Maybe today's pirates no longer need to go on raids to step out of line and mess with an entire system. Maybe just a rebellious symbol is enough, like in this Japanese-French co-production: “A New Dawn” is a film whose characters have to come to terms with the finiteness of things. The only thing that still needs to be negotiated is how you want to make this exit. The anime tells a story of resistance between three childhood friends who, after reuniting, work on one last big bang – in the truest sense of the word – to say goodbye to their past.
The plot of “A New Dawn” revolves around an old fireworks factory that rises high into the sky on the edge of a bay and surrounded by forests. Years ago, the Obinatas family business was closed, but young Keitaro (voice: Riku Hagiware) simply doesn't want to leave the house. He almost despairs of his missing father's legacy. Now, just a few hours before the foreclosure and immediate demolition, he teams up with two old acquaintances to make a very special statement in the region.
“A New Dawn” impresses with its very own visual style.
The three main characters of “A New Dawn” research and work on the so-called Shuhari fireworks. This is expected to be an insurrectionary phenomenon of cosmic proportions. It is linked to a pirate myth with which the three characters identify. But what purpose does this actually serve? Here you are at an almost hopeless low point. Right from the beginning of the film, everything in this desolate world is heading towards dissolution. Finally, “A New Dawn” tells of the approach of a typhoon. An apocalyptic mood is in the air.
At the same time, the storm is intended to provide a final breather in which to take revenge and create the most spectacular image possible, which, as is typical for fireworks, already burns out and disappears because it has just exploded. The author and director Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, who in the past worked on the successful film “Your Name.” worked on, mixing several themes and motifs. It's about conflicts with the authorities, land theft, displacement, urban sprawl, nature conservation, climate change, the solar industry, cultural festivals and coming to terms with the legacy of one's own (adopted) family.
A roughly sketched story
Above all, the anime tells a coming-of-age story about a return to the place of childhood where suddenly nothing is the same as it used to be. This is told primarily through the eyes of Kaoru, who has actually already ended up in Tokyo, but returns to Keitaro's old fireworks factory. The place from back then has been transformed into a haunted memory space and the animated, often desaturated hidden object images convey this feeling perfectly. As all the knick-knacks and decay litter the screen, stories and details lurk around every corner, even if you can barely grasp them while watching. In general, the confusion is on the one hand a fascination of this film, but also its great weakness.
“A New Dawn” presents itself as a plot-driven work, but remains more of a loose plot sketch. There is a lack of exposure everywhere. As a result, the interesting material remains largely a mystery and a collection of small parts that don't really fit together. When it comes to implementation, it quickly becomes monotonous and tough because so many moments come to nothing due to a lack of preparation. All the topics remain vague. Relationships from before are hinted at rather than told. When a projector suddenly turns on and projects old images, it is an emotional experience for the characters in the film. But for the audience, it is just one facet of many that are briefly touched upon but are not fully developed at all.
An exhilarating anime
With a running time of less than 80 minutes, “A New Dawn” is simply far too short to bring its packed story to life in a plausible and comprehensible way. At the same time, the film has a rather intoxicating and associative character, which certainly has its aesthetic appeal. Short sprinkles and snippets from the past flicker and then disappear again into a mass of abstract shapes. Rooms flow surreally into one another. In the first sequence, the scene is entered via a kind of time tunnel and trudging through water, in which cryptic images emerge.
Later, the entire universe suddenly bursts into the domestic and explodes the space in its dimensions. Scenes form more fragments than a narrative unity. And at the latest when one of the protagonists begins to hallucinate while devising the battle plan, the film becomes stylistically amusingly free. Suddenly the drawn style transitions into a stop-motion sequence with small objects and figures arranged on the table.
The fireworks make up for a lot
So there’s no question about it: “A New Dawn” is visually quite impressive! In particular the bustling backgrounds, which sometimes look like flowing watercolor and ink paintings, but sometimes also weave almost photo-realistic details into the nature images. In the sun of the day, blurred haze effects creep over the ground. Meanwhile, the sky is mostly an empty, bright white nothingness, negative space, an uncomfortable visual void that the characters have to assert themselves against.
Later, when the storm breaks out, it rains thick, dark drops and streaks on the canvas. And when “A New Dawn” finally tries its hand at the much-heralded fireworks effects, it is so breathtakingly beautiful to watch in its flashes of light, dabs of light and freezing moments that these impressions make up for all the seemingly lifeless narrative confusion. At least almost.
Conclusion: “A New Dawn” impresses above all as an abstract aesthetic rush and offers perhaps the most beautiful fireworks display in film history. However, the story of resistance that Yoshitoshi Shinomiya tells remains far too roughly and immaturely sketched to be able to grasp the characters, their relationships and the associated political conflicts.
We saw “A New Dawn” at the Berlinale 2026, where it celebrated its world premiere in the official competition.