Blue Thermal (2022)

This movie was made available for free through YouTube with ads (though I, for some blessed reason, never get ads) and I was intrigued enough to click, and enjoyed it enough to watch it the whole way through!

The main gist is that Tamaki is a freshman at her university, seeking all the fun new things that experience will bring her, but oops, she accidentally broke the wing of an incredibly expensive glider. Through this, she semi-joins the aviation club and gets her first taste of the sky when the club's captain takes her up for a flight! And she finds out she likes flying a lot more than initially expected.

I didn't expect how much I liked the aviation elements of this movie. It's something I have no major interest in, but learning alongside Tamaki about all the minor elements of what keeps a glider in the air and how it gains altitude was really fun!! Plus, the scenes of flights were just gorgeous and her elation at being in the sky is infectious.

I, honestly, was really rooting for Daisuke as a love interest in this, but I'm also a sucker for like "enemies to lovers" and seeing him become so protective of Tamaki over the course of the movie was cute. I can see why she chose the captain instead, but owtch if that moment of her straight up running past Daisuke didn't hurt - but tbh, I should have seen it coming because there are more scenes of her running away from Daisuke than running towards him. Foreshadowing.

Also, there was so much of that romantic energy, and yet not a single kiss was had. Refreshing. Nice. Made me feel good. I only realized it once the movie was over, that it had managed to convey that emotionality without resorting to on-screen intimacy and I thought that was really cool!!

All in all, I really like this genre of animated film, the gentle rise and fall of the story arcs is pleasing and the art style for this one was beautiful. It was simple and sweet and an interesting club to focus on for a slice-of-life film!