Summer Days with Coo – Review

As the school year draws to a close, Kouichi is dreading a boring summer as his friends get to visit their far-off hometowns. Little did he know, his summer will be filled with an amazing journey and friendship from a very unlikely source. Summer Days with Coo starts off with a cut-scene from the past. Two Kappas, water sprite from Japanese folklore, are discussing another famous creature from folklore – dragons. One father, one son, they begin to contemplate which is scarier: a dragon or a human? Their swamp is being turned into farmland and they soon will have no place to live. The father decides to take a friendly approach to their dilemma and will talk to the humans to let him keep his swamp. The talk did not end well with the father Kappa getting killed follows by an earthquake trapping the remaining Kappa below the Earth.

Millenniums pass and Kouichi, on his way home from school, trips over a small rock and decides to dig it out to be rid of its nuisance forever. However, the small rock soon becomes a small boulder and when cracked in half reveals a little, dried-up Kappa from legend. Thinking it to be a fossil at first, the Kappa comes to life when dipped in water! And so, Kouichi’s summer suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. He and his family decide to keep the Kappa as sort of pet upon Kouichi’s insistence. They named the Kappa “Coo” as it’s a sound he regularly makes while talking. With a not-so-good memory of humans, Coo is reluctant at first co-existing with a human family, but soon gets accustomed their daily lives and warm acceptance. As Coo learns more about the modern world, he also tries to remember his own world. When summer vacation arrives with free time to spare, Kouichi and Coo embark on a journey to find more of his own kind. That is, if the media doesn’t catch wind of a living Kappa first and want it on display.

While I like the idea of seeing the modern world from the point of view of an ancient creature, overall the movie has a few bad points that distract from the more creative storyline. Firstly, it tries to tell more than one story. There’s a subplot on bullying and centers on a moody-looking girl from Kouichi’s class who gets tormented by everyone including Kouichi. Another revolves around Kouichi’s pet dog who also talks with Coo through telepathy. Finally, the main subplot is about modern media and their role on reporting new things that oftentimes endanger that very thing’s existence. While everything somewhat relates to the central idea of showing how Coo interacts with the modern world and how much it has changed, together I find little cohesion to the events in the movie. Secondly, for a movie with such a long running time, something about the character development (or perhaps lack thereof) that makes most of the character…unlikable. I didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters. While the art was indeed beautiful, it was as if that was all there was to it – beauty. There were no souls behind the characters which is needed for any movie, animation or otherwise.

As an animated movie, Summer Days with Coo will offer that eye-gasm Japanese animation is famous for with its beautiful background scenery. The story concentrates on showing how much the modern world has change since that fateful day when Coo still had his father in terms of society, life, and the disappearance of nature. However, some things remain the same like greed, hatred, and fear. Overall, if the movie had concentrate more so on one central idea it might have been a great movie. Sadly, with too many ideas going at the same time and a heap of unlikable characters, the experience was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Of all the characters, I suppose the only one to strike a nerve with me (ever so slightly) would be Coo. You do feel bad for him being completely alone in this world and hope that he would find his resolve with his new life. Unfortunately, by the end of the movie, I didn’t feel that he did and I just spent over two hours watching this award-winning movie for nothing.