with another loser, making constant secret 'phone calls.
Like Hana Sugisaki in Her Love Boils Bathwater, which this film's plot echoes at times, Kikuko is having a rough time with school mean girls. The boys are a dumb bunch she passes on her way home, excepting Ninomiya (Natsuki Hanae) whose way of dealing with life is pulling faces when no one is watching. The young people bond.
The justification for animation is in the blob caricature of the gross mother, sometimes squashing other information out of the frame, crying rivers of tears and preparing and eating massive meals.
One of the film's dominant features is this emphasis on food, from the opening with the butcher working on choice cuts through the fried bread breakfasts and celebratory steak and noodle meals. This is not a good movie for vegetarians.
Personally I don't find drawn food all that apertising.
More intriguing is the detail of the tiny port village. This element is dominated by the winning, big-hearted mother, who we keep on expecting to have a heart attack. The plot revelation inverts our
estimate of her
These mix with the coming of age theme all to produce something unexpected and winning.
There are better animés about but this one is still pretty good.
