The title of this anime movie alone got me intrigued. I’m not a huge soda drinker, but for some reason I just love the concept of ‘soda pop’. Also fun fact – you can’t say ‘bubble’ and make it sound angry.
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a cute, heartwarming anime on Netflix about a shy boy named Cherry who meets a bubbly girl named Smile and they share a summer together. Smile, ironically named, is an online influencer but always wears a mask because she’s embarrassed about her buck teeth. Cherry on the other hand, is socially shy and mainly expresses his thoughts and feelings through haiku.
I thought the anime overall was a bit slow, but that’s understandable I absolutely loved Smile. She was adorable, and I loved the contrast in how she was so self-conscious of her teeth, yet was such an upbeat influencer. If I was ashamed of a physical feature of mine, I wouldn’t dare go live on Instagram in front of thousands of people, even if I could hide the feature. Because it’d only be time until someone would find out and leak it to our modern day Armageddon—the internet.
Either way, I highly recommend watching it if you’ve ever had a hard time expressing your thoughts or feelings on paper, or if you just want something super low key and chill to put on in the background.
The Life Lesson
Acknowledging feelings is tough. Expressing feelings is tough. Communicating feelings through words is tough. HAVING FEELINGS IS HARD. WHY DO WE FEEL?
Communication is such an underrated soft skill. Communicating about my passions like video games and anime? Easy. Communicating technical concepts and business proposals at work? Harder, but doable. Communicating your feelings? Nope. No. Nada. Zip. Nay no no no no no no no no no never no no never no no no no no. Nope. Personally, I don’t find having, acknowledging, or accepting any particular feeling being hard, but more so just materializing it in words and sharing it with someone else. Sometimes I just feel embarrassed to feel a certain way, which is what makes it so hard to put into words. Like I might be angry about something really petty or unreasonable that I know is dumb. Struggling to try and put it in words just to hear it out loud makes me feel like a fool.
No matter the reason, it doesn’t change the fact that verbalizing feelings is difficult. But that’s okay. There’s so many other ways to express your feelings, thoughts, and words. You can write a love letter. Record a video message. Transfer heartbreak into the lyrics of a song and sing your heart out. Draw a picture. Or you can write haikus like Cherry does.
It’s still good to be able to get to a point where you can communicate and express your feelings in words. But you can take your time. Baby steps. Start with a method that feels most comfortable. It also goes both ways. Maybe you’re already a pro at talking about your feelings, but you’d rather eat a bowl of mud before doing an interpretive dance. Expressing your feelings in a method that’s uncomfortable might actually give you a new perspective (and confidence)!
And now, I leave a haiku for you:
Life can be so hard
Watch anime and play games
Also eat good food
