Liz and the Blue Bird

Mizore Yoroizuka plays the oboe, and Nozomi Kasaki plays the flute in Kita Uji High School concert band. As seniors, this will be their last competition together, and the selected piece “Liz and the Blue Bird” features a duet for the oboe and flute. “This piece reminds me of us.” Nozomi says cheerfully, enjoying the solo, while Mizore's usual happiness to play with Nozomi is tinged with the dread of their inevitable parting. By all accounts the girls are best friends, but the oboe and flute duet sounds disjointed, as if underscoring a growing distance between them. Talk of college creates a small rift in their relationship, as the story evolves to reveal a shocking and emotional conclusion

Source: Eleven Arts

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Reviews

This could have been a film, the animation and sound they put into this production was worthy quality of that. However, it unfortunatly decided to not commit, and limited itself to an over-glorified OVA for an anime series. And that's what it feels like watching it; an OVA with an insane budget. So rather than make it a stand alone film they decided to make a 90 minute episode featuring some characters from HE. Everything about this feels like it's a chunk out of something else, because it is. But it didn't have to be. The ideas are there, the story's concept is great, this could have been a standalone film featuring characters from HE, but instead it's a 90 miute special featuring characters from HE. The plot was slow, like a slie-of-life special often is, and then it was over. The characters actually had a great arch, but the production doesn't treat it as this stand-alone thing, so it doesn't feel that way. The characters, the world, nothing is sketched out/outlined/introduced because the assumption is that you already know that stuff. I don't regret watching it. It's not bad. It's just weird to see something have SO MUCH potential, and then chose the mediocre path, especially when you take into consideration the overall theme and story of this. Sound was suberb though. I enjoyed the music, and the SFX were so perfectly crisp and clear that I decided to kwatchthe full thing for the sound alone.

Gorgeous movie, both visually and content-wise. Liz & The Blue Bird demonstrates incredible writing skills, mixing multiple layers of narration, while showcasing stunning musical score, in which every note and every instrument is smartly chosen to match the characters on screen, in a musical-tale fashion, like Peter & the Wolf. Would highly recommand this movie for 90 minutes of tenderness and awe.

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