Blue Giant and Yuzuru Tachikawa’s Jazz

Blue Giant has been the toast of the animation festival circuit this past year and it’s easy to see why. It takes what can at times feel like an intimidating subject—jazz performance—and explores it in a dynamic, yet accessible way that will have both diehard aficionados and complete newcomers to the music genre tapping their toes and tutting their fingers—and getting a little misty-eyed too.

The story, adapted from the manga series by Shinichi Ishizuka, follows a trio of eighteen-year-olds striving to make their sound heard in Tokyo’s aging jazz scene before leaving their teens behind. Tenor saxophonist Dai is the driving force of the group and comes up with their name, Jass, which bespeaks the kind of overconfidence only afforded to youth. Counterintuitively, Dai was a member of the basketball team in high school rather than the brass band, but that didn’t stop him from falling in love with the sax in first year and practicing obsessively for the next three. Drummer Tamada has even less experience, not coming to his instrument until about twenty minutes into the film! Inspired by Dai’s enthusiasm, the previously noncommittal university student discovers his own passion for the music that so captivates his childhood friend, and doesn’t let being outclassed by an elementary schooler dampen his ambitions. Of the three, only Yukinori on keys has any kind of experience—fourteen years, to be exact, with the chops and condescending attitude to go with it. All three are compelling, well-defined characters, each in his own distinct way, and although Yukinori is the most developed, Dai holds the film together, while Tamada grants viewers an entry point into this fascinating world. Or, as director Yuzuru Tachikawa phrased it when asked to pick his favorite: ”Personally, I relate most to Tamada, but I really love the character of Yukinori, and I look up to Dai.” There is also an utterly delightful cast of supporting characters, most of whom are middle-aged to senior in what is a rare showing for a medium that tends to focus on youth. It’s clear through the small details and gestures that each of these weathered individuals has a story of their own that is worthy of a spin-off episode.

The film is set in the heart of Tokyo, along the concrete embankments of Taito City and the back alleys and jazz joints of Minato City and Chiyoda City, with real-life jazz establishments Blue Note Tokyo and The Cotton Club serving as the basis for the film’s coveted So Blue and The Cotton’s. Director Tachikawa (Mob Psycho 100, Deca-Dence, Detective Conan Movies 22 & 26) uses a blend of animation techniques to bring these sites and sets to life, combining traditional 2D art with 3D modeling that facilitates expressive camera movements during the live performances, and motion capture and deft rotoscoping for the performers that manages to avoid the trembly, tremulous linework that often results from this method of animation. Tachikawa actually directed the live performers as well, which was crucial for capturing Dai’s unique energy and stance, so evident in the manga. Being self-taught, Dai’s performance style is not that of the typical professional saxophonist, but is instead reminiscent of the wide stance of a basketball player readying himself to receive the ball and psych out the opponent. Indeed, Dai adopts a noticeably athletic approach in his practice regimen, which focuses on strengthening his lung capacity and involves regular seven to eight-mile runs from Tokyo Sky Tree to Tokyo Tower. Tachikawa encouraged his motion capture saxophonist to embrace this intensified physicality, moving around and waving his instrument, which resulted in some excellent reference footage, but also a busted saxophone as the musician accidentally bashed it into the ceiling! (Must have been a low ceiling.)

On the whole, Tachikawa pulls the best out of each animation method, apart from the inexplicable use of CG for a few walk cycles that stick out like the giant callous on Dai’s thumb. But it’s really in the film’s majority 2D animation where his direction excels, particularly the explosive solos during the live performances—as to be expected of the man behind Mob Psycho 100. It is in these high notes of the film that the attentiveness to realism in the sites, sets, and performances really pays off, as the animation breaks free into wild flights of abstracted fancy so reminiscent of Tachikawa’s most famous work. As near-psychedelic as these sequences are though, they remain purposeful in the details: specifically, in the color design. The eponymous blue giant is a reference to the type of star that burns so hot and bright that its flames run blue, and serves as a metaphor for the greatest of jazz performers. As such, the young men of Jass have to earn the color blue, and their early performances are markedly bereft of the iconic cool shade otherwise so strongly associated with jazz. But when it does finally show up, hold onto your seats! 

The real test for a film about jazz, of course, lies in the score. Now here, I must admit my lack of expertise—much like Tachikawa himself who, prior to signing onto this project, did not know the first thing about jazz. But he immediately signed up for saxophone lessons (Dai’s pieces are too difficult, but he can hold his own on “Let it Be”!) and started hanging out in jazz clubs and listening to a lot of CDs, especially John Coltrane. He listened, drew, erased, and listened, drew, and erased again, over and over until the storyboards were ready.

Unlike Tachikawa, I don’t have the time to immerse myself in this sonic world before finishing this post, but in my amateur opinion, the music sparks with life and passion, grabbing you by the heart and compelling an embodied expression of joie de vivre that is on a level with the most heartfelt of lyrical musicals. In short, Grammy Award-winning jazz composer and pianist Hiromi Uehara did a spectacular job! And her OST has been wracking up the glowing reviews to prove it. Uehara was responsible not only for the musical composition but also for the piano performances, as she provided the sound for Yukinori (though not his motion capture). It is the experienced (and slightly jaded) young pianist whose journey in discovering his sound is the most laborious and painful, yet also ultimately, the most moving, and it is all charted so powerfully across his solos. Uehara was also pivotal in developing Dai’s appropriately huge sound (his name means “big”), conveying all the naive confidence of a young man who, as the director phrased it, “doesn’t care whether he’s good or bad, he just believes that he is the best in the world.” The result is a visceral shock of sound each time Dai erupts on stage and it is one of the standout successes of the film.

This is a film about the joy and cost of pursuing your passion. As Yukinori tells Dai early on, unlike rock groups, jazz bands don’t stay together long. Instead, jazz musicians use one another as stepping stones, and this underlying reality is never far from the surface as the young men hone their craft, sometimes together, and sometimes at odds with one another. Though their love for jazz and their friendships may last forever, Jass itself will not. And yet, although the end of Jass is always on the horizon, Blue Giant is fundamentally an uplifting film, reveling in the moment, in the exuberance of daily growth and the giddiness of taking small but determined steps toward an impossible dream. The clock is always ticking for these three, but it is not an oppressive sound, that ticking. Instead, it is a metronome, providing a solid rhythm upon which to build and release the most liberating, celebratory solos they can muster.

Tachikawa set out to make an encouraging film—a film for everyone who has ever pursued a passion out of sheer love. And he succeeded. If this is Tachikawa’s jazz, then consider me a fan.

Shout out to Rio Cinema in London, UK for hosting the preview screening on 26 January, and the Q & A with Yuzuru Tachikawa (and interpreter Bethan Jones).

Blue Giant has already screened in the USA, but it opens in the UK and Ireland on 31 January, distributed by All The Anime.

claire
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