Netflix’s new anime, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is finally here and it’s making us full of nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings. Directed by Kyohei Ishiguro, the same director of other anime like Your Lie In April and Children Of The Whales, the movie tells a story of teenage romance and music.
What Do The Names Cherry And Smile Mean?
The two protagonists of the anime have very interesting names i.e, Cherry and Smile. However, they both seem to hold meaning for the things they represent. Despite having the name ‘Smile’ and using it as a catch phrase for her online persona, Smile is insecure about her buck teeth and always hides them.
Smile wears a mask to quite literally, hide her smile and also wears braces to get rid of her buck teeth. She was famous as a child on the app CurioLive for her cute teeth but as time passed, she became more insecure about it.
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As for Cherry, the meaning behind his name is a little bit more complicated.
What Sakura Fujiyama Means For Them?
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop follows the story of Cherry and Smile trying to find an old record of the late Sakura Fujiyama for Mr. Fujiyama, called Yamazakura. Sakura Fujiyama also had buck teeth and was insecure of them. However, her husband, Mr. Fujiyama helped her to grow and love them which resulted in her making the record ‘Yamazakura’.
Yamazakura is used to refer to people with buck teeth because Yamazakura leaves grow before cherry blossoms. Cherry finds beauty in the name Yamazakura and uses it as an inspiration to write a haiku for Smile, who is insecure about her teeth.
We see the use of cherry blossoms a lot in the anime from Sakura and Cherry’s name to the record cover of Yamazakura. This doesn’t seem to be a coincidence because cherry blossoms in Japan signify the brilliance but fragility of human existence. It also signifies renewal.
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Sakura Fujiyama had passed away too soon while giving birth. However, the story of Cherry and Smile is very similar to that of her and Mr. Fujiyama’s, with both men helping their partners to love and accept their buck teeth.
So just like cherry blossoms that bloom during spring, this teenage romance is one about renewal and new possibilities.
