Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bubble’ on Netflix, An Effervescent Take on the Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Genre

Bubble, the latest addition to Netflix’s cadre of anime feature films, is the product of some impressive talent. It’s directed by Tetsuro Araki of Attack on Titan, written by Gen Urobuchi (who worked on Madoka Magica), has character designs by Death Note‘s Takeshi Obata, and music from Promare‘s Hiroyuki Sawano. In short, it was destined for greatness, and it delivers in every way. This sci-fi romance is a tour-de-force with crisp animation, excellent voice acting, and characters that carry the trademark Gen Urobuchi seal of quality. Is it worth jumping into and letting it tug at your heartstrings? That’s a resounding yes.

BUBBLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Bubble is set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where strange bubbles that ignore the principles of gravity have fallen everywhere around the world. It’s especially bad in Tokyo, which is cut off from the rest of the planet. The survivors who still live there, against official edicts, are mostly young teens who miss the heyday of the massive city and its bustling population. But they don’t mourn the loss of the way life used to be. Instead, they find a way to make things as exciting as they possibly can.

To pass the days and to collect supplies to continue living, they play a kind of parkour called Tokyo Battlekour. This finds players zipping around from rooftop to rooftop, avoiding bubbles and massive black hole-like anomalies known as “antlion pits”. One player, Hibiki (Jun Shison), is especially skilled at the game, because he can manipulate the bubbles around Tokyo in ways that others can’t. He’s drawn to the tower at the center of Tokyo, the epicenter of the initial bubbles’ appearance. He hears singing coming from the tower, and eventually moves in to investigate.

What he finds there will change his life forever: a girl named Uta (Riria), who seems to attract the bubbles all around her in a special underwater-like field. What’s her secret, and why is she able to interact with the bubbles? Hibiki dives into Uta’s surreal world as he unlocks the truth behind the bizarre event that changed the world for good and finds the first stirrings of true love for the first time.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: There are extremely strong undercurrents of contemporary anime romances like Your Name, as well as classic fairy tales like The Little Mermaid at play here. Similarly, there are themes much like those seen in Studio Ghibli flicks, with plenty of youthful optimism and undercurrents of coming of age movies. Though the premise is original, you’ll feel right at home if you enjoyed those movies.

Performance Worth Watching: Singer-songwriter Riria lends her voice to Uta, both performing as the character and singing the ending theme song “Ja Ne, Mata Ne” (“See You, Catch You Later”). This is Riria’s first and only voice acting role to date, and she was requested to play Uta by director Tetsuro Araki and producer Genki Kawamura. Some performers without voice acting credits can often sound like they’re phoning it in, but Riria does a fantastic voice of infusing Uta with mystery and an air of kindness and friendliness, despite the fact that she knows very little about Tokyo. It helps that she’s also a great singer.

Memorable Dialogue: “Let’s meet again someday,” is a line that’ll get the waterworks flowing as soon as it’s spoken. Without spoiling its context, know that Riria (as Uta) does a fantastic job of driving the weight of her words home, as she’s done throughout the entirety of the film, and these words will linger with you long after the story draws to a close.

Sex and Skin: None to be had here. Everyone’s probably more concerned with why these weird bubbles showed up in the first place and why Tokyo is sequestered below an enormous one to think about doing the deed. Wouldn’t you be?

Our Take: Bubble could have been a bleak portrait of life following a drastic event that changed the world permanently. Instead, it’s a colorful take on what happens when young love blossoms between two unlikely teens. It’s a portrait of how resilient humans are, and how important the will to survive can be. It explores the cyclical nature of life and how everything can occur as part of a loop. If you’re tired of the hopeless nature of most anime films that explore major life-changing events, Bubble will come as a breath of fresh air.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Bubble is a fizzy take on the typical anime romance that combines the bittersweet yearning of young love with the uncertainty of films that explore post-apocalyptic events. It does so with panache and gorgeous animation. From watching Hibiki’s cold heart melt upon meeting Uta to the hopeful tone the film takes as it approaches its climax, Bubble is a thoughtful sci-fi adventure that’s as colorful as its characters.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.