Viewing the world through the lense of a disabled: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish
This anime movie may seem like those of romantic teen tropes with cheesy melodrama, until it wrenched my soul with a personal conflict I had been struggling with.
At first glance, the title does not tell you a clue about the story. The thumbnail shows a wheel-chaired female next to a standing tall male. There have been Japanese anime series that bring up the theme of sickness and disability. Your Lie in April, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, and Silent Voice are some of the examples, which I am not crazy about. They are good; nevertheless, I am interested in digging into a story more if it explores people’s inner emotions and realistic adulthood issues.
An hour later, I finished the movie with damp eyes. Not cry a whole river, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t enough to make me meditate over the characters' struggles a few hours later. Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish is more heart-warming than I have ever thought. It leaves a lasting post-watching impression on me.
Josee is a wheel-chaired girl who is not allowed to take a stroll alone outside because her grandma says it’s dangerous, although she wants to. As her only granddaughter, Grandma can’t help but become overprotective of Josee. The treatment turns her to be a spoiled child. When Tsuneo is hired to take care of the young lady, Josee’s yet mature trait nearly leads him to retire in a nick of time. It wasn’t until they both come to an understanding towards each other, and became close in a blink of an eye as (more than) a friend (even though Josee always jokingly called him 'my servant’).
This movie tells us about chasing your dream until your legs break (quite literally). It is inspiring how beauty is not always about being curvy and having glowing, fair skin. I can’t talk enough about the modern beauty standard that nowadays often destroys our self-confidence. Yet, Josee seems attractive to me with the disability. She is the same ordinary girl who has big ambition, with or without the wheel-chair. And what lights up my fragile heart, Tsuneo does think of her that fascinating way. Imagine how beautiful life is if all men accept women fairly like Tsuneo. He never saw her disability as troublesome, instead, treats her with more affection.
I am truly soft for Tsuneo’s sublimity. Tsuneo is that one hard-worker, smart, and compassionate guy that doesn’t realize he is amazing. He cares for people, moreover women, in a way that makes them feel special. And in contrast to this, he is insensitive to romantic feelings. Poor female friend’s affection is barely getting noticed by him.
Josee and Tsuneo live completely different lives. However, the chemistry between those two flows so naturally without the force of plot. When Josee and Tsuneo almost gave up on their dreams, I throbbed and almost gave up on them, too. This fiction runs in an astonishingly realistic plot for a romance genre, so if these two characters couldn’t attain their goals, I probably think it wasn’t weird—since it is how life is. That would have be an alternative sad ending, though.
"It was out of reach. Everything’s always out of reach," Josee says, sorrowful. "The red balloon caught on the roof. The cicada husk on the tree. Walking under an umbrella in the rain. Climbing the steps of a shrine. All of it. I no longer wish to reach for any of it," Her words shuttered me deeply. I think we all are agree how her sadness resonates to our deepest heart. But it was Tsuneo’s words that truly pierce me.
“If you really don’t, then why do you look so sad?”
“It was out of reach. Everything’s always out of reach,” Josee says, sorrowful. “The red balloon caught on the roof. The cicada husk on the tree. Walking under an umbrella in the rain. Climbing the steps of a shrine. All of it. I no longer wish to reach for any of it,”
Josee must have had a hard time fighting all by herself. It hurts hearing her say that; it’s as if I’m seeing myself. I nearly lost the sparks of a dream I used to firmly grip too, so somehow Josee’s struggle is relatable to all of us. But no matter how harsh life is, I do not want to see anyone I cherish give up. That’s why it brings me a wide smile when Josee and Tsuneo can reach what they have been dreaming of, at last. She has grown from being spoiled child (a tsundere, to be precise) to a mature young lady who is dauntless to take new challenges outside her comfort zone. While Tsuneo, who has always been down to earth before getting in an accident, served to be even more wiser and reliable as Josee’s guard. []
