There's a Broadway adage that goes, "When words aren't enough, you sing, and when singing isn't enough, you sing and dance." That proves to be the driving principle behind the groundbreaking anime film Sing a Bit of Harmony. Pulling inspiration from western animation musicals while keeping a tone and characterization that are distinctly anime, the movie blends ideas from various traditions to push boundaries and crush conventions.
Still, its lyrical stylings spotlight an overlooked style of storytelling in anime and Japanese films in general. With the success of Sing a Bit of Harmony and other similar productions from Japan shaking up the formula, could anime musicals become the next big trend for the medium?
Sing a Bit of Harmony opens with Satomi Amano, a loner high school girl whose mother works on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. When Shion Ashimori, a quirky transfer student with a penchant for breaking out into song, joins her class, Satomi immediately realizes she is the lasted A.I. project from her mother's lab. Through a series of hijinks brought about by Shion's desire to make Satomi happy, a small group of students surrounding the two discover Shion's true origins. Though events start off tense, Satomi and Shion eventually bond with the others, leading to a heartfelt story about friendship and the nature of happiness set to a stunning musical score.
While Sing a Bit of Harmony feels grounded in a less fantastical setting, it never tries to hide the influence of Disney musicals that serve as its muse. Despite Satomi's serious demeanor, she is enamored with an animated princess film called Moon Princess, which is filled with singing and dancing.
As part of her mission to help Satomi, Shion constantly tries to flood their days with melodies and magic straight out of a fairy tale. She even impulsively performs impromptu songs to help their new friends with each of their personal crises. Altogether, the movie feels like a love letter to every child who grew up in the Disney Renaissance, reminding them to never give up on making their own lives as fantastical as the stories they see on screen.
Although anime tends to have a penchant for the dramatic, original musicals are a rarity for the medium. This provides an interesting contrast between the Disney-dominated world of western animation, which thrives by using the device as part of its standard formula. Though Sing a Bit of Harmony is far from the first musical animation project out of Japan, they are nowhere near as widespread or dominant there.
Children of the VHS era may recall Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, an animated musical fantasy which originated as a collaboration between Japanese and American creatives. Yet even though it screened during the heyday of Disney musicals, it ended up a box office flop.
A number of series have also attempted to take up the challenge of an anime musical. Revue Starlight mixes stage battles with Takarazuka-esque numbers to create the anime equivalent of an operatic stageplay. Mekakucity Actors, based on the vocaloid song project Kagerou Daze, utilizes many of the viral songs from its source material into its plotline, giving it an aesthetic that straddles the line between a Broadway production and a music video.
Along with Sing a Bit of Harmony, many of the latest additions to Japan's cinematic oeuvre have worked toward including musical elements. 2019's live action film Dance With Me follows an office worker who is hypnotized into putting on a choreographed show every time she hears music. Most recently, anime fans were treated to director Mamoru Hosoda's newest work Belle, which was greatly inspired by the many iterations of Beauty and the Beast and included a handful of in-universe songs. Both enjoyed critical success at film festivals, with Belle receiving a 14-minute standing ovation at the world famous Cannes Film Festival.
Still, there is a notable difference between Disney or Broadway musicals, where self-expression through song is accepted as normal, and films like Sing a Bit of Harmony. Whether it be through the quirks of artificial intelligence, hypnotism or debuting as a pop songstress in a virtual space, many of these new films from Japan provide some kind of explicit reason for their spontaneous singing, while having the supporting cast point out how extraordinary their art is.
Nevertheless, while anime creators are still navigating the best way to reach their audiences, these forays into musical territory show a desire to integrate song and dance as a storytelling device. This will no doubt pave the road for further anime projects with melodious flair. As more up-and-coming voices enter the imaginative space of anime production, fans are sure to see the magic of music work its way into the medium in many new and innovative ways.
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