Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop-a Netflix film that may help you form a haiku

Since we’re all up and discussing, forming, and reading haikus, I thought I’d give you another way to take them in. This is my gift to you and it comes in the form of a very cute, well paced animated film (Japanese anime) called Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop.

We will talk about the characters, how it may help you with haikus, some things I enjoyed, and something I noticed that may make arguing about haikus more interesting on here.

It follows a boy named Cherry, who is great with the written word, but has a hard time speaking, but is constantly creating the perfect haiku. Then, there’s the lovable Smile, who is a social butterfly (with hundreds of online followers to prove it), and loves to smile…except she does so ONLY behind her mask due to being self conscious about her teeth.

These two characters are both alike and different.

Where Smile is popular and loves noise and sharing her day/thoughts…

Cherry is a loner (who knows people) and uses his headphones to tune out the world. He shares his words online to his few followers, but has a hard time owning up to them in person.

So, how do they meet and get to know each other?

Well, they meet while Cherry is working/watching a performance and Smile bumps into him. Yes! A proper meetcute. And the rest is history. Through a soft and easy mission & cute conversations, they grow closer.

But, why does this relate to forming and understanding haikus and you?

Well, it’s the way he brings the words together that’s interesting & helpful.

He uses a special dictionary to create his haikus. And he carries it everywhere. He may even look up if a word is “in season.”

In season words? Or “season words”

What?

Well, that just means

a word or phrase that may hint at the time of year “And contribute to the brevity of the poem.” The term for this season word or phrase is: Kigo.

Basically, to help you form and understand a haiku better you may want to:

1. Get a special book, or look up words (helps with syllables & finding new words to use)

2. Look at season words, so you can tell when a haiku takes place-what season you’re supposed to be picturing or when it was formed or it may help understand exactly what is being said

This anime made me understand, love and hear more haikus. They don’t necessarily ever have to be spoken, but it is nice hearing how a writer says them.

Plus, it was just such a darn cute movie that I wanted to share it with others.

Things I liked:

1. It wasn’t just about romance

2. It wasn’t too in your face with the romance

3. The colors! Such pretty colors. Really helped make me feel like it was summer (though it’s still freezing here)

4. Them showing a character who isn’t too happy about her teeth. Because it’s important to show characters like that & I found her very relatable. Heck, some days I hide my own

5. The side plots & characters were just as interesting and cute. It wasn’t just about them growing closer, it was about everyone in the town/their different worlds

What did I notice?

Cherry’s haikus were different from the ones we’ve been told to make.

He didn’t follow the 5 7 5 rule (when it was translated at least)

(I would like to point out that I forgot Vocal said they allow interpretations for the syllables due to people pronouncing things differently. So, my last article on haikus may be off a bit).

Remember how I said you should look into syllables? Yeah well, generally the sounds matter more than the syllables and syllables don’t really need to be 575 in English.

There are a few things to look into when creating a haiku and what they were typically made about.

Basically:

I realized there was more to a good haiku and learned more on the history behind them (I’m sure everyone else knew this info), and I watched a very adorable anime that made me want to start expressing myself in haikus while listening to songs on a record (watch the movie to get what I mean).

Shouts out to Cherry and Smile for being real, being cute, and for reaching me some new things.

Anywho, here are my sources:

Thanks and peace!