Studio 4C, far from being the first name people think of when looking to the vast world of anime, have nonetheless built a reputation for their distinct visual style and willingness to take a chance on unusual ideas. Even in just the past 5 years they’ve had their hand trying a bit of everything - they’ve adapted Osamu Tezuka for Disney+ with Phoenix: Eden17, tried CG animation with Poupelle of Chimney Town, created a gutsy and charming family-driven novel adaptation with Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, and this is ignoring the otherworldly look of a film like Children of the Sea or their highly-anticipated adaptation of All You Need is Kill. Now, they even have an original film out in cinemas, a love story bringing together humans and merfolk in ChaO.
While there are certainly arguments to be made on the overall quality of some of Studio 4C’s past experiments in recent years, each of these works has had their own distinct spin and has brought some of the most fascinating animated works to come out of the Japanese industry in recent years. This is thanks to producers at the studio like Eiko Tanaka (known for her work producing and bringing films like Tekkonkinkreet and Children of the Sea to life), and their willingness to give new voices the freedom to create in their own way. ChaO is proof of this model in action, a chance for Yasuhiro Aoki to make his debut as a film director after prior credits as episode director and animator with spectacular flair. I’m glad it exists - it’s a powerful, beautiful statement of creativity worth celebrating, even if the story and overall film doesn’t entirely work.
What immediately stands out with ChaO is its setting. Straight away we’re dropped into a futuristic Shanghai where humans and merfolk live as equals, flying cars existing alongside water slipstreams that allow both humans and fish people to get from place to place as quickly as possible. A journalist is late for an interview and crosses the slipstreams in order to make it where he meets Stephan on his boat, a somewhat-forgotten legend in modern times who crossed the bounds of romance across species to be the first human to marry a sea creature, ChaO. At a time when the divides were stark and discrimination and distrust was rampant, their love united people against the tension of the moment. Sat comfortably, like recalling a tale of youth, Stephan tells his story.
ChaO isn’t any ordinary mermaid either. She’s the daughter of Neptune, while Stephan is seemingly an ordinary shipbuilder. The declaration seems sudden even if ChaO insists they’ve met before, and their tentative relationship builds to the encouragement of a boss seeking a PR win (he puts Stephan’s doomed AirJet ship propulsion system into production designed to protect merfolk once rejected for fears of profits because of the move), as well as a media circus following their unusual arrangement with intrigue. Perhaps a new era is approaching.
Thus begins a socio-political romantic comedy with the fate of two species and a lot of commentary on the forces of capital and opportunism can conflict with the truth of love and the potential for unity and peace. It’s a strong concept, and there’s a lot to love here. The film is at times surprisingly funny, portraying ChaO as an innocent princess and a literal fish out of water - she can’t show a more humanoid form on land unless fully comfortable in her new surroundings, so her attempts to get used to this new life while dealing with the stresses of daily life allows for entertaining hijinks when she activates fireworks indoors. They can even be charming too, as she takes intrigue in things like cooking that’s wholesome and affectionate, even if the results aren’t always quite what they’d expect.
And what elevates every joke you would and wouldn’t expect in this scenario is its visuals, where every environment is teaming with life, from its unusually-proportioned large-head background characters and dense cityscapes with unusual blends of traditional and new technologies long before the sci-fi future we’re teased in the opening’s post-interspecies romance world. It’s far from merely pretty set dressing, too, as the reactions of passers-by to ChaO or other things can often bring depth or new perspectives that are numerous and repeatedly brought a smile out of me. Between this and the small characterizations such as Stephan repeatedly hitting his head on a light or ChaO wearing shoes even in her fish form, it’s good for laughs and bringing depth to these characters and whatever lives they live beyond the screen and once the credits have rolled.
It’s once you dive deeper that aspects of the film begin to fall apart. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing that the overall development of the central romance is mostly conventional in terms of execution, the framing as a journalist reporting on the story in retrospect feels superfluous and robs the film of the impetus and will-they-won’t-they tension that elevates the best romance stories to the next level. Not only is the opening world such a grand departure from the current one that never gets explored further, making it already an overwhelming opening, its existence confirms the blossoming of mutual feelings, memories of childhood star-crossed lovers and the inevitable happy ending we’re going to witness. While you could use these scenes as commentary for the central theme to enhance the story through the power of hindsight, the film doesn’t do this.
Which means, when the film brings the simmering tensions the relationship will heal come to a head in the final act, it’s hard to invest, never mind how the film jerks between these two points in time without rhyme or reason in a way that hurts the pacing and flow. Not only that, while most of the visual humor and character-driven comedy resonate well over the course of 90 minutes, some jokes feel regressive for the subject matter and push you out of the otherwise feel-good vibe the film is going on when it jokes about the ‘shock’ of ChaO’s different forms.
It drags the film down to something that can feel a chore by the final act, and that’s a shame. It’s difficult to recommend people avoid seeing the film, as the creativity on display in the animation alone (a Herculean effort of near-100,000 drawings compared to typical films at a third of this length that get wondrously showcased in their raw form during the closing credits) is arguably worth the price of admission. ChaO is a visual feast like few other films, and certainly puts it amongst the best-looking films of the last year. While there’s charm in both styles, comparing the lens flare-heavy VFX-laden bombast of Demon Slayer to ChaO’s chaotic line drawings, it’s the latter I prefer as a cinematic wonder.
It’s just a shame that awkward pacing, poor framing and predictable romance bring it down the moment you look beyond its flashy surface.
