GKIDS released Blue Giant into theaters this past weekend and we’re here to let you know if it’s worth checking out.
To be perfectly honest, before last week I’d never heard of Blue Giant. I’d never heard of the manga series, and I certainly hadn’t heard that an anime film was being released. But when I heard that GKIDS was bringing the film to North America, I was intrigued and checked the trailer out.
And my mind was blown.
It’s so rare for me to find a good story about music that doesn’t also come across as patronizing or corny. Blue Giant, based on the manga series by Shinichi Ishizuka, is neither of these things. It tells the story of how 18 year-old Dai Miyamoto travels to Tokyo in order to fulfill his dream of becoming “the greatest jazz musician in the world.” The film heavily condenses the ten-volume story into a two-hour running time and primarily focuses on the latter half of the manga’s story, but the story loses nothing in how it’s presented. Regardless of how much (or little) you know about jazz, it won’t take long for you to become heavily invested in Dai’s story as he seeks to fulfill his musical dreams.
While Blue Giant is primarily Dai’s story about playing jazz on saxophone, it also tells the story of the other members of JASS, a jazz trio that Dai forms while in Tokyo. The other members are Yukinori Sawabe, who plays piano, and Shunji Tamada, who plays the drums. Each member has their own journey with music, and each is given the chance to shine in the film’s many musical scenes. This is especially true in the penultimate and final musical sequences, when each member plays a solo section that will literally take your breath away.
One of the best things about Blue Giant is that the lengthy musical numbers don’t feel long at all. Composer Hiromi Uehara knocked it out of the park with melodies that will draw anyone in. I can’t emphasize enough that you don’t have to know anything about jazz music to appreciate the performances brought to life in this film. There is so much life and passion breathed into these pieces, it’s mind blowing when you remember that the characters are only in their teens!
Another thing the film does quite well is lay bare just how much hard work has to go into being a professional musician. Dai, Yukinori, and Shunji are all shown practicing daily for hours at a time, enduring depression and minor physical injuries in the course of perfecting their craft. The viewer feels every last inch of the passion these three men pour into their music, and long before the film ends you’re rooting for the trio to succeed in their goal of making it in the Tokyo jazz scene.
As a former musician myself, I can also deeply appreciate how Blue Giant doesn’t shy away from showing how life doesn’t always go the way you plan. Even when you put in all the hard work and combine it with talent, sometimes things happen that can change everything. It doesn’t mean you have to give up, but it is a fact of life.
Finally, I have to talk about how Blue Giant visualizes music. For the most part, the musical performances are animated the way you’d expect a performance to be, perhaps an extra bit of styling here and there, but nothing wild. That all changes the further into the story you go. As the trio’s performances become more and more intense, the animation begins to flicker more and more, as the music appears to take it over. You can even “see” the music at various points as blobs of colored light pouring out of Dai’s saxophone. It’s beautiful in a way that’s hard to describe and it reminded me why music has been my lifelong passion, even if I no longer experience it directly as a performer.
All of this is to say that Blue Giant is an amazing film and one that everybody should see at least once. This is going to be one of those “films about music” that people will be talking about for years to come, and rightfully so.
