Adolescence has always been a turbulent time. It marks the no-man's land between childhood and adulthood, where you have to balance your desires and needs with your obligations and responsibilities. Anyone too repressed is bound to crack, and anyone too carried away is bound to do something irrevocable. If you don't learn to maintain balance, you could change things forever.
This is the lesson four schoolboy friends on summer vacation – Marion, Claude, Lindo and Jacques - learn the hard way. The stoic and firm Marion is seduced by an older woman, which teaches him about emotional balance; his devoted friend Claude strains under a secret passion; and Lindo and Jacques quarrel over a girl they both like, which escalates into a duel to the death...
The story was written by Keiko Takemiya, an anime/manga writer who pioneered stories of relationships between males (both physical and platonic); thus the tale is sensitively written, mostly focusing on the boys, their personalities with both virtues and vices, and their development over the course of the film. The female characters don't get too much attention, but they serve as catalysts for the boys to react over and what time they have is well used.
The feature boasts a rich, moody atmosphere to the tale, in which the animation changes according to the tone; romance and joy are portrayed in misty pastel visions, while passionate dramas are stormy and stark vignettes. One of the best scenes in the feature is of Marion finding Claude having a breakdown in a stable, which is both desperate and heartbreaking. The story also contains an air of impending doom and nostalgia through the viewpoint of an extended flashback, when the boys were younger and the outcome of the duel has already occurred...
The voices are well done, featuring a cast of now-veteran voice actors who were in their early years (it's not often you hear Yamcha and Piccolo go to war over Luna LOL). The direction is also very good, displaying both restraint and expressiveness. But the top draws in this are the artwork and the music, which enhance the film's story and turn a standard coming-of-age drama into an emotional voyage and roller-coaster (with the latter slowly and unstoppably overwhelming the former).
Overall, it's a very unique feature in anime, in that it's a mood piece (a rare thing nowadays, even for Western animation) and that it's one of the best mood pieces ever made. A great watch, and a heartbreaking ode to turbulent adolescence.
This is the lesson four schoolboy friends on summer vacation – Marion, Claude, Lindo and Jacques - learn the hard way. The stoic and firm Marion is seduced by an older woman, which teaches him about emotional balance; his devoted friend Claude strains under a secret passion; and Lindo and Jacques quarrel over a girl they both like, which escalates into a duel to the death...
The story was written by Keiko Takemiya, an anime/manga writer who pioneered stories of relationships between males (both physical and platonic); thus the tale is sensitively written, mostly focusing on the boys, their personalities with both virtues and vices, and their development over the course of the film. The female characters don't get too much attention, but they serve as catalysts for the boys to react over and what time they have is well used.
The feature boasts a rich, moody atmosphere to the tale, in which the animation changes according to the tone; romance and joy are portrayed in misty pastel visions, while passionate dramas are stormy and stark vignettes. One of the best scenes in the feature is of Marion finding Claude having a breakdown in a stable, which is both desperate and heartbreaking. The story also contains an air of impending doom and nostalgia through the viewpoint of an extended flashback, when the boys were younger and the outcome of the duel has already occurred...
The voices are well done, featuring a cast of now-veteran voice actors who were in their early years (it's not often you hear Yamcha and Piccolo go to war over Luna LOL). The direction is also very good, displaying both restraint and expressiveness. But the top draws in this are the artwork and the music, which enhance the film's story and turn a standard coming-of-age drama into an emotional voyage and roller-coaster (with the latter slowly and unstoppably overwhelming the former).
Overall, it's a very unique feature in anime, in that it's a mood piece (a rare thing nowadays, even for Western animation) and that it's one of the best mood pieces ever made. A great watch, and a heartbreaking ode to turbulent adolescence.
