Review: Fireworks is a lovely little teen romance anime from the people behind Your Name

REVIEW: Fireworks is a daydream-y anime heart-squeezer about an ill-fated high-school romance that shares something in common with Groundhog Day.

FIREWORKS (PG)

Rating: three stars (3 out of 5)

Directors: Akiyuki Shinbo, Nobuyuki Takeuchi

Starring: the voices of Suzu Hirose, Masaki Suda, Marmoru Miyano.

An unspoken love bears repeating

Many of the key creatives behind last year’s breakout anime hit Your Name reconvene for Fireworks, which intriguingly fuses a gentle teen romance with plotting that would not be out of place in Groundhog Day.

The skies in this anime are beyond Pixar-pretty. If you don’t like the movie, just lose yourself in its skies. Take the tip.

Norimuchi (voiced by Misaki Suda) is a typical enough Japanese high school boy. You wouldn’t quite call him emotionally astute, but he is making steady progress by the time he develops a crush on pretty classmate Nazuna (Suzu Hirose).

The film takes a sharp turn away from an otherwise predictable opening act when Nazuna learns she will have to change schools to accommodate the whims of her much-married mum.

Nazuna invites Norimuchi to run away with her. Their plan goes awry. Then time magically rewinds itself, and the would-be Romeo & Juliet try again. And again.

Nazuna and Norimuchi like to hang out at the local wind farm. As we all do from time to time.

There’s this rainbow-coloured orb that is responsible for this calendar-cheating twist to the tale, and the film doesn’t really bother addressing the mystery of how this gizmo came to be.

Beautifully adapted from a live-action after-school TV special which holds iconic status in Japan, Fireworks is in no particular hurry to do anything apart from tease its young protagonists with the possibility of a love that may never be requited.

There is also some top-notch schoolroom sulking in this motion picture. We all remember this one: faceplant on the desk, head hidden behind right arm.

While this low-key heart-squeezer isn’t quite in the same league as the hauntingly beguiling Your Name, it is hard to resist its daydreamy, will-they-or-won’t-they? vibe for long.