トラペジウム

TRAPEZIUM

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
OTHER
RELEASE
May 10, 2024
LENGTH
94 min

DESCRIPTION

Driven by an unwavering passion for becoming an idol, Yuu Azuma, a young, ambitious first-year student at Joshuu East High School, embarks on a journey to form an idol group. To make her dream a reality, she recruits one girl from each of her region’s four high schools (located to the north, east, south and west) and soon finds her fellow group members.

Joining Yuu is Ranko Kashima, a sophisticated second-year student at Holy Teneritas Southern Girls’ Academy, with a distinctive curly hairstyle and admiration for Ochou-fujin ("Madame Butterfly"); Kurumi Taiga, a student at West Tech Vocational High School, who wears cute, oversized jackets with long sleeves and dreams of winning the championship at a robotics competition; and, Mika Kamei, a student who also hails from Joshuu North High School, is known for being a kind-hearted girl and for her dedication to volunteering.

With the help of Shinji Kudou, Yuu's "collaborator" and confidante, these four young girls set off on the road to stardom. But the journey hides unexpected trials, rigorous demands, setbacks and pressures, threatening to undo all that Yuu has worked so hard for.

(Source: Crunchyroll, edited)

CAST

Yuu Azuma
Asaki Yuikawa
Kurumi Taiga
Hina Youmiya
Mika Kamei
Haruka Aikawa
Ranko Katori
Reina Ueda
Moeka Koga
Yurika Kubo
Shinji Kudou
Syoya Kimata
Sachi Mizuno
Hina Kino
Shuuichi Itami
Teruyoshi Uchimura

REVIEWS

EightSmart
66/100
It has good themes and messages, but unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired [SPOILERS]
The first trailer for Trapezium caught my eye when it came out all the way back in April. Besides the obviously beautiful visuals from cloverworks, it was another story about a high school girl chasing her dreams and discovering herself, the exact kind of story I tend to gobble up. Oh and Hoshimachi Suisei sings the OP too? Sign me up!

Unfortunately...after walking out of the theater today, I can't help but feel like the film has left a lot to be desired.

Our story centers around Yu Azuma, a young, ambitious first-year student at Joshu East High School, who then recruits three other girls from the "West", "North" and "South," of the region, which would later form their idol group called "NEWS." At the beginning of the film, Yu goes out of her way to their schools to find these girls, initially under the guise of just wanting to make friends, even though her actual plan is to form an idol group with them. Nonetheless, fast friends they become, and soon enough they're hanging out as a group together. We see some regular cute slice of moments, okay, so far so good.

Then the jump from this friend group just being a friend group to actually BECOMING an idol group is handled...poorly, in my opinion. A lot of this probably comes down to the constrained run time, but you can really feel the film rushing through so many events, and as a result their first big debut doesn't feel 'earned'. It doesn't feel like they struggled through any hardship or overcame any challenges, so you see their first performance and just kinda go 'oh that's cool i guess.' Not satisfying at all for what is basically the climax of the second act of the film.

Then we move into the actual conflicts and third act which is...also handled pretty messily. The idea and message they are trying to portray here is one I agree with. The group starts falling out because they realize that idol life might not all be for them, and this disconnect in passion and ambition between Yu and the others starts to form cracks as their idol career steams forward. While somewhat predictable, this is a decent enough third act conflict to go through. It's an experience myself and many will probably relate to - starting a passion project with your friends then realizing one of you is much more passionate about it than the other. But again, these plot developments aren't given enough room to breathe, as we've just zoomed through them gaining rapid success. There is some minimal set up throughout, for example, we can see Kurumi looking uncomfortable before going on stage, but this is brushed off so quickly that you could assume she just got over her fear already. On one hand, the fall out is predictable, but on the other hand, it doesn't feel set up enough to be justified.

The ending ties up all the plot lines well enough, but is once again a bit half baked, as the reconciliation of the four girls is also somewhat rushed through. We see them go their separate ways, live their happy lives, everyone 'achieves' their dream, and then it just ends with this lukewarm happy time skip forward.

I can't say I outright dislike Trapezium, since again, I can feel the message it wants to portray - that you and your friends should each pursue your own passions and chase your dreams - and just because they are different, doesn't mean you can't be friends and support each other! This is a message that could truly have resonated with me if the film had enough time to develop its story and characters properly. Unfortunately, in its current state, all I can say is that it's pretty forgettable, and any plot points you enjoy in it are executed far better in other similar anime about 'chasing your dreams.'
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Juliko25
51/100
Trapezium, an idol movie where its main character and her actions are both the movie's biggest strength and weakness.
Oh, Trapezium, you could have been a much better movie. Trapezium is based on a 2018 novel by former Nogizaka46 member Kazumi Takayama, about a young girl, Yu Azuma, who wants to become an idol so much that she decides to manipulate three girls from different schools into being her friends and making an idol group. Now, the fact that the original story was penned by a former idol does give the movie a lot of necessary context for its background, premise, and overall approach, with her experiences influencing the story quite a bit, especially in regards to how Yu, the main character, drives the entire plot. It also raises the question of what kind of behind-the-scenes behavior Takayama may have witnessed during her idol tenure. On the whole, Trapezium as a movie is really compelling in that it doesn't go for the tried and true method of selling you on how great idols are and going for an uplifting story. Instead, Trapezium explores both the good and bad of the idol industry and how it can both positively and negatively affect the people in and out of it. It even takes a huge risk by having its protagonist be unlikeable and even a manipulative little brat, which you don't often see in most anime. On one hand, this is a ballsy movie, and I respect the movie for going against the grain.

Unfortunately, on the other hand, its whole scaffolding completely falls apart at the end, completely ruining what it had established, reducing it into just yet another idol movie that plays it safe. But before I go into detail on this, I'm going to talk about the positives first, as I don't want to be a purely Negative Nancy. Being a movie, the animation budget is put to good use here, and is beautifully grounded. Characters move like real human beings, CGI is used sparingly, the backgrounds are detailed but not cluttered, and the character designs are a nice mix of realistic and the moe art style without leaning too hard on the latter. The music is nice too, though I really have to question why the movie needed a whole-ass anime opening sequence. Like, was that even necessary? Furthermore, out of the four girls, I liked Kurumi the most, because not only was she the most relatable and interesting, the movie does a great job at selling you on her plight, though that's not to say the other girls are poorly characterized.

Plus, for 90% of the movie, Trapezium's exploration of the idol industry and how it metaphorically uses and abuses idols is interesting and compelling. A large portion of it focuses more on the journey to getting there, such as how most idols get exposure through comedic variety shows. Unlike most idol anime, Trapezium doesn't put as much focus on music and dancing, but the snippets of it we do get do their job and don't overstay their welcome. I actually think it does a better job at exploring the perils of the idol/entertainment industry than Oshi no Ko, if only because the latter's take on it feels more performative and tactless in that it's more interested in shock value and easy solutions than actually doing anything meaningful. Yeah, I said it, I don't like Oshi no Ko. Sadly, this is all the praise I have for Trapezium as a movie, because like I mentioned earlier, its ending completely ruins it. What do I mean? Yu, the story's main character, is both Trapezium's greatest asset and biggest weakness. From here on, I'm going to go into a ton of spoilers because I can't adequately explain my thoughts on the movie without doing so, as the context is really important.

The story is about her recruiting three girls into forming an idol group with her through extremely underhanded, manipulative tactics, made apparent during Mika's segment. Mika is a girl who loves doing volunteer work because she loves helping people, not doing it to boost her ego or for ulterior motives. Yu only sees doing volunteer work as a tool to get the girls on TV, seeing it as performative and a stepping stone to success. In that same scene, Yu balks at the idea of being in a separate group from two of the other girls, and spends the whole sequence being a spoiled brat about it, which, on one hand, is a great set-up for the drama that comes later because it establishes her self-centered nature, and her selfishness and hubris ultimately proves to be the group's undoing. In one scene, when Mika is revealed to have a boyfriend, Yu acts like a total bitch to her, showing a disturbing lack of empathy for her situation, which the other girls are similarly appalled by. Yu loves being in the spotlight, whereas Kurumi doesn't, and at one point, Kurumi has a full-on meltdown because she can't handle both being on TV and the stringent expectations idols are expected to uphold, which results in the girls falling out and disbanding.

Normally, drama like this is great, because the movie shows how Yu's manipulative nature, lack of empathy, and using people for her own ends causes problems for everyone, and the scenes where she's made to face the consequences of her actions are a great culmination to her arc. Her drive to become an idol resulted in her exploiting the other girls and giving them a big helping of psychological trauma. However, the thing that completely ruins the movie for me is how it decides to wrap things up. Even after all that Yu has done to them, the movie decides to have them all suddenly become friends again, with them even praising Yu for bringing them together in the first place. Sure, let's completely ignore the fact that Yu basically used them and gave Kurumi psychological trauma, she feels bad about it, so it's okay! I'm sorry, but no, Yu should not have been forgiven. The ramifications of her actions should have been far bigger than the movie actually showed. Kurumi wouldn't have had her breakdown if Yu hadn't dragged her into idolatry in the first place and forced her into a position that she wasn't comfortable with, and the damage this could do in real life would probably be irreparable. The other girls have every right to not want anything to do with Yu after all the shit she pulled on them, Kurumi especially, because Yu is responsible for all of their suffering...and yet the movie wants to sweep all that under the rug in favor of wrapping things up in an overly saccharine, cheesy, mealymouthed ending where everything is all hunky-dory and the girls are still friends? Fuck that! If I was in Kurumi, Ranko, and Mika's positions, I'd completely drop Yu as a friend because I would not want to be anywhere near the person who caused the level of suffering that she put them through! I feel like a better ending for the movie would have been if the girls stopped being friends, just went their own ways in life, and Yu would have to live with the fact that she made the girls suffer because of her selfishness. It would have not only accentuated the movie's themes of how exploitative and stringent the idol industry can be, it would have added another layer in that not everyone comes out of the idol industry unscathed. The logic behind this movie's decisions at the end just baffle me.

But not committing to its premise isn't the only problem it has. For one thing, how the hell is Yu able to get away with getting into different schools, while in uniform, without getting kicked out? Shouldn't a staff member or security guard have spotted her and made her leave? Plus, Trapezium's pacing is rather rushed, especially in the beginning. Yu tracks down the girls she wants to manipulate/recruit, talks to them for a bit, and then boom, suddenly they're buddy-buddy, which totally isn't inorganic and suspicious in any way whatsoever. Not to mention a lot of plot beats are just summarized by voice over narration rather than actually being shown, because fuck meaningful character development and showing over telling, am I right? Also, who the hell thought it was a good idea to have two elderly men be voiced by women?! I'm not even exaggerating, there's two old men who are VERY CLEARLY voiced by women who are trying to make their voices sound elderly and failing miserably at it, because not only is it completely obvious that their voices are female, they can't even manage to sound convincingly elderly, especially since they're trying to play men. Like, how hard was it to get more than one elderly male voice actor to voice an elderly man? I mean, Kazuhiko Inoue, Akio Ohtsuka, Kazuhiro Yamaji, and Yoku Shioya are still working! Why not hire them to do it?! It's better than forcing two women to play a role that they're clearly unable to pull off!

Bottom line, Trapezium had an interesting premise but completely botched it by choosing to suddenly play it safe at the very end, ruining what came before. It could have been a great movie had it gone all in on what it wanted to do, but instead tripped over itself for the sake of wanting a sloppy happy ending. I wouldn't recommend this one, even for fans of idol anime. If you do plan on watching it though, don't watch it on Crunchyroll. For some reason, the audio mixing on that version is atrocious. Like, the volume level is so low, I have to turn up the volume to the highest level and it's still hard to hear anything, whether it be a PC or a TV! Just wait for the Japanese blu-ray to come out or something.
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