Bubble

Five years ago, gravity-defying bubbles with mysterious powers rained down upon the earth. After a huge explosion of uncertain origin, Tokyo became ground zero, with the city being enclosed in a gigantic bubble. As a result of this "Bubble Fall" phenomenon, the metropolis that was once the capital of Japan drowned in a gravity-bending sea; the government declared it a prohibited zone, and the residents abandoned it.

Children orphaned by the Bubble Fall now squat illegally in Tokyo, partaking in dangerous parkour team battles across the city's dilapidated buildings. Hibiki—a talented ace in these games with the ability to jump between bubbles—claims he can hear sounds from the Tokyo Tower. Determined to uncover its mysteries, he sets off toward the source, but he falls into the waters below.

A strange girl, whom he later nicknames Uta, saves him. But little does Hibiki know that Uta's appearance in his life will reveal the secrets behind the disastrous event that changed their world forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Uta Main

Riria. Japanese

Hibiki Main

Shison, Jun Japanese

Makoto Supporting

Hirose, Alice Japanese

Kai Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Undertaker Leader Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Shin Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Usagi Supporting

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Isozaki Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Kantou Mad Lobster Leader Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Denki Ninja Leader Supporting

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Nakatake, Tetsuya Producer

Yamanaka, Kazuki Producer

Hayashi, Kazue Producer

Araki, Tetsurou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 11, 2025

Siluetta

Recommended

Okay, so... Bubble is one of those animations where the storyline can be slightly meh, but visually? TO MY EYES IT WAS A SPA. Wit Studio delivered. The parkour scenes? Fluid, dynamic, like a ballet amidst the ruins. The bubbles? Beautiful, mesmerising. Colours? Pastel wonder. The frames of this film are literally screens for wallpaper. If you love visual anime, then Bubble is a feast. Sawano-sama did not disappoint. The soundtrack is an emotional firecracker - full of those solemn vocals and strings that make you feel as if each scene has the weight of life and death. The music in the dramatic scenes? 10/10!

Is ... Bubble perfect? No. The plot can be too poetic and the relationship between the characters is a bit underplayed. But still... this anime left an emotional mark in me. Uta was gorgeous, Hibiki was touching, and the whole thing - despite being a bit like a dream - had something magical about it.

If you like fairytale atmosphere, parkour action in a beautiful world and a bit of melancholy - Bubble is something for you. It's a bit like a fairy tale version of Parkour meets post-apocalypse meets The Little Mermaid. And while not everyone will love this title, I totally got sucked in.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 3, 2024

daaphish

Mixed Feelings

*No spoilers*

Summary:
Bubble is a story that fuses parkour-enthused teenagers with a gravity-altered Tokyo setting filled with bubbles. The plot is predictable and unremarkable, and the characters are weak; however, the music and art are phenomenal and highlights. If you enjoy romance and action, this may be of interest to you. It feels much like Makoto Shinkai's lesser quality films. I would not personally recommend this movie for the story or characters, but the art and music were wonderful.

Story: 3/10
Bubble has an interesting setting: a destroyed version of Tokyo but with big bubbles that shift gravity enough to allow for optimized parkour matches. The plot follows ... Hibiki as he wins parkour team battles independently. The plot takes a few twists that are convoluted but also predictable, forcing some fairy tale relationships and also destruction. Overall, the premise could have been interesting, exploring the cycles of production and destruction, or even the recycling nature of the planets and the universe. However, the plot stuck to a lackluster sequence of events with some forced action and boring characters. Furthermore, the narrative switched to a romance, inappropriately, and the overall plot results in a mix of blurry and blended themes. There isn't much of a moral to the story, and it is certainly forgettable. It isn't a movie that will blow your mind with plot twists or make you emotional, mostly because of the characters and their stakes. This entire story meanders until the end, when there is supposed to be an emotional conclusion that falls almost as flat as a single layer of water molecules stuck together by nothing but their hydrogen bonds.

Art: 10/10
WIT Studios did an excellent job with the art. Not only is the scenery wonderful and bursting with color, but they choreographed many action sequences with intriguing parkour.

Music/Sound: 9/10
Hiroyuki Sawano is a legend and really made the (weak) story and beautiful art come to life. The voice acting was also surprisingly decent for English dub.

Characters: 2/10
The characters in this story lack depth. With the colorful art and fitting music, you'd expect to at least connect with some of the characters. Instead, you have uninteresting characters describing themselves through dialogue. It's hard to take them seriously when their character arcs start and finish with making jokes about being orphans. The introduction to characters is heavily driven by dialogue, and there isn't enough time to show character development. Hibiki is one of the only characters to grow, which is expected for a main character, but he is also a very hollow shell. Even the deuteragonist, Uta, is as bland as possible. She's a simple plot device, which really ruins the premise of the movie. If you're going to make the plot of the story contingent upon a character, you have to at least attempt to explain the character's motive. Instead, we have a character that blindly falls in pseudo-love and (no spoilers) we don't even learn why or how she found the main character. It seems as though the movie tried to mix fairy tales with the plots and characters from Makoto Shinkai's films, but this led to very boring and predictable characters.

Enjoyment: 3/10
I watched this movie for the art and music, which were wonderful. The story and characters were by no means captivating. I wanted to stop about halfway through the film, but I couldn't review this movie on MAL without watching it from beginning to end.

Overall: 5.4/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 6, 2025

Tuls

Not Recommended

Not as transparent as the name suggests, Bubble tends to coalesce several droplets of concepts, precociously vaporizing them before they can effectively impact the narrative. Mysterious showers of bubbles have turned the world into a post-apocalyptic mess, their impending condensation causing more harm than the film acknowledges. Tokyo, in particular, takes the brunt of this situation after an arcane phenomenon causes a massive bubble to enwrap the city, flooding it with the constant rise of water levels and turning it into a low gravitational field zone. A group of traceurs views this as an opportunity to increase competition and vie for supplies. Parkour is an ... adrenaline-fuelled sport, gravity-defying acrobatics making it a heart-pounding experience to perform and witness. The anti-gravity concept essentially robs the practice of the stronghold it's built upon, but that doesn't limit possibilities, as it opens doors for higher stakes. However, the film's rendition of it remains unexciting for the most part due to incoherent plot points interfering with the matches. There isn't much explained about the teams participating, but so is the case with everything else concerning the film.

Hibiki's character revolves around his hypersensitivity to sound and ability to hear an enigmatic song, leading to a single traumatic occasion that sets up a rickety romance. The negligible exposition about the bubble entities provides no incentive for understanding Uta's intentions, and the disconnect with the outer world further discredits the tenuous substance offered. A severe lack of emotion diminishes the film's saccharine attempt at love, but it sets itself up for drowning as such. The decision to avoid questions about the world while dissipating into a shallow love story of self-sacrifice leads Bubble downhill. Moreover, the film's not exclusively inconsistent with its plot points but also with its art style. Frames with close-ups on faces are startlingly detailed, a bit of a random choice to employ, but it's a minor qualm of mine. Thinly constructed, practically floating in a trance of sentiment, and hollow on the inside, Bubble is a perfect representation of its title.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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PV Collection for Apr 11 - 17

Here is a collection of promotional videos (PV), television ads (CM), and trailers for the last week. This thread excludes videos that have already been featured in ...read more

Apr 17, 2022 6:48 PM by Snow | Discuss (3 comments)

'Bubble' Anime Movie Reveals Lead Cast, Trailer

The official website for Wit Studio's Bubble original anime movie revealed the second lead cast member, a poster visual (pictured), and the first trailer on Tue...read more

Feb 28, 2022 8:40 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (19 comments)

	Poll: Bubble Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) KANLen09 - Apr 28, 2022	180 replies	by LegendsTrev »» Jan 16, 11:20 AM
	Why spend so much time, resource to animate such generic story!? ( 1 2 ) Sandro8604 - May 24, 2022	63 replies	by Jonas-K »» Nov 28, 2023 10:24 AM
	That's crazy ('spoiler–ish) jussypuicey - Sep 12, 2023	7 replies	by Jonas-K »» Nov 28, 2023 10:21 AM
	Impressed with Wit Studio here, what a gem of animation Rob7 - Mar 11, 2023	13 replies	by IceCreamScene »» Mar 14, 2023 9:39 AM
	So, this is basically a light version of "The Song of Saya". antohachan - May 20, 2022	11 replies	by Adnash »» Jan 7, 2023 6:43 PM