Fujimi Orchestra

High school music teacher Morimura Yuuki, is the concert master and first violinist of the amateur orchestra, Fujimi Orchestra. Surprisingly, a young conductor named Tonoin Kei (known as a musical genius) joins this small orchestra to conduct. Even though Tonoin is a strict conductor, all the members adore him for the notable improvements in their performances and soon Yuuki feels his efforts for the orchestra have been fruitless. Yuuki soon comes to the conclusion that his crush of 3 years likes Tonoin, and he decides to give up on her and leave the orchestra. Tonoin refuses to let him quit, confessing that he loves Yuuki, which reveals that he's gay. Tonoin's love confession confuses Yuuki and it leads to a very horrible misunderstanding.

Morimura

First off, here's a little information on this anime's roots. Like Ai no Kusabi this anime is not an original story for animation or based off a manga, but has its roots in a series of novels (serialized in June since 1992). This makes it very difficult to find out more about the story, and I'm one of at least a few that wishes they could read the novels after watching this film. Fujimi Orchestra is enjoyed by not only yaoi enthusiasts, but also by many who enjoy reading stories that involve the world of classical music.

The Fujimi Orchestra anime is not really an epic masterpiece in any sense. There are many who would not like this anime, but I'm one who does like it quite a bit, if not love it. Others who have seen this anime may be wondering why I like it, but I have my reasons as I will explain in this review.

The plot of Fujimi Orchestra is very down to earth . . . the circumstances of how some events occur can seem almost too convenient, but nonetheless, this is a very realistic story. There are no epic world crisis or fantasy/magical powers, but this story is very intriguing, if not a little more grown up than a lot of shounen-ai/yaoi anime and manga I've been exposed to (or specifically what most Western shounen-ai/yaoi fans have been exposed to).

The story of Fujimi Orchestra is a series of very unfortunate events indeed (that's almost an understatement), opening up with Tonoin's first encounter (in a way) with Yuuki. From there, a narration is started by Yuuki, who sporadically narrates off and on throughout the film, even though it tends to be more of his internal thought than a narration.

There is seriously no bad guy; not even Tonoin who forces himself onto Yuuki. Yes, he shouldn't have done so, but because of the situation, as things start to really fall apart, Tonoin still has a hard time believing what Yuuki is telling him is the truth when everything get more confusing and complicated.

Tonoin is a bit of a jerk and has shortcomings because of a little bit of an egocentric personality he has, but does feel bad for his actions when he finally realizes how badly everything has become. At first his remarks about "permanent loss" with his smug attitude about it did anger me, but Tonoin's almost pathetic and childish apologies let's the viewer know that he finally understands the magnitude of what he's done.

Poor Yuuki is definitely a victim far more than Tonoin through the whole ordeal of this film'you really, really feel for the guy and wish you could have helped him.

Tonoin and Yuuki really do not have a good relationship (or lack of) and they are far from truly understanding each other, but the end of the film (and even a little bit throughout) hints that a more promising future is probably in store for them (or at least the story is far from over), even though Tonoin is still being too obsessive in his goal to conquer Yuuki's heart. He's very much a man on his mission of love.

This is not a film you will want to watch if you're squeamish about non-consent. It's also not a story that is fluffy and full of love. It's an intriguing story of obsession and mishap and it's not very happy in any sense.

That's the thing about Fujimi Orchestra... by the end of the film it is apparent how much these people have changed and grown and what emotional torture they've been through. The story's attributes are what makes it great... the sheer terror of how something like this could happen and the psychology of it all. This is a film about emotional and psychological terrors in a real world, which is apparent in its symbolic scenes of distress and entrapment in Yuuki's mind.

The real drawbacks of this film however is that while the plot is good, complicated, intriguing and even scary, the order of scenes is absolutely confusing; there is no way to tell when an event has happened at that moment, in the past, or even further back in the past. I had to watch the film a few times through just so I could figure out the exact order of the events, but then I caught some brief humor I had missed before about Tonoin's height.

Tonoin and Morimura

Ever watch an anime and wish they wouldn't have corny uses of color tints or fade out techniques to emphasize that it's a flashback? Well, watching this will definitely make you appreciate those techniques; any indication of time change in this film would have been great and there was absolutely none except for some very brief and sudden scene flashes in red that were put in more for the horror/psychology component of the film rather than for continuity's sake.

However, as my last statement indicates, the scenes' order does make sense in a way... it's in that order so that the plot would be set up to showcase the bit of psychological horror this story has (and helps to tease the audience to make them wonder what's going on). However, the plot's scene-order is just a bit too jarring. I didn't mind watching this film more than once to get everything straight, but that may be a bit aggravating for other viewers.

Unfortunately, I saw Fujimi Orchestra via the internet on a rather low quality video file, but still completely viewable. But, honestly my judgment of the artwork's quality is a little impaired because of that. Nevertheless, I can state that for its age and for an anime made before the rampant-cgi-era, the rendering of Fujimi is nice, clean and exact and has good animation; only a few times did design get a bit off, or movement a bit clunky.

The opening sequence is a bit odd and animation stops for pretty still-frames (something anime is known for all too well), probably for dramatic effect, but sometimes I wonder if corners were being cut for production cost's sake. Well, the still-frames do work, and if you're not watching this seriously, you may even laugh at these artistic and dramatic stops and moments, but it pretty much works. As mentioned before, sudden and brief flashes of past events in red were the only indication of a flashback in the entire film. Symbolic scenes also add to the dramatizations, helping to express the psychology, angst, despair, obsession and even horror of this film.

Character design was superb. The characters had realistic hair and nice proportions that were neither too girly nor too masculine. Tonoin and Yuuki are good looking but don't possess facial features that are overly feminine or extremely stylized. The gentle rendering of their facial features is very nice and shows a bit of prettiness, but not at a ridiculous level.

Color was also very realistic and not really muted but not pastel or neon either. The shading, shadows and highlights were also not over the top in extreme exaggeration. Various points of perspective and afterimages used towards the end of the film were very interesting ways to execute inner conversations and thoughts for and between Tonoin and Yuuki and kept the complicated plot fun to look at.

This film does have a lot of random spots of scenery around Fujimi. It can be aggravating for an eager watcher wanting to get back to the story, but I didn't particularly mind and it did give me the chance to enjoy the music. If anything, I thought the scenery shots helped the feel of this film and also set the mood. However, it got close to being a bit too much.

Sound: Of course, with a title like Fujimi Orchestra, you should expect all the tracks to be classical music! The soundtrack of this film is great'there isn't a lot of different movements (just a handful), but they're very good and completely performed by an actual orchestra as they should be. The music really, absolutely sets the scenes...whether it is a crucial moment of confusion or mishap, or the buildup of sound towards a climax of the plot. Awesome.

Wagner music always gets a bad rap in the musical world because of Wagner's personality and his motivation behind composing (very anti-Semitic), but his music nevertheless is actually very good. However, when I hear his music, I can't help but think of classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. Well, this film adds a whole different dimension to what I think when I hear Wagner now. Now I really won't think quite the same way about Wagner music ever again.

The voice talent for Fujimi Orchestra is really set around Tonoin and Yuuki. Tonoin's egocentric personality is performed very well by Yasunori Masutani, a pretty unknown voice actor who had done more work in video games than anime.

Ryotaro Okiayu is a very well known voice actor who has had a wide variety of roles, which he has done a very good job of doing different voices for (Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist, Shigure in Fruits Basket, Chouji in Naruto, Dark in D.N.Angel, K in Gravitation, Kuchiki Byakuya in Bleach and etc.). He does an excellent job as Yuuki, coming across as a very normal guy, if a bit frustrated and way too unconfident.

The only other really notable voice actor in the film is Akira Ishida (Gaara in Naruto, Hakkai in Saiyuki, Satoshi in D.N. Angel, Nanami in Sukisyo, etc.) who has a few brief scenes as a very minor character name Igarashi, a friend of Yuuki's and a cello player in the orchestra.

All in all, I can say this by the end of the review... the phrase "No means no"--that has surfaced in just the past decade or so--is very important. Also, I'll never think of phone poles the same way ever again.

Fujimi Orchestra is a very entertaining film with an intriguing plot, but is not for the faint-hearted when it comes to emotional distress and horrible situation mishap. This is not a fluffy happy story, but it's a very interesting psychological one to enjoy.