Review: Ashita no Arika is a curious bit of damage control/corporate celebration

KOBELCO (aka the Kobe Steel Group) is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, a fact that an American such as myself probably shouldn't be aware of. But I am, because in celebration, the company has released an hour-long animated feature. American companies, quite frankly, could never.

Ashita no Arika (Whereabouts of Tomorrow) is a bit tough to review because it is, ultimately, a corporate product much more than it is a movie. It looks nice and has some fantastical beats that make it un-surprising that some former Studio Ghibli animators worked on it, but this isn't really meant to be a movie to watch for entertainment. Or rather, it feels like they're hoping they can get away with the least amount of entertainment getting in the way of the rousing message for their shareholders. It's a balancing act that is not maintained. It fully tips to the corporate side.

Which is probably how it should be! This is meant to celebrate and revitalize and look ahead. I was shocked when the film opened with the company's 2017 controversy, when it was revealed that there was falsified quality data that had repercussions throughout numerous industries in Japan. That controversy continued to plague the company's reputation and affect worker morale, including that of Asumi, who works in sales and -- in 2022 -- is unsure of her future at the company. She feels helpless to create change, despite wanting to. She's understandably burnt-out.

But a chance encounter with a book of KOBELCO's history transports Asumi through time, where she's able to witness key moments in the company's history, alongside a boy from 1905 named Torasuke. In his time, he's desperate to start with the newly-formed steel company, but he's told that there's something he's lacking, so he's along for the ride to hopefully figure that deal out.

As Asumi and Torasuke jump through the years (including pivotal moments of destruction such as post-war Japan and the aftermath of the 1995 earthquake), they meet various meaningful figures in the company's history, and learn about all of the various developments and industries that KOBELCO has branched into throughout the previous century-plus-change. Each time-warp moment is accompanied by actual photographs of various factories and inventions, which Asumi narrates. It's a pretty effective way to get a broad overview of all the innovations and milestones, if you care. I have to say, I wasn't that interested in the historical stuff, because it's all just like "Then we added titanium to our output," which doesn't mean much to me as an non-industrially-minded person. But it's certainly more engaging that some stale PowerPoint or whatever.

There are a couple fun little twists that come part-and-parcel with time travel stories, but ultimately, this is just about helping to revitalize the company's image. It's apologetic, yes, and acknowledges that it's easier to break trust than to rebuild it. But it also feels like a big part of this is, "Yes we did a bad thing, but remember all the good things we've done in the past. We helped after the war! And after the earthquake!" So it feels a little icky, but maybe all corporate communications do.

After returning to her own time, Asumi feels revitalized and ready to help push the company toward carbon neutrality. She realizes that she can help change the world, and that she owes it to the people who came before her (like Torasuke) to continue the good work. It's a nice, encouraging message even if, yeah, it still feels a little manufactured, too neat. By the time the film ends, any sort of artistic angle is basically completely thrown out, as we're subjected to a few minutes of tumbling corporate jargon about all of the current innovations, future plans, recent awards, blah blah blah. Which, again, this is a corporate film so it's fine and even expected, but yeah, it's also just weird.

Ashita no Arika isn't much of a movie, but as a corporate message, it's pretty fascinating, and at only an hour long, it might be worth checking out if you're at all curious. Maybe it'll stir something in you to work hard and make the future brighter -- 頑張りましょう！

You can check the movie out below, or on its YouTube page.