On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019)
I'll be straight with you: the first thing I saw when I looked up On-Gaku: Our Sound was the main character's face, and I genuinely could not tell what was going on with his mouth. This weird, jagged zigzag sitting under his nose that made him look like he'd been drawn by someone mid-sneeze. It put me off. I'll admit that freely. It sat on my watchlist for an absolute age because of it, and every time it came up I just scrolled past. Turns out, of course, it's a moustache. I figured that out about five minutes in, felt immediately stupid, and then proceeded to have one of the most purely enjoyable 70 minutes I've had in front of a screen in a long time.
The film comes from director Kenji Iwaisawa, and it's nestled comfortably in Letterboxd's top 250 animated films of all time, which for an indie project on this scale is no small thing. I kept dismissing it anyway. That was my loss, and I'm glad I finally corrected the mistake.
The premise is about as simple as it gets. Three hopeless delinquents, the kind of lads who lumber through the world with complete indifference to what anyone thinks of them, decide to form a band. Not because they have any talent. Not because they have a dream, exactly. Just because they fancy it. That's it. And somehow that total absence of ambition or self-awareness becomes the film's greatest strength, because you end up rooting for these absolute muppets with your whole heart.
The closest comparison I can reach for is a Japanese Beavis and Butt-Head, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. There's the same deadpan stupidity, the same complete obliviousness, the same strange warmth underneath the surface absurdity. These lads are idiots, but they're their own idiots, and the film never condescends to them or winks at the audience about how dumb they are. It just lets them exist, and that generosity makes all the difference.
The visual style is worth talking about properly, because my initial reaction to it was completely wrong. Yes, the character animation is raw and deliberately shaky, all wobbly lines and minimal expression. But the backgrounds are genuinely gorgeous. Rich, detailed, almost painterly in places. The contrast shouldn't work, and yet it absolutely does. It gives the whole film this grounded, textured atmosphere that makes the scrappy character designs feel intentional rather than cheap, which they are. Iwaisawa apparently spent years drawing every frame himself, and you feel that commitment in the finished thing even when, maybe especially when, it looks rough around the edges.
Then there's the recorder fight scene. I'm not going to explain it. I'm not sure I could explain it even if I wanted to. All I'll say is that it had me crying with laughter for reasons I still haven't been able to fully articulate, and that's a rare and precious thing. Comedy that works on instinct rather than logic, landing somewhere beyond the reach of analysis.
If you've been enjoying the recent wave of thoughtful, quietly surprising animation (I loved Flow (2024) for similar reasons, that willingness to trust a simple idea and just commit to it fully), then On-Gaku belongs on your list immediately. It's also doing something that good Japanese storytelling often does beautifully, finding the emotional truth inside very ordinary, very small lives, which is a quality I've always admired in something like Yi Yi (2000), even if the two films couldn't be more different in tone and scale.
This is a charming, hilarious, and surprisingly soulful little film. It won me over completely, and I'm already hoping there's more to come from Iwaisawa. Four stars, no hesitation, and a personal apology to the man's moustache design for my initial scepticism.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2026-06-22
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube · Fandango At Home
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Fandango At Home
Physical: Amazon US
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