Sensory Storytelling in Liz to Aoi Tori
By Soham Dey
Liz to Aoi Tori, or Liz and the Blue Bird, is a spin off movie of the music anime series Hibike Euphonium. However the movie is not directly related to the series and can be watched independently. Produced by Kyoto Animation and directed by Naoko Yamda, the director of K-On!! and Koe no Katachi, the movie is a music drama set in a high school orchestral band and follows the oboist Mizore and the flautist Nozomi, who are long time friends. The movie is an absolute masterpiece, exploring a complex relationship between two friends through themes such as dependence, love, talent, and possessiveness alongside stellar animation, cinematography and music. There’s a lot in this movie that I would like to fangirl about, like its use of a metaphorical parallel narrative or its exploration of both platonic and romantic love. However, for this article I’m going to focus on Yamada’s style of directing, which uses what I would like to call ‘sensory storytelling’.
Yamada has a very distinct style of character driven directing. As also seen in Koe no Katachi she prefers using subtle techniques to express what characters are feeling or thinking over using dialogue, exposition or narration to explicitly state it. I’m calling her style ‘sensory storytelling’ because she appeals to the senses and makes you see and hear narratives in non verbal ways. In Liz to Aoi Tori Yamada places a large emphasis on music and character animation to convey a character’s thoughts and feelings.
As the movie has pretty minimal dialogue, its music often does the talking for the characters. Liz to Aoi Tori features two soundtracks. There’s the background score composed by Kensuke Ushio, who also did Koe no Katachi and Devilman Crybaby, and there are the orchestral pieces played by the characters themselves, which are composed by Akito Matsuda. The orchestral pieces are metaphorical; the oboe and flute parts in them represent their players and their relationship. The movie begins with Mizore and Nozomi being unable to play in harmony, and this ‘disjoint’ between them is a major theme throughout the movie. Ushio’s background score, on the other hand, speaks for the characters when they themselves do not speak. He incorporates sounds such as footsteps and tap water with simple yet effective piano melodies, allowing the music to blend into the animation as naturally as dialogue.
As for the animation itself, while Kyoto Animation’s art is amazing overall, as it always is, the characters’ body language, posture and movements really stand out in how expressive they are. Although Mizore is a character of few words, her thoughts are expressed very clearly through her actions and movements. There are several scenes where you can tell the main characters are not able to communicate their thoughts properly through words, but their body language and gestures give away exactly what they want to say. Yamada focuses on feet (check out this other article on a similar emphasis on feet in Koe no Katachi!), hands, and eyes to reveal what the mouth isn’t saying.
To get an exact sense of what I mean by sensory storytelling let’s take a look at the opening scene of the movie and how it uses the elements described above.
The scene is about six minutes long and it introduces the main characters and themes of the movie, and it does so using basically zero dialogue. The scene begins in silence. Mizore walks up till the school gate but then decides to wait. Her sight and her actions indicate that she’s waiting for someone. Then we hear footsteps. However these are not the footsteps Mizore was waiting for, conveyed by the silence and her dismayed feet. Then we hear another set of footsteps, the music kicks in and we know immediately that this is who Mizore was waiting for. The two start walking together in an accustomed silence, letting us know that they are familiar and comfortable with each other. From how Nozomi walks, bouncing, with her ponytail swinging, and from how Mizore walks behind her, quietly watching, we learn of their personalities and dynamic. Mizore’s eyes and expressions convey how she feels about Nozomi, even hinting at the possibility of romance. Throughout the scene, the sound of their footsteps are merged seamlessly into the beat of the music. Despite the complete lack of verbal cues, by the end of the scene we have an idea of the characters, their personalities and relationship and of the themes that the movie is going to explore. Thus Naoko Yamada brilliantly uses sensory storytelling to convey character narratives.
I absolutely adore this movie and would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind a slow paced, complex, character driven story. If you loved Koe no Katachi, chances are you’ll love this too. All hail Naoko Yamada-sama.
