Blue Giant Screening at Japan Society. October 6th 2023.

DJ got a chance to review Blue Giant at Japan Society and we must say it lives up to the hype. Blue Giant which is a Japanese magma anime that was released between 2013 and 2016. It is about Dai Miyamoto, 18 year old high school senior who is determined to be the best jazz musician in the world. However to become that he have to travel to Tokyo from his homeland of Sendai City. Along the way he meets up with his former classmate Tamada Shunji and fellow musician Sawabe Yukinori. The movie starts from the beginning where Dai receives a saxophone and ticket to Tokyo from his brother. Just like the anime series the beginning is important to see where Dai develops his practice habits.The animation is phenomenal and the visuals make you think that you are watching live performances from jazz musicians. Once Dai gets into Tokyo he meets Tamada and that's where everything about jazz comes to fruition where he practices at night by the river (hence the name Blue Giant) to visiting a jazz cafe where no performances is happening. What is impressive is the dialogue between characters as we see how Japan treats jazz as free flowing and techinical at the same time. GKids which distributes the film and directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and a incredible soundtrack by Hiromi Uehara gives the fans a beautiful retrospective and first timers a great introduction to the series. The music orchestration give a realistic sound because you think you are watching several concerts at once. Hiromi who was at the opening screening said that she visualized Dai as herself mixed in with a few musicians that she played with. Also Tachikawa have a great eye for detail as we watch Dai and his band perform from one hall to the big stage to seeing one of the members have a serious accident being hit a car. The movie which will be in North American theaters in October 8th should help bring the series a broader audience stateside and new faces as well. DJ thinks if the movie goes into the small theater route it may not get the publicity it deserves. We definitely think this will be critically acclaimed with some incredible scenes but also with the animation is so clean and crisp. Definitely recommended to be seen more often along the lines of your favorite comic book movies. The end of the movie which we won't give away is definitely a tear jerker because it gives hope to a continuation either as a sequel or another magma. Either way we look forward to it and hope this movie gets the recognition because it's that good. Thanks to Japan Society and GKids for the invite we truly appreciate it. For information on Blue Giant go to the GKids website: https://gkids.com/films/blue-giant/