Trailer:
Synopsis:
After meeting one bright, sunny day, a shy boy who expresses himself through haiku and a bubbly but self-conscious girl share a brief, magical summer.
This anime movie starts off with a couple of haiku poem recited by a boy named Cherry. I think to save a bit of time I’ll write a list of Cherry’s and haiku’s at the end of this blog.
Haiku:
A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, the three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
Cherry (real name Yui), a 17 year old boy who has problems with talking to people, so he expresses his feeling through haiku and carries a ‘saijki’ dictionary which he uses for haiku attached to the back of his phone cover, originally owned by his father who let him borrow it. He works part-time at a day service “Yodamari” at a nearby shopping mall as he’s covering for his mother, as she’s unable to work.
Smile, a 16-year-old high school student girl who is self-conscious about her buckteeth and braces, so she wears a mask most of the time throughout the movie and is a famous streamer with millions of views on CurioLive. Now before I watched this movie I’ve seen so many buckteeth’s before. But I think her buckteeth are cute. So she shouldn’t be so self-conscious about them.
An elderly man Mr. Fujiyama has spent most of his time looking for a record that he lost or misplaced. But that record was his late wife’s record as she was a famous singer. Whilst doing a live stream Smile meets Cherry after their friend Beaver knocks them over causing them to crash and bump into each other as well as accidentally picking up the other ones phone by mistake. Smile accidentally picked up Cherry’s phone and Cherry accidentally picked up Smile’s phone. The only way they returned each others phone was to phone one another. Why didn’t they realize at first that they accidentally picked up each other’s phones in the first place?
The next day the Yodamari day service held a ‘Looking for poetry inspiration at mall with Ms. Miyuki’ and Cherry happened to be taking part in the walk not because he has to look after the group but possibly to get inspiration. It sounds like they all really enjoyed their poetry walk; I mean Cherry wrote a new haiku.
I’m not sure if that’s a good haiku. Even though Cherry felt nervous about reciting his haiku, but they all loved it. But at least everyone enjoyed themselves by the looks of it.
Mr. Sasaki wrote:
‘Mall mannequins
wear yukata, too.’
He expressed himself that summer has arrived and how the mannequins were dressed for the season. After Cherry completed his shift and Mr. Fujiyama noticing that Smile was watching them the whole time they walked home and getting to know one another. When Smile asked him to write a haiku he was surprised about that. I would be surprised if someone asked me to do a painting for them. I pretty much spent most lockdowns having painters block. But once Cherry took a deep breath he expressed himself with a haiku.
That sounds like a pretty and cute haiku. But what did Smile mean when she said that Cherry’s voice sounds so cute? It looks likes Cherry and his mother and father are moving away. His father is very proud of his son stepping in for his mother. Cherry and Smile have started to follow each other on social media as Smile kept liking Cherry’s Haiku’s and she eventually started working at the Yodamari day service.
It’s August both in real-life and in the film and Cherry’s moving day is set for the 17th. Also the mall’s annual summer festival is on its way and the elderly and staff at the Yodamari day service is performing the Daruma Folk Song.
Daruma Doll:
A Daruma doll is a hollow, round, papier-mache Japanese traditional doll modelled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism. These dolls, though typically red and depicting a bearded man, vary greatly in color and design depending on region and artist. Today, Daruma dolls are used and cherished as a symbol of good luck and future fortune; commonly place on a shelf at home or in a business. Before putting them on display, however, the owner must make a wish and either hope it will come true or once they achieve a goal in their own life, before coloring in one eye, making the wish. It doesn’t matter which eye is filled first but the left eye is the most popular choice. Once a wish has come true or a goal achieved, the other eye is colored in and the Daruma is complete. There’s little more to the fact that Daruma is a reminder of self-perseverance, focus, and discipline. Drawing in one of the eyes is not a wish; it is a promise to yourself that you will follow your dream and achieve your goal, whatever obstacles may come your way and whatever pitfalls you might have to climb out as you continue along your journey.
After rehearsing their dance for the festival Cherry and Smile helped Mr. Fujiyama home, which is also a record store. A brief explanation is that Mr. Fujiyama carried the sleeve that contained the record. Smile noticed that there’s something inside the sleeve. It’s a haiku poem:
‘Farewell is something that’s not said
like the dance of cherry blossoms’
Event though his memories are going but Smile wants Mr. Fujiyama to remember his precious memories. That record must be somewhere in that record store of his. Whilst Cherry and Smile were their, they helped him search for his late-wife’s Yamazakura record he lost with help from his own daughter, grandson Yasuyuki and their friends Beaver and Japan. They might as well pull an all nighter if they’re determined to find that record so that he can hear his wife Yamazakura’s voice again. They’ve searched every nook and cranny in the record store and they couldn’t find it. That is until Cherry and Smile noticed the fridge, which is what let alone where they haven’t yet looked at and they found it. It was hiding between the fridge and the wall. And just as they were about to play the record Smile asked Cherry if he wants to see the fireworks with her as the Daruma festival is in two days she noticed that the record was all wavy (probably from being behind the fridge all this time) she broke the record as she tried to straighten it.
When Cherry’s mother came to the Yodamari day service to thank her colleagues for being so understanding and letting her son stepping in for her Smile was shocked to hear that Cherry is moving away. Smile apologised to Mr. Fujiyama about the record and tried to fix it but unfortunately there are some things that aren’t meant to be fixed such as a vinyl record. But she did manage to fix it but by the looks of it, it won’t be able to play anything. On the day of the Daruma Festival/Cherry’s moving day one of the Yodamari day service staff looked at the fixed record and noticed that one of the imagines on the record is the exact same image as the clock on the wall. Turns out that the clock on the wall is another Yamazakura record. Guess you can say is that all is well for Mr. Fujiyama. When Cherry watched the day service perform their dance he got the chance to listen a song off Mr. Fujiyama’s record for the first time. And I can tell that it was a really great ballard. As soon as Cherry heard the song he hurried back to the festival and was encouraged by Mr. Fujiyama to rise up above the sea. I guess that means Cherry has something to say to Smile, even though everyone at the festival’s going to hear it. This is what Cherry said:
‘Lights in the summers eve
Winning with a false start against the sunset
I met you in me seventeenth July
Hey, sunflower
I looked up the word “cute” in my dictionary
What does it mean?
When we’re together
It’s like the words bubble up like soda pop
A thunderous roar
Words exist for the sake of expression
An evening rainbow
I have something to tell you
A piece of my great passion
Sent into your hand
I’ll scream with all of my might
To you, during summer’s end
Yamazakura
I like the leaves that you’ve hidden
Yamazakura
I like those cute teeth of yours
Yamazakura
I like the leaves that you’ve hidden
Yamazakura
I like those cute teeth of yours
Yamazakura
I like the cute words, too
Yamazakura
I like cute fireworks, too
Yamazakura
I like that cute smile of yours
Yamazakura
I like you, Smile
I like you!’
That took a lot of guts to say that out loud.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie I thought that this looks like a feel good and heart-warming anime to watch. I can say that it made me feel a bit good and it was really heart-warming. The background animation looked very early CGI background animation. Think back to when Disney’s Beauty & The Beast. However the background was very colourful.
List of Haiku’s by Cherry
1. Hey sunflower, I asked my dictionary the definition of "cute".
2. Words bubble up like soda pop.
3. In my seventeenth July, I met you.
4. Yamazakura, I like the leaves that you've hidden.
5. The shopping mall melts in the evening sun
6. Lights in the summer night make a false start in the evening sunset
7. Apartments with fresh ivy. We're in number 305
8. Shady summer leaves (originally named 'shady teeth' by Beaver). All I want to know is why.
9. There are so many looking down below. Summer has arrived.
10. Far across the sky, above the green rice paddies, is the dwindling sun.
11. The water strider, leaves a ripple, on the water's surface.