Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.0 |
| Video |  | 4.5 |
| Audio |  | 4.0 |
| Extras |  | 0.0 |
| Overall | | 3.0 |
Liz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 2, 2020
Ayano Takeda's Sound! Euphonium (2013) is a popular YA novel about shojo (girls) in concert band at the fictional Kitauji High School in Kyoto. It spawned two sequel novels and was adapted into an anime TV series in 2015. Naoko Yamada, a rising filmmaker at Kyoto Animation studios, chose to adapt Takeda's novel after her feature A Silent Voice became a big box office hit in Japan. Yamada's Liz and the Blue Bird (Rizu to Aoi tori) centers on a female friendship at a crossroads. Oboist Mizore Yoroizuka (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki) and flutist Nozomi Kasaki (Nao Tōyama) have known each other since they were freshmen in Kitauji's music club. Yoroizuka is the more introverted of the two and appears comfortable conversing only with Kasaki. Nozomi is outgoing and has more friends. The film is set in the middle of their senior year when they realize that one chapter in their lives is nearing its end while uncertainty looms in the next.
As part of Kitauji's music competition, the title piece Liz and the Blue Bird is chosen. This is also Kasaki’s favorite children’s book of the same name. Yamada and her screenwriter Reiko Yoshida imaginatively transport the viewer into the land of this fairy tale where a blue bird metamorphizing into a blue-haired girl (Miyu Honda). She becomes the friend and sole companion of Liz (also voiced by Miyu Honda). Yamada and Yoshida cross-cut between the goings-on at Kitauji High School and the colorful rural surroundings in the fairy tale. They cleverly draw parallels between the musical performances of the two principals and their personalities. Additionally, they depict how Mizore identifies with Liz and Yoroizuka relates to the blue bird, although not all the time.
Liz and the Blue Bird isn't as compelling, affective, and emotionally involving as
A Silent Voice. I wish that Yamada and Yoshida had spent more time within the fairly tale story than they do in present-day Kyoto. The story just keeps dragging along in the latter and Yoshida's dialogue doesn't go far beyond what's typically said in high school cliques.
Liz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Shout! Studios has released Liz and the Blue Bird in a Blu-ray/DVD combo that comes with a slipcover. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded transfer appears in its originally composited ratio of 1.85:1 on this BD-25. For scenes designed at Kitauji and around Kyoto, the animators have gone for an opaque look that's generally bright. The color palette and lighting complement the light blue and teal on the girls' school uniforms. Cinematographer Kazuya Takao has lensed a lot of reflective surfaces and translucent objects. When the action shifts to the fairly tale, the frame is filled with compositions akin to watercolor paintings that take on the summer and autumnal hues. Here, more of the action takes place outdoors than in the parallel present-day story. There are very few source flaws on this HD print. This is mostly a gorgeous transfer. Shout! has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 26977 kbps.
The 90-minute movie is demarcated into twelve chapters.
Liz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Shout! supplies the original Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (3632 kbps, 24-bit) and an English-dubbed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (3609 kbps, 24-bit). I focused on the former's track. Dialogue is sufficiently presented at an audible volume. Non-diegetic music performed by the Kitauji High School band sounds clear and never over-loud. Composer Kensuke Ushio delivers a minimalist score that has surprising moments of crescendos.
On the Japanese track, the optional white English subtitles are tall, clear, and legible. No captions are provided on the alternate English track.
Liz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
There are no extras to be found on the Blu-ray.
Liz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
The story told in Liz and the Blue Bird is fairly ordinary and pedestrian but the animators open the narrative world in the titular tale, which offers a breath of fresh air. Shout! Studios technically receives high marks for transferring the film's resplendent visuals and giving the two competent lossless tracks with healthy bitrates. Unfortunately, this is a no-frills edition. While the movie is subtle in its character portrayals, it doesn't reach the emotional heights of A Silent Voice. But if you're a fan of Naoko Yamada and contemporary anime, it's still RECOMMENDED.
