Review : Her Blue Sky
Story : (3.5/5)
I'd be blunt, it does not have the best writing, it kind of drops the overall rating by a bit. To summarize in a word, then it would be "unpredictable (and sometimes contradictory)", there's just too much of it in this movie, for example Aoi stated that she don't want to perform for the city yet she did, also the ability to fly of Young Shinnosuke... etc.
Pacing is okay, I guess. Some people might think it's too slow at first and too fast approaching the end, for me not a big problem. The other downside is that we also didn't get to see whether Tsugu×Aoi ship sailed or not.
There's usually a moral of the story of Super Peace Busters given their previous work of Anohana & The Anthem of the Heart, from what I see, it's "appreciate", regret (of a choice) comes from what you don't appreciate what you have now. The moral is quite clear as we learned more about Akane and compared with Shinnosuke.
Character : (4/5)
Characters are well structured, especially the main characters.
Aoi, a teenage girl who is going to graduate decided to choose the path of music band instead of college, and leave Chichibu City to Tokyo fast. The reason for this is because she doesn't want to rely on her sister as she thought that she is a burden for her sister.
Shinnosuke, currently an adult who chose the path of music career who once aimed to become a professional musician but got his dream shattered by cold reality of being talented is not enough but the need of luck and chance, and thus immersed himself with alcohol and women. He regrets the choice he made as a high school student, as he didn't went far in the music path thus a spirit of his younger self is born as a realization of a need to change of mindset about the regrets.
Akane, she had to stay back to take care her little sister at Chichibu City, instead of going to Tokyo due to both her parents sudden death. Her favorite quote is "The frog at the bottom of the well doesn't know the vastness of the sea, but it does know the blueness of the sky." which I interpreted as she accepted who she is, where she is and what she needed to do with no hatred and regret hence appreciation of the blueness of the sky from the bottom of the well as a frog whom she pictures herself.
The development is not bad, Aoi realized her (sort of) selfish self and her love for Akane also hers back to Aoi whereas Shinnosuke decided to continue persuading his dream also not giving up on Akane, which eventually became a happy ending as they were married at the end of the credits.
Music : (4/5)
Gandhara, to be honest I'm not really fond of this song and it is actually one of the main song in this anime as it have multiple versions. But the other songs are just too good. My favorites are those OST that played on powerful scenes. To be exact, Akane's Strategy Manual, I Don't Want to Become like My Sister, Unanswered Call, Me from the Future & Her Blue Sky main theme.
Flying scene, the song is Aimyon's Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo is youthful and beautiful. This song created a great chemistry with the flying scene like a straightforward punch towards audience. The ending song, Aimyon's Aoi, it's emits the nostalgic vibes, and also accompanied by strings of image of post-story, making you actually want to stay back to finish the credits.
Art/Animation : (5/5)
Gorgeous, I mean seriously, the background art is on par with Your Name, Tenki no Ko etc. Very detailed and realistic art style which I adore so, so much in anime movies (it's a shame that normal anime series can't really satisfy my taste in background artwork). One detail I've noticed, Aoi's phone screen is cracked might be hinting that she don't want to use any more of Akane's money to buy a new phone, showing her growing out of dependence of her sister.
Character art on the other hand is very much same with Anohana (given the same artist of course), I love every character's choice of design, except...
1. Aoi's thick eyebrows
Akane's thick eyebrow is a plus, but Aoi's is a minus for me (especially when she's so angry at Shinnosuke that she almost hit him). Nonetheless, there are some scenes Aoi's eyebrow became a plus, for instance the sunrise scene (the header image).
2. Shinnosuke's hair
Nobody in the anime mentioned that adult Shinnosuke changed his hairstyle and color (probably due to formalities, as he work as a backstage guitarist), I wonder why. I love Young Shinnosuke's red hair as he reminded me of Kirishima from My Hero Academia (their personality also quite similar in a sense), does his change of hair color means that he actually used dyed his hair red? Red, interesting choice.
Animation is direct, very soothing to the eyes to interpret. The flying scene at the end is next level, fluid and again direct, it doesn't make you need to use sharingans in order to keep track on both the subtitles and animation, which is a plus. I also love the director's choice of camera angle as it really brings out the space and vibe of the scene. Namely the studio scene and the band house scene. Still shots are always good as it lets the watcher digest the atmosphere. Maxing out the rating.
Conclusion : (9.2/Good)
What a long review. Overall recommended but could be better at the pacing which made the story felt a bit empty.
If you are interested in Super Peace Buster's work, I recommend watching this first, then Anohana, lastly Anthem. All of them were themed of relationships between couple, friends and family.
Watch it here! : https://gogoanime.so/category/sora-no-aosa-wo-shiru-hito-yo