Modest Heroes

There are three different stories where the only connection seems to be the idea or perhaps the vision of "modest (or rather ordinary) heroism". Anyway, I am not very good at judging everything as a whole, so I will break down each story separately. The first is Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s story about the crab siblings. There were two things that I was blown away by, that captivated and enchanted me - the animation and the soundtrack. Both aspects were really very good and watching some of the scenes where water was the main character, I questioned whether I was actually watching an animated movie - because it felt so incredibly real at times, and so incredibly pretty when combined with the animated characters! If this is the direction animation is going to take, I am going to be really happy if they are going to have such realistic landscapes and water in other movies and anime series. The narrative was not bad at all and the message of heroism came across clearly. It showed off Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s flair for the slightly mystical and magical, and I am awarding the first story 7/10. Then there was the second part from Yoshiyuki Momose about a boy and his mother's struggle with food intolerance. It is an unpretentious subject that was very close to my heart for some reasons, all quite nicely presented with the main idea revealed as the title of this movie, and it deserves a decent 6/10. The last story is from Akihiko Yamashita and is about the woes of an invisible man. This story appealed to me probably the least, the supernatural dimension did not pull me in, and I could not really relate to the main male protagonist. So, during key scenes, I could not understand where this story's strength lay. I am therefore only awarding it 4/10. If we average all these ratings, we are at something like 5.6/10. (04/22/2019)