Liz and the Blue Bird

Plot

Mizore is a quiet student in her third and final year of high school, who is an oboist in the school's concert band. Her closest friend is Nozomi, one of the band's flutists, who is much more outgoing and popular. Together, the two rehearse a duet from the musical piece Liz and the Blue Bird, which is based on a fairy tale of the same name. The story is about a young woman named Liz (represented by the oboe in the musical piece) and a blue bird turned human (represented by the flute) who become best friends and live together, until the two are forced to part ways. Nozomi and Mizore realize that the story applies closely to their own relationship and impending graduation, which worries Mizore; she sees herself as Liz and Nozomi as the fleeting blue bird.

Although Nozomi spends time with other friends from the band, Mizore refuses her other bandmates' offers to spend time together. Mizore often tries to express her affection to Nozomi, but finds herself unable to. Niiyama, the band's woodwind instructor, advises Mizore to apply to a music school after graduation so that she can become a professional musician; she is not particularly interested at first, but changes her mind after Nozomi says that she might apply to the same school. This worries their bandmates, as they realize that Mizore's only motivation for playing music is Nozomi, who is not truly serious about becoming a professional.

As the concert approaches, Mizore and Nozomi grow apart. Mizore, anxious about her future and recalling that Nozomi quit the band two years prior, is afraid that she is abandoning her again. Meanwhile, Nozomi is uncomfortable with Mizore progressively opening herself to others and being tutored by Niiyama, envious of her greater potential. Furthermore, the two have trouble perfecting their duet, both because of their increasingly strained relationship and because of their difficulty connecting with the characters from Liz and the Blue Bird; Mizore, in particular, does not understand why Liz would ever let the blue bird go free instead of keeping it with her forever.

Eventually, the two come to a greater understanding of their relationship, thanks to the assistance of Niiyama and other members of the band. They ultimately come to realize that, while they associated Mizore to Liz and Nozomi to the blue bird, Mizore is actually closer to the blue bird—having to let go of her unconditional attachment so she can live her own life—while Nozomi is closer to Liz, who let the bird go free so that she would not weigh it down. At the next rehearsal, they perform the piece perfectly. Mizore's performance moves her bandmates, and Nozomi exits the practice room in tears. Mizore confronts Nozomi privately afterwards; Nozomi accuses Mizore of holding back her talent for her sake. She also explains that she didn't intend on applying for music school, and had only said so to appear as Mizore's equal. Mizore, upset that Nozomi is seemingly ignoring her feelings and leaving her behind, hugs Nozomi and confesses the true extent of her love. Nozomi tersely responds that she loves Mizore's oboe, and thanks her.

Voice cast

Atsumi Tanezaki (Japanese) / Laurie Hymes (English) as Mizore Yoroizuka, an introverted third-year high school student and oboist in the concert band

Nao Tōyama (Japanese) / Stephanie Sheh (English) as Nozomi Kasaki, a third-year flutist in the band and Mizore's more outgoing friend

Miyu Honda (Japanese) / Courtney Shaw (English) as both Liz and the Mysterious Girl, the main characters of the Liz and the Blue Bird fairy tale

Konomi Fujimura (Japanese) / Sarah Anne Williams (English) as Natsuki Nakagawa, a third-year euphoniumist and the vice-president of the band

Yuri Yamaoka (Japanese) / Megan Harvey (English) as Yuuko Yoshikawa, a third-year trumpeter and the president of the band

Shiori Sugiura (Japanese) / Xanthe Huynh (English) as Ririka Kenzaki, a first-year oboist in the band

Chika Anzai (Japanese) / Cristina Vee (English) as Reina Kousaka, a second-year trumpeter in the band

Tomoyo Kurosawa (Japanese) / Courtney Shaw (English) as Kumiko Oumae, a second-year euphoniumist in the band

Ayaka Asai (Japanese) / Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (English) as Hazuki Katou, a second-year tubaist in the band

Moe Toyota (Japanese) / Cassandra Lee Morris (English) as Sapphire Kawashima, a second-year bassist in the band

Houko Kuwashima (Japanese) / Ryan Bartley (English) as Satomi Niiyama, the band's woodwind instructor

Production

Background

Beginning in 2015, the Sound! Euphonium novels by Ayano Takeda were adapted into an animated television series by Kyoto Animation. After being offered a film adaptation of her series by Kyoto Animation, Takeda submitted the plot of what would become The Turbulent Second Movement (波乱の第二楽章) installments of her novel series to the studio. The plot featured the main character of the series, Kumiko Oumae, as well as the side characters of Nozomi and Mizore. Tatsuya Ishihara, the director of the television adaptation, originally planned to adapt Takeda's plot as a single film. However, Naoko Yamada, who worked with Ishihara as the show's series director, suggested that Nozomi and Mizore's story could stand on its own as a spin-off film. Liz and the Blue Bird emerged when Kyoto Animation decided to split the adaptation between two films; Ishihara directed the film about Kumiko, while Yamada directed the film about Nozomi and Mizore. Ishihara's film, Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Brand New Day, was released in 2019.

With the production staff from Sound! Euphonium occupied with Ishihara's film, several people who had worked under Yamada's direction for the 2016 film A Silent Voice returned to produce Liz and the Blue Bird. These included writer Reiko Yoshida, composer Kensuke Ushio, and character designer Futoshi Nishiya. Yoshida also worked as the screenwriter for several other works directed by Yamada, including K-On! and Tamako Market. Character designer Futoshi Nishiya re-designed the characters instead of using the designs from Sound Euphonium!, in order to better fit the film's style, story and themes. The crew also included Mutsuo Shinohara as art director, and Naomi Ishida as color stylist. Stephanie Sheh served as casting director and ADR director for the film's English release.

Direction

Yamada departed from the large scope of Sound! Euphonium's cast to "completely focus" the film on Nozomi and Mizore. Although Yamada aimed to direct a faithful adaptation of Takeda's original plot, she feared that her own interpretation of the story had entered the film. She aimed to convey a nuanced conclusion through the film's cinematography, one which maintained the impression of a happy ending while allowing for a sense of unease. Yamada also sought to avoid giving the impression that the two characters were "entirely good friends" with each other, and attempted to "protect the girls' dignity" by not making a "spectacle" out of the story.

The film's central fairy tale and musical piece originated as an embedded narrative in Takeda's plot; Takeda sought to thematically represent Nozomi and Mizore's changing relationship as a song performed by their band. While Takeda's plot told the fairy tale in full before shifting to Nozomi and Mizore's perspective, the film intersperses the fairy tale throughout the main story. Yamada stated that the interwoven structure was chosen to enhance the film's visual appeal and to further the main story's momentum. Takeda's plot also positioned Kumiko as a mediator between Nozomi and Mizore; Yamada eschewed this structure in Liz and the Blue Bird to focus on Nozomi and Mizore's direct interactions.

Yamada stated about the making of the film: "My first thought was to put my impression of Nozomi and Mizore's story into something visual. Then, when pulling myself right up-close to the problems and growth the two girls experience, I made sure to catch any small changes or realisations the two may have. I wanted this film to be in its most suitable form to match what this story wanted to depict. ... I wanted to catch and depict these softer, more subtle aspects. For example, even the slightest aversion of their eyes is something born from their thoughts and feelings. This is something I wanted to take great care of – I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any of it. It's like watching and quietly holding your breath, recording what you see. Like watching the girls behind a pane of glass; a single touch enough to make them disappear. I put importance in using colour to reflect this sense of fragility and fleetingness. ... For this piece of work subtle emotions and the buildup of feeling was important. So I was careful as to not add acting that was formulaic, like 'they're sad so they'll make a sad face'. For example, the flautist Nozomi. When she lifts the corners of her mouth and narrows her eyes, it is recognised by the other that she is smiling. She's the sort of girl who thinks like this, but looking at it the other way, by 'smiling' she's maintaining the distance between her and the other. It was important to not take shortcuts in depiction, as to protect the dignity of these girls who live their lives thinking about this with every step they take."

Voice acting

Nozomi's voice actress Nao Tōyama stated that Yamada told her that "Mizore's feelings towards Nozomi and Nozomi's feelings towards Mizore aren't the same. Both care about each other, but their feelings grow apart. They feel empathy for each other, but their relationship is special and unusual." Yamada also stated in another interview that she "had a very hard time depicting the intricacies of the relation between Mizore and Nozomi. It seemed like one would get a completely different impression by just the way they ended their words in every bit of their conversations. I absolutely wanted to be faithful to the feelings of the two. It was a very risky speech style we went for, however we did not intend to make something where the people we show it to simple-mindedly sees them as "very good friends". In order to protect dignity, so that there was not any falsehood (in the drawings), I was constantly careful not to make it showy."

Tōyama stated "Nozomi was depicted in the TV series as a truly nice, cheerful person loved by everyone. I tried to render her charisma, not just her motivated and driven personality. However, in the movie, she shows her imperfections, which weren't depicted in the TV series due to her not being the main character. For instance, she can be cunning and jealous of even Mizore, who she really cares about. I think viewers of the movie will feel an affinity with her human side. To be honest, I was confused when I read the script at first. I didn't want to destroy the fans' image of her from Sound! Euphonium, even though the movie is a completely new story. I hope viewers understand that Nozomi is the same girl from the TV series, and the movie shows different aspects of her not shown before. I'd like to portray her without destroying her image, but surprise viewers with her human side. To be honest, I felt that I could relate to Mizore more than Nozomi at first. I understood Mizore's feelings but not Nozomi's. I didn't understand her looking away or shuffling her feet at the crucial time. I thought she wasn't the girl who I knew well. It took a while for me to understand why she acted like that. She has too much on her mind and can't handle her emotions anymore. On the other hand, Mizore stays the same in the movie, so it's easy to understand her."

Mizore's voice actress Atsumi Tanezaki stated: "There was no confusion about Mizore's role. How she treasures being with Nozomi hasn't changed a bit from the TV series. However, there were very few scenes of the two together in the TV series. There were only the scenes of them making up and then a few conversations. Therefore, I wondered how I could render her feelings when they were chatting and joking around or playing together in the sun. The director told me that Mizore feels like it's the last chance to be with Nozomi every time she meets her. She always feels insecure about her friendship with Nozomi and fears it'll end abruptly without warning. I understood those feelings towards her during the TV series, so I told her 'I know. I get it.' Mizore treasures every moment with Nozomi and was simply happy when Nozomi reacts to her joke by saying, 'What's that?' She hasn't changed in that respect."

Music

Liz and the Blue Bird had two composers: Kensuke Ushio, who had scored Yamada's previous film A Silent Voice, composed the minimal-styled background music for the scenes in high school, while the background music for the Liz and the Blue Bird fairy tale segments and the concert pieces performed by the characters' wind band were composed and conducted by Akito Matsuda, the composer of the Sound! Euphonium anime series. The soundtrack was composed beforehand, and the keyframe animation done afterwards to match with it; the scenes featuring Ushio's music were particularly hard to animate, as he included the sounds of the characters' footsteps as part of the music, and their movements had to be perfectly synchronized with the sounds; the goal was to have "visuals, music, and the sounds of footsteps in complete tandem".

Unlike A Silent Voice which he joined late during production, Ushio was involved since very early in Liz and the Blue Bird's production, and as such helped Yamada develop her own ideas for the film; he stated: "When I read the script, I thought this was a very personal story; a story that should remain hidden from everyone else. If such adolescent feelings, so very delicate like glass, were to be known to others, I think that those girls would truly become unable to build connections with others later in life. So I wanted the music to be like holding your breath, secretly watching. There's also the fantastic wind band music that Matsuda composed. I thought this music was what you should find yourself humming after watching the film, so I tried to make sure I didn't bring the melody out too much in the film music. That's why I decided to go with this unconventional method of composition."

To record the soundtrack, Ushio and Yamada went to the real-life school the building in the film is based on, where Ushio recorded himself tapping and using the present objects in different ways, and later included those sounds in the soundtrack; he later remembered that Yamada "couldn't stop laughing" while he recorded. To compose, Ushio used a method Yamada qualified as "decalcomania", spilling ink on sheet music and folding it before putting the end result into music. He described it as "a way of representing how the two girls, that sort of disjoint between them and that gradual separation. We took that and used that as the base for the soundtrack as well so that's one of the reasons why it ended up with such a nostalgic tone to it. Within the decalcomania you'll see different objects, the beaker, the piano, the desk scraping sound. For example, the footsteps are synchronized to the music. The footsteps had an actual tempo. The tempo is 99, 100, 101. These are coprime numbers. The footsteps' tempo is always a coprime number but we also slightly moved the tempo because we are humans and not robots. So at the very end of this film, you saw the happy on screen situation – I cannot remember the tone but the footsteps are completely synced. Just the footsteps. So something that happened that even I didn't expect is the footsteps ended up in sync together and for them they never expected that. It felt like a genuine miracle that that happened. It was a joint moment." He also composed some of the soundtrack in a more conventional manner.

Release

The film was released in Japan on April 21, 2018, by Shochiku. Eleven Arts released the film the United States on November 9, 2018. It premiered in Canada on January 2, 2019.

The film was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 5, 2018, in Japan. Eleven Arts later announced Shout! Factory, who is best known for releasing Super Sentai media in North America would be releasing Liz and the Blue Bird on home video in the region on March 5, 2019.

On November 14, 2024, it was announced that GKIDS picked up the distribution rights to the film.

Reception

Critical reception

Liz and the Blue Bird received positive reviews from critics, with most praise going to the relationship and personalities of the two main characters, soundtrack, and animation. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 83% approval rating based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating, the film has a score of 67 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Reviewers stated that the film was a standalone story that did not require knowledge of Sound! Euphonium.

Natasha H. of IGN gave a highly positive review, stating: that Yamada goes "full out with her own style and approach to constructing an experience of loneliness, misperceptions of people, and overcoming unrealistic dreams. She does this in one of the most unique and extraordinary methods I've seen in this medium: by pairing her framing and pacing of the story right up with the soundtrack. It is almost impossible to decouple the visual and auditory experiences of Liz and the Blue Bird ... The soft character designs also lend to emotional expressions, which aligns perfectly with the kind of people Mizore and Nozomi are. Whether it's the eyes, or slant of the mouth, or even the criss crossing of legs – the attention to detail shows in every frame of the film. The music is also very particular, as Ushio weaves instruments familiar and strange together into a sparse and discreet score to portray the mindset of the main two characters and atmosphere of each scene in the film." She gave the film a 9 out of 10 rating, concluding: "Liz and the Blue Bird, while seemingly straightforward and simple, is one of the most structurally complex films about the necessity of communication for healthy relationships. It displays human insecurity and vulnerability in beautifully honest ways, and thanks to the combined craft of director Yamada's impeccable vision and composer Ushio's sparse but minimalistic soundtrack, it ends up becoming one of the most touching and moving experiences I've seen this year."

Matt Schley of The Japan Times gave the film a 4.5 out of 5 rating, calling it "brilliantly executed" and stating "Not everyone has been in a wind band, but there are few among us who have never had to say goodbye to a friend. For Sound! Euphonium fans, Liz will be a welcome trip back into its world, but this film will resonate just as strongly with anyone who's ever been through the emotional roller coaster known as high school." Writing for The Daily Dot, Michelle Jarowski gave the film a 4 out of 5 rating, stating "Liz and the Blue Bird soars from the get-go as it weaves together a fantastical fairy tale and a more intimate, relatable high school story. As two sides of the same coin, both stories circle one another until they fuse into a poignant harmony of sight and sound."

Box office

Liz and the Blue Bird grossed $737,286 at the box office.

Accolades

The film won the Ofuji Noburo Award. It was also nominated for the Animat's Award for Best Feature-Length Film at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain; in America, it was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature.

Follow-up film

Another Sound! Euphonium film titled Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Brand New Day was released on April 19, 2019; it is directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and written by Jukki Hanada, respectively the television series' main director and sole writer. Its production took place concurrently with Liz and the Blue Bird's; it focuses on Kumiko, the main character of the novels who appears in Liz in a supporting role, and is "connected" to Liz. Yamada stated that the "Liz and the Blue Bird" music piece featured in her film "will be connecting the film to [the second one]." The film was released in North America on July 11, 2019 (sub) and July 15, 2019 (dub).