When you find yourself turned on by jazz, one of the first things you’ll be told while browsing through the racks at a record store is “you have to track down the Japanese import vinyl.” This must be told to Harry Bosch every time he hits a used record store in Los Angeles. While this might sound like a BS line, you quickly learn that there are people in Japan who truly love jazz. When you pull the vinyl out of the album cover, the Japanese feels more precious and sacred. There are so many great live albums that were recorded in Tokyo by American greats. Japan appreciates the music. But there are more than ears in the Far East; there are Japanese jazz musicians. Blue Giant is an anime adaptation of Shin’ichi Ishizuka’s manga about a teenager with a saxophone and a Tokyo dream.
Dai Miyamoto (Godzilla Minus One‘s Yuki Yamada) got bit by the jazz bug while in high school. He stopped playing basketball to focus on learning to play the saxophone. After three years of practicing in the wilderness, he packs up his backpack and hops a train to Tokyo to be a part of the jazz scene. He crashes on the sofa of an old school pal Shunji Tamada (The Perfect Insider‘s Amane Okayama) who wasn’t expecting a new roommate while he goes to college. By day, Dai works grunt jobs and at night he practices his sax underneath a bridge near the river. The traffic keeps anyone from complaining about his loud music. (This technique was done by sax great Sonny Rollins.) Dai saves up enough cash to start visiting the small jazz bars. He is blown away during his first live show. He thinks there’s something special about the young pianist Yukinori Sawabe (Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween – Destiny‘s Shôtarô Mamiya). He works up the courage to ask Sawabe if he want to play together. The lifelong pianist isn’t sure what to make of a guy who has only three years on the sax. Eventually they do collaborate. In order to have a group, Dai gets Tamada to learn how to play drums. Their little trio starts to make musical sense. They even pick the name Jass for their band. As they get better, they begin to dream of playing at the legendary So Blue club. Can they make it to the top of Tokyo’s jazz scene before they hit 20?
What I appreciate most about Blue Giant is that the goals are realistic. We learn quickly that jazz isn’t exactly the road to stardom in Japan. The jazz clubs are rather small affairs. This isn’t about a rock power trio that have dreams of being the next Rush and playing stadiums. Even when they play an important jazz festival, there’s only 150 folks in the theater. The band does want to impress all 150 people since they’re only playing original music instead of a setlist composed of standards from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Charlie Mingus. Their dream gig isn’t too huge. So Blue nightclub only seats 250 people, but it is considered the Tokyo Dome for jazz bands. Director Yuzuru Tachikawa and his team of animators do make So Blue look like a club you’d want get inside and impress.
While the plot of Blue Giant could have easily been done as a live action movie, the animation allows the music to soar. There are times when Jass is on the stage that we’re given a visual experience that they’re trying to achieve at the Las Vegas Sphere. We get a sense of how the music makes the band members feel. The original music by Hiromi Uehara makes me want to track down the Japanese import (which is fittingly pressed on blue vinyl). You can also listen to the music on Spotify.
Blue Giant might be the only film about jazz I’ve ever seen where nobody is shooting up smack. The trio don’t have any real vices besides their devotion to jazz. Which is good. We’re spared the 10 minutes of rehab when a character has to go cold turkey for the big comeback in the third act. There is an emotional third act when things go bad right when they get close to their dream. This adds to the richness of their music.
The movie really gets to the core of three kids who get involved in jazz because of the music and not the rock star lifestyle. The animated world plays close to the realities of the jazz world while giving us glimpses of the feelings and fantasies that pushes the musicians deeper during their solos. Blue Giant is an animated film that Harry Bosch would watch after a long day of searching through record crates.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer looks sweet when the band is playing and the visual begin to swirl. The Audio is Japanese TrueHD 7.1, TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. You can set it like you want your jazz records playing. The movie is subtitled in English and Spanish.
Q&A with HIROMI (15:56) was recorded after a screening at the Japan Society. Hiromi Uehara was a big fan of the original Manga. She started coming up with the music Jass would be playing before she was hired for the anime. It was destiny that she would create a soundtrack that fit the characters on stage. She did have to rework her music to fit the running time of the scenes. Comic book pages don’t have time limits. The conversation is in English.
Trailers & Teasers (5:14) includes Localized Japanese commercial, the original Japanese trailer, Japanese Teaser #1, Japanese Teaser #2 and two TV spots. The music stands out on all the trailers. There will be jazz.
GKIDS and Shout! Studios present Blue Giant. Directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa. Screenplay by NUMBER 8. Starring the voices of Yuki Yamada, Yutaka Aoyama, Masayuki Katô, Sayaka Kinoshita, Hidenobu Kiuchi, Yusuke Kondo, Shôtarô Mamiya, Kenji Nomura & Amane Okayama. Running Time: 120 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Release Date: April 30, 2024.
