Screenwriter Gen Urobuchi has a weird way of explaining his script for Netflix’s new original anime feature Bubble: “I thought of playing with a typical mermaid story: Instead of a girl ending up like bubbles after she fell in love, why not fall in love with a bubble and transform into a girl?”
This is a weird case for a typical anime, but the field has definitely created more weird stories. (Just look Pui Pui Molkar, a series of traffic adventures in a guinea pig country on wheels instead of legs.) More important than the case, however, is the talent behind Bubble: Directed by Tetsurô Araki, a longtime regular Attack on the titan series, movies and OVA, with character designs from Death noteby Takeshi Obata, and music by Promarof Hiroyuki Sawano. Urobuchi himself is behind the award-winning writer and screenwriter Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
The first trailer for Bubble reminds a little Weathering With You in his vision of a sunny, flooded Toyko overgrown with plants and recovered from nature, making it a perfect setting for an idealized love story. But his idea, where gravity-defying bubbles rain down on the city, letting young people climb buildings and navigate the world in 3D jumping between floating bubbles, makes it look more like a wild platform game. The following is a summary of Netflix, which explains this last part of the trailer:
The story takes place in Tokyo, after bubbles that violated the laws of gravity rained down on the world. Cut off from the outside world, Tokyo has been turned into a playground for a group of young people who have lost their families, acting as a battlefield for parkour team battles as they leap from building to building. Hibiki, a young ace known for his dangerous style of play, makes a reckless move one day and falls vertically into the sea bent by gravity. His life is saved by Uta, a girl with mysterious powers who suddenly appears. Then the couple hears a unique sound that is heard only in them. Why did Uta appear before Hibiki? Their meeting leads to a revelation that will change the world.
Bubble will debut on Netflix on April 28, 2022.
