“Trapezium” Anime Movie Review

Important takeaways

• Trapezium gives a realistic view of the challenges in the idol world without any flashy conclusions.
• The film explores the manipulative side of a protagonist driven to form an idol group, blurring the lines between ambition and friendship.
• Trapezium's art and music capture modern J-pop vibes, catering to idol anime fans but perhaps lacking deeper nuances for newcomers.

The idol music industry has been a powerhouse of Japanese pop culture for decades, and the unique structure of that industry hasn't affected the lack of anime over the years. From the upbeat, light-hearted plays of Love Live! and PriParato the gossip scandal about Oshi no Ko or the psychological madness of Perfect Bluethe dynamics and performances of young, highly marketed musical talent occupy a constant source of fascination and intrigue in Japan's sister arts of anime and manga.

A new film from one of the most popular anime studios explores the idol experience by combining the music with the realistic challenges – and aspirations – needed to make it big.

Trapezium in the world of Idol anime

Trapezea new feature film produced by Cloverworks, the studio behind some of the most popular anime series of the 2020s, including Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock!certainly has a pedigree to be a major entry into the world of idol anime. Adding a layer of authenticity to the idol experience is the fact that the film is adapted from a novel written by Kazumi Takayama, a former member of a Japanese idol mega-group. There are many expectations to live up to and previous works to invite potential comparisons. And how do Trapeze stand up to these different aspects of the multifaceted world of idols? Living up to its name with these different ways of approaching everything, it's like…balances them.

There are hardly any big “twists” or startling conclusions in it Trapezeand it generates some cautionary judgment about what would or would not constitute spoilers. The essential plot of the film is that Yuu, a first-year high school student with a lifelong love of idols and idol culture, carefully curates a group of friends around her with whom she eventually wants to start her own idol girl group. The locations of each of the girls' schools correspond to the different directions, North, East, West and South, for which the group is named “NEWS.” The girl group finally comes together, although the girls' clashes of different ambitions and desires in life lead to questions about the future of both their musical journey and their wider friendship.

Big dreams, bigger ambitions

Leaving the film at that description would certainly be accurate enough for marketing or a press junket, but it doesn't quite get to the heart of the film, which is actually more of a character study of an abundantly driven wannabe idol. Yuu deliberately forms her own friendships based on a group gimmick in her head, bending truths about her own motives to make it seem like their bonds are rooted in natural friendship and not hidden ambitions.

The girls in the group (a tennis-loving rich girl who attends an elite Christian school, a shy robotics lover who attends business school, and a recently reunited childhood best friend) all seem like nice enough idol group members on paper, but to what extent Yuu plays a months-long game of essentially feigning interests in their interests in life only to wryly pressure them into accompanying her own personal passion goes beyond sympathetic passion and into somewhat awkward manipulativeness. The film is aware that these resulting dynamics aren't perfect, but it hardly condemns them wholeheartedly, either. These characters have interesting dynamics and motivations that clash with the harmony of their music, but the film doesn't quite decide what tensions it wants to portray and how far it wants to go to illustrate them.

Yes, while the action in Trapeze shines a negative light on its protagonist's more casual outbursts against her fellow idols and resolves the friend group's personal differences, it never quite goes as far as showing the group's entire friendship, which is shown to be genuine despite having ulterior motives as its entire rationale. d'etre. On a slightly different angle, if this movie had focused more on Yuu's internal monologue or self-doubt about the extent of her ambitions, it could have been a compelling character study, or – dare I say it – a more modern and much lower stakes. spiritual companion to Perfect Blue. But by ultimately playing off the joyous feel of the group's performances, flawed dynamics and all, Trapezes take on idols ultimately feels like something of an attempt to have one's cake and eat it too.

Sights and sounds

On a technical level, the art and animation in the film is generally good. Director Masahiro Shinohara, whose previous work has revolved around directing TV anime, does a commendable job of holding and creating character expressions that bring a lot of liveliness to the girls and their interactions. The film gives the impression of a sharp visual sensibility threaded between storyboards and into the final art, simple facial expressions pause and frames retain a strong sense of emotional characterization.

CGI is present throughout the film, but sparingly. Some characters outside of CGI environments walking through in some shots feel a bit clashing between the 2D figures and their 3D shaded environments, but these instances are not common overall and the CGI is less obvious (but still visible) in the girls' performance dance routines, which takes up much more of the film's visual crux.

It goes without saying that music has to be an important component in any idol movie, and the music in the Trapeze captures the feel of positive, modern J-pop while fitting the beats (literally) of the girls' idol journey. Composer Masaru Yokoyama, who previously collaborated with Cloverworks on 2019's Her blue skyplays off both the sentimentality of high school drama and the more upbeat feel of J-pop for a nice soundtrack and a particularly memorable opening theme. The opening sequence is expressively visual along with its music and is a bit of fun early on.

Trapeze will certainly be a treat for dedicated fans of idol anime, but it probably wouldn't be the best introduction to that side of the medium for a newcomer. It has the seeds of engaging, complex character dynamics, but handles them with a politeness that privileges sentimental convention over the deeper nuance that one feels was probably more on display in the source novel. That said, for fans of the idol genre, Trapeze can only prove to be an engaging balancing act.