Anime On the Big Screen: “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish”

Venue: Hoyts Belconnen, Westfield Belconnen, Level 3, 18 Benjamin Way, Belconnen, ACT
Date: Thursday 10 June 2021
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 98 minutes
Production Date: 2020
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No

I know it’s been a long time since I have written anything. Work has been pretty relentless and I haven’t been feeling all that motivated to write really. I’ve made few aborted attempts to write, but nothing has been finished or is worth publishing. Also there haven’t been many anime films coming to cinemas either. This particular film was originally slated to screen in April but was delayed two months for unknown reasons. I noticed Hoyts in Belconnen was screening it, so I decided for a change of pace to go there instead of visiting Dendy in the city. After a quick bite to eat, I headed into the 6:20pm session, but soon discovered I was literally the only one in the cinema! Luckily two young blokes came in during the opening title sequence so I ended up having some company. I just can’t believe Hoyts is making any money off these screenings. Anyway, let’s talk about the film;

Tsuneo Suzukawa, a man in his early twenties, is working part time in a scuba diving shop/café in Osaka. He is utterly obsessed with diving and hopes to study overseas in Mexico in order to continue that passion. As a result, Tsuneo lives a frugal life as he saves every yen he can for his future studies. His work colleague, Hayato Matsuura, constantly berates him for not living in the moment having more fun at his age. His other work colleague, Mai Ninomiya, secretly has a crush on Tsuneo, but seemingly can’t work up the courage to ask him out, even though the young trio often go diving together and out drinking after work.

Walking home after work in the early evening, Tsuneo sees a young woman in a wheelchair hurtle uncontrollably down the slope of hill. Though he tries to stop her, she is flung put of her wheelchair and he accidently ends up breaking her fall and both end up on the ground. Her grandmother eventually catches up with her and thanks Tsuneo for saving her. The grandmother states that someone pushed her granddaughter downhill while she was distracted. The granddaughter is not all impressed with the situation and calls Tsuneo, who is still slightly in shock, as pervert for still clinging on to her. The grandmother decides that after this incident there will be no more walks for a long time as the world is a scary place that could hurt her. The granddaughter is of course upset with this.

Calling it a day, the pair walk home with Tsuneo unintentionally flowing them as they are heading in the same direction as his apartment. This of course does not impress the granddaughter who has seemingly taken a great dislike to him. Arriving at the front door of their house, the grandmother invites him in for dinner, which as a cash strapped student he gleefully accepts. The grandmother introduces herself as Chizu Yamamura and her granddaughter as Kumiko Yamamura, though she corrects her and proclaims her real name to be Josee. Josee's parents had died when she was young and her grandmother took her in as she did not want her to be put in an institution. Although Josee seems to despise him Chizu suggests in order to make more money for his overseas studies he should work as a caretaker for Josee while she is away from the house. Although initially reluctant, he decides to take on the job. Chizu only has two rules; Josee cannot leave the house and he must do whatever Josee tells him to do.

Things don’t go well. Josee ends up holed up insider her bedroom, ignoring him and either reads most the time or tells him to go home. When she does speak to him, she orders him to do absurd duties such as counting the threads in a tatami mat or collecting four leaf clovers for her. He later complains to his colleagues when they go out drinking. They eventually suggest to him that maybe the money isn’t really worth the pain of looking after Josee and maybe he should quit. When he later shows up at the house to tell them that he is quitting, he discovers no one seems to be at home. He goes into her room to look for her and is astonished to see her artwork of the ocean. Tsuneo is later informed by Chizu that Josee has gone missing. He searches everywhere for and eventually finds her. She states she wants to go the ocean as she has never been there. Feeling sorry for her being cooped up in the house all the time, he eventually relents and takes her there, even though she has a couple of bad experiences with people at the train station.

She has always wanted to see if the sea really tasted salty as her deceased father once told her. Though she insists crawling to the water’s edge, Tsuneo picks her up and caries her as he walks into the surf. Water splashes on her face and she tastes the salt and begins to laugh. After this unplanned excursion, Tsuneo and Josee take trips out into the city every day, and she experiences things she has never done before, which improves her outlook on life, even if Chizu doesn’t want her to go out at all. The pair go to the aquarium where they see a Clarion Angel fish. Tsuneo explains he saw this fish at a pet store when he was young and his dream is to see it in person off the coast of Mexico. A trip to the library brings a chance encounter and a new friendship with a young librarian named Kana Kishimoto. Though Josee is a little stand offish, the two bond over their love of the works of Françoise Sagan, and we discover that the name Josee is actually a character from one of Sagan's novels.

However, a trip to Tsuneo’s workplace doesn’t go well, with Josee, who has developed a crush on Tsuneo, becoming jealous when Mai discusses a workplace matter with him. She proclaims that she wants to leave and she has a fight with Tsuneo with leads her to abruptly leave in huff and return to her house by herself. Tsuneo later receives a call from Chizu advising his services are no longer required. He is utterly confused and frustrated at the turn of events. He and Josee later reconcile, but Tsuneo has been accepted by a Mexican university and he will be heading over then in a few months’ time. However, two tragedies will change the course of both their lives forever.

This film is based on a short story published in 1984 by Seiko Tanabe who was best known for her romance and historical novels as well as her essays. It does seem odd that a short story from over thirty-five years ago would be given an anime adaptation now. I suspect the interest in this work was due to the fact Tanabe died in June 2019. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish” is one of her more popular works. Oddly a Korean live action theatrical feature adaptation of the story, titled “Josée”, was also released in the same month as this film. I suspect this story is also popular in Korea as the anime film debuted at the 25th Busan International Film Festival two months before it’s Japanese theatrical release. This film does follow the plot of the book closely for the first half of the film as far as I can figure out, then diverges greatly for the second half of the film.

A second live action film adaptation released in 2003 also diverges greatly from the short story with Josee being wheeled around in a pram instead of a wheelchair and Tsuneo and Josee actually having sex in the film, something which most anime shy away from, which seems at odd with constant criticisms in some quarters against anime that it has too much sexual content. This adaptation was helmed by animation studio Bones with Kotaro Tamura, who has done little of note except “Noragami”, directing. Interestingly, Sayaka Kuwamura, who has only worked on live action dramas and films previously, was brought on as screenwriter, because the producer and director felt the original story was more like a live action film and the same type of screenwriting would suit it. Mangaka Nao Emoto (“O Maidens in Your Savage Season”) did the original character designs and Haruko Iizuka (“Little Busters!”, “Tamayura”, “School-Live!”) cleaned them up for animation. Rounding out the staff was Evan Call (“Violet Evergarden”) who scored the soundtrack.

For me, the film was a little bit on the average side. Despite the use of a screen writer from the live action film and drama world, it was filled with a lot of clichés and tropes you’d find in a typical romantic comedy of this type. Josee herself is a stereotypical Tsundere who bullies the heck out of Tsuneo. While I understand that he would want to keep the job looking after Josee, but you’d think he would put his foot down at some of her absurd requests right from the get go. Josee constantly belittles him by calling him the “caretaker”, though by the end of the film it becomes more of a playful nickname. The film also feels rather old fashioned, both in how disabled people are treated by the public and Tsuneo’s attitude to work. Neither feel true to modern day Japan or the values of modem Japanese, but perhaps this can be chalked up to the era the source material was written in. The eventual love triangle, which does rear its head by the half way mark, also feels terribly cliched and unoriginal.

But as the film progresses it does improve. The new material not present in the original story does change it for the better. Not wanting to give away spoilers, but the change in plot does put Tsuneo and Josee on an equal footing, especially after Josee accuses him of being ableist. One of the main themes of this film is of course Tsuneo coming into Josee’s life and exposing her the wonders of the outside world which Chizu tried to shield her away from. Stories of mermaids are used a metaphor for Josee’s dreams to be free of her disability and live a normal life. Early on there is an extraordinarily beautiful sequence where Josee dreams the world is flooded and she becomes a mermaid freely swimming though the city. Other parts of the film show that the world is still somewhat hostile to Josee and want to force her crashing down to what others consider "reality". She is told that it would not be realistic to be able to live by herself by making money off her art. This segues into the other major theme of the story is following your dreams regardless of whatever happens or what obstacles are put in your way.

Despite the setting of Osaka, there are few of the typical clichés and stereotypes associated with the city that you'd find in anime or other pop culture. None of the usual landmarks like the Tower of the Sun or Tsutenkaku Tower are present. The Glico running man sign in Dotonbori is mentioned once, but that’s it. Despite author Seiko Tanabe’s love of using Kansai dialect in her works (her birthplace was Osaka and she spent her childhood there), I could not hear it in the film. Then again, I’m not a native speaker. Adding to what I’ve said previously, another issue I had with the film was Chizu’s overly protective attitude to Josee, which could be seen as abusive. This is totally glossed over in the film. Some of the actions taken by Josee in the later part of the film lacked logic, or more accurately, explanation (it was very hard to understand what she was thinking or planning to do). But the animation is utterly gorgeous most of the time and I did like the shift in the story during the second half which really filled out Tsuneo’s character and made him even more empathetic to Josee’s plight.

Summing up, this is a decent romantic comedy, but is held back by a lot of tropes and clichés of the genre. Kuwamura’s screenplay may go over well with an audience used to these types of live action films that are made by (and let’s be honest) a completely insular Japanese film industry that doesn’t respect the audience enough to give them something slightly challenging. However, I think international audiences for anime are far more sophisticated than that. There is a reason pretty much no live action Japanese cinema reaches western cinemas now days. I really think I can only give this film 6 out of 10 on balance. As per most modern anime films, there is additional footage during the end credits and afterward, so don’t leave the cinema early.