Four thirteen-year-old children, all orphaned by the sudden deaths of their parents, meet while ducking out of the respective funeral ceremonies and adopt one another in common cause is this wildly inventive comedy, a mix of modern musical, video game adventure, and social satire.
"This is the story of four unemotional people," explains our narrator Hikari (Keita Ninomiya), who escapes the "boring" funeral ceremony and finds three other kids doing the same. Convinced that he was never loved by his absent parents, this bullied schoolboy escaped through videogames, and with the death of his parents, he wills himself not to feel sad. Or at least that's how he frames his emotional disconnection.
His perspective frames the film, which uses 8-bit videogame imagery, sound effects, and graphics right out of his ever-present Game Boy as cinematic flourishes. Their gang is filled out with Takemura, who parents died in a fire in their family restaurant; Ishii, whose abusive dad and abused mother killed themselves in a double suicide; and Ikuko, a piano prodigy whose overachiever parents were murdered by her creepy piano teacher.
All of these kids felt abandoned by their parents even before their respective demises. They adopt the name "Little Zombies" to describe the way they put their emotions on hold and then form a punk rock band that becomes an instant sensation across social media. Death, grief, and adolescent alienation have never been presented with such a mix of whimsy, fantasy, and satire.
The kids embrace gallows humor to handle the sudden loss and their wild romp from homeless squatters to music superstars playing for screaming fans is like a fantasy spun from their imaginations. It is a novel approach to themes of abandonment and grief and while filmmaker Makoto Nagahisa sometimes allows the barrage of wild imagery and fantasy sequences (like a group of homeless squatters suddenly transforming into a rock band) to overwhelm the odyssey of the kids, he is always respectful of their journeys and their ability to endure tragedy through imagination and resilience and, perhaps most importantly, friendship.
While their performances remain deadpan throughout, the kids remain devoted to one another. In a world where they have been constantly let down by adults, this kind of friendship means everything. It's delightful, funny, sad, and thoroughly entertaining. Not rated, features cheeky black humor but no foul language or explicit imagery and should befine for adolescent audiences. In Japanese with English subtitles. Recommended.