Surely CoMix Wave Films it sounds more to us for having brought us the precious films of Makoto Shinkai, but they have also gotten wet with some anime series and collections of shorts.
In fact, between the premiere of ‘Your Name’ and that of ‘El tiempo contigo’, they got fully involved in producing ‘Flavors of Youth’, a beautiful anthology of three chapters full of melancholy.
The main needs
‘Flavors of Youth’ is set in modern-day China and in fact is co-produced with Haoliners Animation Leagueand through three different stories he reflects on the basic needs of the human being and how they influence our happiness.
‘The Rice Noodles’ focuses on food‘A Little Fashion Show’ in clothes and ‘Love in Shanghai’ in the House. For its international version, they were released together as a movie that we can find on Netflix, although each fragment is well differentiated with its own credits and lasts between twenty minutes and half an hour.
It must be taken into account that being a series of shorts, the animation is not as polished as that of the studio’s films and is more limited at times. But even so, it perfectly preserves the style we are used to and ‘Flavors of Youth’ maintains that touch of hyper-realistic worlds and nostalgia that we love so much.
Of course, we changed the setting a bit to set the stories in China, which also gives the studio the opportunity to show off more than just looking like a rehash of Shinkai’s films, adding a different touch to each short.
The shorts of Li Haling, Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing, and Yoshistaka Takeuchi they shine by their own weight and manage to turn each one into a little beauty that explores the lives of its protagonists through different flashbacks. ‘Flavors of Youth’ is a sensory experiencewhich manages to convey a lot of emotion just through a bowl of noodles or a cassette tape played too late.
‘Flavors of Youth’ is not a major drama and has a somewhat sad and bittersweet aftertastealthough it also manages to leave you with a positive note full of hope with each short
‘The Rice Noodles’ reflects on nostalgia for the places we’ve left behind and can’t get back, while ‘A Little Fashion Show’ explores the relationship between two sisters that has grown cold over the years…Although it sadly falls into too many clichés with its female characters and they fall a bit flat compared to the rest of the anthology.
‘Love in Shanghai’ is perhaps the most powerful storyand that almost even falls short and leaves you wanting to see a full movie, showing us an impossible love with two teenagers who never quite match (very much in the vein of ‘Your Name, yes).
So if we want to explore a little more of one of the most detailed studies of current anime and squeeze our hearts with some beautiful visuals, ‘Flavors of Youth’ it is right there to make us nostalgic for lives that are not ours… Although, unfortunately, it is very possible that it also leaves us wanting more.
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