Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop makes me question how I spend my time
Cider no You ni Kotoba wa Wakiagaru, also known as Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, released on July 22nd this year. It quickly became an anticipated watch after the anime’s trailer dropped, promising its audience a vibrant and, if you will, bubbly story about haikus and working at a mall. With two big names leading production- directed by Kyōhei Ishiguro, (who’s worked on Fairy Tale, Your Lie In April, Psycho-Pass, My Little Monster, and more) and written by Dai Satō (Space Dandy, Wolf’s Rain, Samurai Champloo), the excitement I had to see these two work together on a Netflix original cannot be overstated.
Yui Sakura, nicknamed Cherry, is a high-schooler on summer break. Despite this, he is filling in for his mom by working at a senior citizen daycare center at the neighborhood mall because his mom needs to heal from a back injury. In his free time he teaches Beaver (who’s implied to be a Spanish-Japanese) how to write in Japanese, and thinks of haikus to post on social media every day. He hates loud noises, and wears big headphones to keep them from bothering him. We also meet high-schooler Smile, who along with the rest of her family, is a social media influencer. She loves to live stream the places she visits to her fans and is known for her cute smile and buck teeth. Still, Smile has grown a bit insecure of her mouth and wears a face mask to cover it.
Cherry and Smile cross paths as Beaver runs from mall security with a signed, life-size cardboard cutout of an idol throughout the mall, and bumps into the two high schoolers. They fall and while Beaver continues to run away, Cherry and Smile pick themselves up and do that classic anime stare, aka, the two protagonists look at each other longingly for about 5 seconds. Then Cherry sees Smile’s teeth, points them out, and she is immediately is horrified at the fact that her face mask flew off during the fall. As she picks up the phone she dropped, and runs away, Cherry also goes to pick up his phone, and get back to work. Later they both realize they have picked up the wrong phone.
After exchanging phones, Smile becomes curious about Cherry, and sets out to know more about him. Cherry doesn’t make it known, but having a friend like Smile makes his days worthwhile as he is hesitantly counting down the days before his family moves to a new city. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop then becomes a story of a budding friendship, swatting away insecurities, the art of haiku and reading in between the lines, and time being taken for granted.
When you watch the trailer, the first thing almost everyone falls in love with is the eccentric animation style. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop takes a millennial childhood love of vibrancy and loudness to complement its calm and tender storyline. Animation studios Subliminal (Dragon’s Dogma, Walking Meat) and Signal.MD (FLCL Progressive, Fate/Grand Order), shows the audience that any expectations of creativity that they might have had, goes beyond that limit. The coloring was a great way to get to watch this anime.
The calm and cute plot, on the other hand, left me on the brink of a self-reflection crisis.
When your means of making money comes from the content you make, it’s hard to not make every single YouTube video, article, Instagram post, or TikTok clip something that’s compelling enough for others to look at – whether its an all-out bonkers piece purely for comedy, or something inspiring and moving. Needing to make your work flashy in some way is exhausting when consuming media. Having to look at hours of video games, movies, anime, until you find one that relates and showcasing it on your preferred medium, having to relive these moments of being moved, scared, surprised, or sad, gets tiring. Creators and writers sometimes can fall into the unhealthy balance of “oh this can be content,” I’ve been guilty of it.
Words Bubble Up was a completely enjoyable experience where I was given the bliss of forgetting that I was watching it for a review. A lot of the movies, games, and TV shows I’ve been letting myself indulge in have been work-related in an attempt to kill time on work, but really that just killed my free time, and elongated the hours I work. Getting wrapped around Smile and Cherry’s attempts on finding Fuijyama’s missing record in some number of days before Cherry’s big move to another city, learning about the history Fujiyama had with the shopping center the teenagers worked in, as well as seeing firsthand how devastating it can be to not be able to remember your past, I faced my own fears of time, and if I’m balancing mine correctly. What have I done for myself recently that’s significant? Am I missing out on what might hold importance in my life because of work? Will I even remember this movie in five years?
Trying to fight the pseudo crisis of time, Words Bubble Up reminds its audience, especially up to the last minute of the movie, that while time is limited and some of that is trying to push through hard walls of struggle, there comes the most beautiful and wonderful things you can experience if you take the opportunity. Cherry could’ve made his life easier, typing up his haikus, going to work- filling in for his mom at the adult daycare center, coming back home to pack, and typing up more of his haikus. However, taking the chance to get to know Smile more, and going on these adventures with her to find a mysterious record that a grandpa from the elder daycare lost who knows when, gave him the opportunity to develop a bond and be close to someone outside of his immediate circle. This wouldn’t have happened if he had an “I’m just here for my mom and be back home” attitude, or if Smile didn’t take the chance to check on Cherry and see what he was up at the shopping center, seeing him turn bright red in embarrassment while reading a poem to the senior citizens he looked after. If she hadn’t made the effort, she probably wouldn’t have taken such a keen interest in getting to know him.
Through opening those doors of opportunity, Smile and Cherry are given unforgettable times with each other. Fujiyama had moments with his wife that he, quite literally, held on to for years. Beaver learns more Japanese through Cherry’s haikus. Cherry, Smile, Toughboy, Japan, and Beaver get to know more about Fujiyama’s daughter, and have a delicious dinner together. It’s moments like these that make me aware of how I handle my time, and what doors of opportunity I’ve opened, and left closed.
Words Bubble Up Like Soda is available to watch on Netflix.
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