Review: Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and Sing a Bit of Harmony – Using Music to Form Connections

Insecurity is a prominent feeling that we all experience at some point; a feeling that is able to be relieved when you find a similar group of people who share the same aspect that you are personally ashamed of. Occasionally, one connection is all it takes for you to find those who grow to be the closest to you and for you to truthfully express how you feel. Bonds with others have the ability to relieve any potential negative feelings you may harbour about yourself or your identity as an individual. Music is one of many things that can bring people together – with a range of different genres and formats, we can construct several communities based around our own distinctive characteristics.

Yasuhiro Yoshiura and J.C. Staff’s ‘Sing a Bit of Harmony.’ Image © 2021 J.C. Staff.

Ishiguro Kyouhei, Signal.MD's and Sublimation's ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.’ Image © 2021 Signal.MD and Sublimation.

Over the past year, two most notable movies have been released that cover this idea comprehensively – those said movies being Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (2021) and Sing a Bit of Harmony (2021). Through this review, we will be exploring the concept of music being utilised to convey expression through various different means of storytelling.

Evoking emotion through the nostalgic feeling of a summer’s day, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop released digitally on Netflix amidst delays through the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie presents the main protagonists, Cherry and Smile, with their own unique personalities and characteristics, as well as their own struggles – with Cherry being a shy, introverted boy who struggles to express himself, hence resorting to writing haikus in his past-time, and Smile, an idol and streamer who appears to be enthusiastic and charming - the both of them serve as an appealing parallel to one another and reflect off of each other in a charming manner. In order for Cherry and Smile to form a connection, however, they must learn to overcome their feelings of humiliation they hold for themselves. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop chooses to drive the direction of this narrative through a chance meeting that leads into the two building a bond together through their journey to accept themselves as individuals. This all beings with one mere thing – a record.

The basic narrative of the film revolves around Smile and Cherry banding together in a small journey to find a lost vinyl record of an elderly man’s deceased wife.

Ishiguro Kyouhei, Signal.MD's and Sublimation's ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.’ Image © 2021 Signal.MD and Sublimation.

Smile, who is an outgoing young girl who harbours a love for anything cute, is a popular online figure through her streams, where she takes her viewers on a tour through a number of different locations. Despite this, she wears a mark on a daily basis to cover the buck-shaped teeth she was born with. On the surface, this is primarily due to her despising the look this gives her appearance and her desire to hide this from those around her; when in reality, this issue delves into the unhealthy para-social dynamic idol culture has cultivated especially in Japan as a country. Taking into account that a large majority of idols are perceived to be perfect in a multitude of ways, along with the high beauty standards for women that have developed overtime, from this angle it hence makes sense that Smile would go on to view her teeth as a deformity; an imperfection on a person that is intended to be a perfect example and figure to the general public. Due to this, Smile evolves to hold herself at an incredibly high standard – and feels embarrassed about the fact that she is not who her fans anticipate her to be. This matter in question then begins to spiral when Smile is given braces, to which Cherry comments on when they meet only briefly in the opening of the film.

Ishiguro Kyouhei, Signal.MD's and Sublimation's ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.’ Image © 2021 Signal.MD and Sublimation.

On the contrary, Cherry, who finds substantial difficulty in socialising with others, takes comfort in his headphones to drown out the world that surrounds him, not having to anticipate a response to his words or actions, and instead opts to communicate through the written language of haikus. Cherry works at a day-care centre taking care of the elderly in the stead of his mother – thus, not necessarily having to communicate regularly, seeing as those that he watches over do not appear to be judgemental and, in some cases, cannot hold a proper conversation. From this, we can even infer that Cherry as a character could be neurodivergent or have immense social anxiety, to provide some of my own inside thoughts.

Ishiguro Kyouhei, Signal.MD's and Sublimation's ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.’ Image © 2021 Signal.MD and Sublimation.

In the interest of Cherry and Smile forming a relationship together, they both must conquer the feelings of embarrassment they hold on to; with the record acting as a pinnacle for them to learn about each other’s flaws as people and additionally to be an important component of their intertwined character arcs. The title is question, “YAMAZAKURA”, by the Japanese singer and songwriter Taeko Onuki, acts as a prominent track in the film - with the lyrics relating to Smile and Cherry as individuals along with the potent attachment they have formed to one another. With the sounds of a mellow guitar and a gentle piano, the song tells a story about falling in love at a live house and taking a simple stroll underneath the cherry blossoms when spring comes once again. This is reflective of Cherry as a character, as well as Smile – what I noticed during the film was that when they were younger, both the elderly man and Fujiyama appeared to look akin to Cherry and Smile, which parallels their own relationship. Upon eventually finding the record, Smile comes to the realisation that the wife in passing, who was a performer who created her own music, had buck teeth much like her own.

As opposed to Smile, however, Fujiyama grew to take pride in her appearance and became a radiating, unabashed figure for Smile to aspire to be. The film makes use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound, with the reveal of the song as just one example finally being played to both the characters and the audience on a record player nearing the end of the movie.

By the end, Cherry and Smile are able to grow to love each other and themselves to some capacity – through the relationship they mould through the joy of music and accepting each other as they are.

Ishiguro Kyouhei, Signal.MD's and Sublimation's ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.’ Image © 2021 Signal.MD and Sublimation.

On the surface, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop appears to be a simple love-story that takes place nearing the end of summer; with the colour scheme itself paying tribute to City Pop album art covers throughout the 80s. In reality, the film tackles issues such as having to conform to societal norms and self-doubt.

Yasuhiro Yoshiura and J.C. Staff’s ‘Sing a Bit of Harmony.’ Image © 2021 J.C. Staff.

Sing a Bit of Harmony, in slight contrast to Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, chooses to use music as a medium to carry the ongoing narrative; having a limited release throughout exclusive cinemas in the United Kingdom in January of this year, Sing a Bit of Harmony is a feel-good, coming-of-the-age movie about the importance of happiness and the connections you are able to build with others. Structured somewhat like a musical, the songs are spread evenly throughout the movie and profit from exceptional use of fluid animation and choreography to bring life to the story and characters. Furthermore, this film could also be taken as an example of the potential of animation and as to how it can be used to bring life to the character’s choreographed movements and even the most mundane settings. The varied use of different camera angles and lighting make the musical numbers memorable to the audience; being the movie’s most defining feature. The cast contains a wide array of personalities that each have their own emotional baggage and problems, as well as their own perception of the prime question this film brings to the table – what exactly ‘happiness’ is and what precisely it can be defined by.

Shion, who is quickly revealed to be an AI, is a high-energy, disorderly character who bursts out into song with the intent of making the other protagonist in this movie, Satomi, happy. The film does an excellent job of making us question Shion’s intentions and where they originated from. Who is Shion? Why does she want to make Satomi happy? The story itself revolves around Satomi ensuring to keep the fact that Shion is an AI a secret to her classmates; predominantly taking place in a High School set in a futuristic society, Satomi, the main character, can be described as a loner – being through a fair amount of bullying and having none but one friend to her name, she wishes to grow closer to others yet cannot bring herself to. What can Shion do to make Satomi happy?

Shion’s ability to express and evoke feelings through her music eventually draws Satomi closer to the other characters presented in the colourful line-up presented on the film’s advertisement; with the first half of the film mostly fixating on providing the core characters with their own miniature character arcs, they begin to understand each other and thus grow closer to one another. Alongside this, Shion develops an idea of what it means to be human and the emotions that bring definition to our identities; she is able to gain insight into the complexity of joy and pleasure and what exactly it means to people and as to how they interpret it. The songs scattered through the runtime of the film relate to the current anecdote – with the songs themselves also extending across countless genres of music, from heavy and emotional to upbeat and whimsical. The background music, as well as this, has a great amount of diversity and is able to match the emotional beats presented for the duration of the film.

Yasuhiro Yoshiura and J.C. Staff’s ‘Sing a Bit of Harmony.’ Image © 2021 J.C. Staff.

Alongside this, Shion develops an idea of what it means to be human and the emotions that bring definition to our identities; she is able to gain insight into the complexity of joy and pleasure and what exactly it means to people and as to how they interpret it. Hence, it can be seen as the film also prompting the same emotions as the characters through us as viewers with how we can relate to their struggles to our own. We, as an audience, are ultimately able to come up with our own conclusion about the movie’s themes.

Yasuhiro Yoshiura and J.C. Staff’s ‘Sing a Bit of Harmony.’ Image © 2021 J.C. Staff.

Can we say that music connects us with others? These two movies make a wonderful attempt at investigating this principle – with the two even taking this question and applying the notion through conflicting means. Personally, I would say that neither of these films are absolutely ground-breaking in the world of anime; but regardless of this, they are marvellous to watch if you’re seeking a pick-me-up film that strives to address the matters of delight and the elation you can experience from the bonds that you can build with those around you.

The Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop Original Soundtrack, by Kensuke Ushio, can be found on Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music. Additionally, the Sing a Bit of Harmony Original Soundtrack, composed and arranged by Ryo Takahashi, has had a physical release and can be purchased on various merchandise websites – such as Tokyo Otaku Mode, Animate and CDJapan. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop can be watched on Netflix UK, whereas Sing a Bit of Harmony has yet to get a localised digital or physical release.

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81400497

Tia McGrew is an investigative writer and journalist; being a long-time anime fan, she thrives on exploring how real-world concepts can be applied to fictional settings and characters.