Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop a nothing, repetitive teenage romance

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a film that definitely wasn’t made with a person like me in mind. It’s a film geared towards pre-teens with social anxiety and uses the overly generic trope of missed connection out of fear to keep one’s interest in this budding romance. It’s an interesting film to look at with the unorthodox colors and animation design, but it’s a bore to try and engage with these characters. It’s small problems like looking ugly with braces or the failure to express one’s feelings at that young age to keep the story moving but there’s not much more to it than that.

It sets up for what should be an emotional explosion in the final scene to end their summer, but comes off as a bit underwhelming. It’s the post-modern Japanese animated romance that’s far too silly tonally to tell a true grounded, inconsequential romance and doesn’t provide any meaningful connection to either of these characters to make us feel the longing. It’s a story formulated around girls gossiping amongst themselves, while the boys unassumingly fumble their way through relationships not understanding a girl’s signs at that age. It’s a film for people who can happily sit through a film with little to no conflict. I find it hard to see teenagers engaging with this flimsy piece of storytelling.