Elisheva

Perhaps this is less a youth film and more for those who are older and have been broken by life. Will leave it to young people to decide how well it works for them.

Its symbolism is well-integrated - the sound of the foghorn, signalling departure but also moving forward, and its corresponding note on the piano. Where each of the main characters tends to go - Nazuna seeking out high places like the school roof, Satoru walking home with his brother, Kashiwagi lost in grief along the low shore. Voices silenced by self or others, or death, and what comes from being heard. Or someone saying those lost words. Everything in this film serves a purpose.

Yes, the concentration of situations they're in tend towards melodramatic, but each of them alone is realistic and there is plenty of balance in small details of daily life for the students. And yes, the timing is convenient. That does tend to happen in films. It's all serving the larger purpose. The key to good melodrama is always in the emotions, are they realistic and accurate for the situation. In that, in the tender vulnerability of the children, in Aragaki's understated portrayal of grief, the importance of being heard as one's authentic self, in the power of connection to make life just a bit easier, this beautiful, gentle, hopeful film rings true.