"Josee, The Tiger and The Fish" Review - From the Vaults

 "Josee, the Tiger and the Fish"

Don't be deceived: She's a dick

Working at a diving shop to get through college, and hoping to study abroad so that he may swim with exotic fish, Tsuneo Suzukawa is a calm and patient young man with dreams. One night he catches a runaway wheelchair and the girl within it, Kumiko (who prefers to go by Josee for reasons I will not get into here), who immediately bites him and calls him a pervert. Nontheless, her grandmother is thankful that she was found safely and invites Tsuneo to come over for food, then a well-paying job of looking after Josee whilst she's away.

Over a summer, the pair get to know each other and their dreams in what could be a touching love story...

First off, this is by Studio Bones ("Sword of the Stranger", "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Wolf's Rain", "Eureka Seven", "Space Dandy" and much much more) so as is to be expected it looks fucking gorgeous.

It's a languid, luscious, luxuriously well drawn and crafted film, with those sweeping cameras we've come to expect from Studio Bones. 

It's set to be something of a cult favourite, following in the footsteps of things like "Wolf Children", "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", and "Five Centimeters Per Second"

Unfortunately, by noticing me talking about the way it looks, you've probably already figured something out:

I'm not quite as keen on the writing.

Josee is the main problem here. She's far too unpleasant a character, even with the "Tsundere" stereotype they are going for. Though the movie dedicates a lot of time to rounding her out and her relationship with Tsuneo (and indeed has a wonderful montage sequence and a well-observed part in a train station about the invisibility of disabled people), as you feel it transforming into a romance I wasn't convinced of the chemistry and appeal of the two characters. She was too cold, borderline abusive, and mean to the dude; and Tsuneo too quick to put his dreams on hold for this girl. Had the movie had a more mature, staying as friends ending because she really comes out of her shell thanks to Tsuneo, it would have been improved drastically in my opinion.

The story is pleasant enough otherwise, and very much a summery character piece even when it veers into darker territory.

That being said there is some excellent stuff in here (the parallel part with the stray cat is a good visual, and the focus on the Little Mermaid stories and the symbolism of water works very much in its favour) and the film is nice.

But personally I disliked the titular character too much.

I am likely in the minority though, this is still well-recommended!