Media and children’s librarians looking to enhance their summer film programming will delight in the deeply nostalgic summertime tale, Goodbye Don Glees! Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, this animated feature film follows three young underdogs with diverging futures as they learn what truly matters and whether they have the courage to pursue it.
Toto, Roma, and Drop make up the enigmatically named “Don Glees” – a club for boys who have their loneliness in common. Toto attends high school in Tokyo, where he dyes his hair an oh-so-cool shade of blonde and studies to become a doctor.
Despite Toto’s pleas to join him, Roma stays behind in his familiar hometown in the mountains. Settling for a farmer’s life at the ripe age of fifteen, he tries to ignore his overwhelming crush on a more adventurous former classmate. The towheaded Drop is the new kid in town, a petite savant who casually drops knowledge on his unsuspecting friends, like: “If you build up some courage and take a leap, you can see things you never could before.”
After a night of dud fireworks, the friends are framed by their high school bullies for a local forest fire. On the hunt for the drone that carried (and crashed with) the footage that proves their innocence, the boys venture into the woods. The drone proves to be a bit of a MacGuffin, as the adventure is mostly an opportunity for Toto, Roma, and Drop to explore and confront their insecurities, friendship dynamics, and dreams.
“Some of us do have our whole lives mapped out," Drop chides Toto. This doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, except these are fifteen-year-olds who should be wandering off that metaphorical map, getting lost, and maybe even finding treasure.
Goodbye, Don Glees!’s stellar animation and seasonal charm is weighed down by heavy-handed dialogue and excessive pontificating. One such segment is an awkward, shirtless montage to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” followed by armchair philosophizing about the literal nursery rhyme. Additionally, the premature and overdone foreshadowing surrounding the character of Drop robs the audience of satisfying emotional gutting.
While its heavy use of metaphor and foreshadowing might wear thin on the audience, Goodbye Don Glees!’s earnestness, and universal questions will resonate with anyone with a heart: what is your treasure? What matters most to you? And are you willing to go find it? The film’s beautiful, seasonal animation—bonfires, waterfalls, crystal clear skies, and shooting stars—assures that any media librarian whose film collection specializes in children’s movies, anime, or general animation would be wise to include Goodbye, Don Glees! in their summer film programming.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Libraries with a film collection, youth film programming series, or a children’s summer program could use Goodbye, Don Glees! in their collection. The film is family-friendly and appeals to fans of animation, so it could be screened for events as diverse as an anime club or a family movie night.
What kind of film series would this film fit in?
Goodbye, Don Glees! would fit beautifully into a family-friendly, summer film series, amongst classic titles like Stand by Me or more indie fare like The Kings of Summer. The film could also be used in series about male adolescence and friendship or contemporary anime feature films.
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
Goodbye, Don Glees! would be suitable in any film collection that specializes in children’s and family movies. It also fits into film collections that highlight animation, international films, or anime specifically.