Film

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

Name: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Genre: Animation, Drama, Romance
Released: 2020
Cast: Taishi Nakagawa, Kaya Kiyohara, Yume Miyamoto, Kazuyuki Okitsu, Lynn

A Japanese animated romance about a university student who takes a job caring for a brilliant, imaginative artist with cerebral palsy. Tender and unsentimental, it treats disability as context rather than tragedy, letting two people discover each other through art, humour, and shared dreams. For anyone who loves character-driven stories where intimacy blooms quietly.

TMDb rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a tender romance built on small, observed moments, with a lead who is far more than her circumstances, told through lush animation that trusts silence to do much of the talking.

Skip it if you need a brisk plot and a steady stream of incident, since much of this is quiet conversation, daydream sequences and long pauses between feelings.

What it asks of you: Patience comes first here: a slow, measured shape over roughly ninety-eight minutes, and a willingness to sit with tenderness rather than be swept along by it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Silent Voice: The Movie2016

A deaf girl and hearing boy navigate adolescence, guilt, and connection across a beautifully animated landscape. Like Josee, it centres disability without making it the whole story—both are about people first, circumstances second.

But The opening sections focus heavily on bullying, which can be tough to sit through even when handled thoughtfully.

Your Name.2016

Two teenagers across time and space fall in love while trying to prevent catastrophe. Shares Josee's romantic sweep and visual magic, with the same gift for making emotional pivots feel earned rather than imposed.

But The plot twists require suspension of disbelief, and some find the pacing shifts jarring when the tone changes course.

The Garden of Words2013

A student and woman meet in a rainy garden and form a quiet, complicated bond through conversation. Makoto Shinkai at his most intimate—less about grand gestures, more about the electricity of simply understanding someone.

But It's deliberate and slow. If you want plot propulsion or external conflict, this won't deliver it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mirai2018

Both films centre on characters who see the world differently—through disability or childhood—and treat that perspective not as tragedy but as a kind of clarity. Both find poetry in constraint.

A four-year-old boy meets his teenage sister from the future and travels through his family's past. An animated film about how children experience the world—lateral, imaginative, unafraid of feeling small—which mirrors Josee's unflinching perspective on limitation and possibility.

But It's philosophically ambitious in ways that don't always connect; some find it meandering or overly precious.

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas2018

Two high schoolers—one terminally ill, one withdrawn—form an unexpected friendship that deepens into something richer. Shares Josee's refusal to wallow; both find humour and lightness even while acknowledging real pain.

But The ending is signposted early, which some find makes the journey feel predetermined rather than surprising.

Flavors of Youth2018

Three interconnected stories about young people chasing dreams and love across China. An anthology with Josee's warmth and specificity of character, animated with gorgeous attention to food, memory, and small moments.

But As three separate stories, there's no narrative momentum—you're watching for mood and connection rather than plot resolution.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl2017

A man pursues a woman through a single magical night in Kyoto, rendered in dazzling animation. Like Josee, it's interested in desire and connection as forces that make you braver, funnier, more alive.

But The style is maximalist and digressive—it's more a series of moments than a tightly constructed plot, which loses some viewers.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms2018

An ageless woman raises a human child across decades, exploring love, sacrifice, and what it means to be needed. Epic in scope but intimate in feeling, it shares Josee's understanding that love rewires who you are.

But The runtime is two hours, and the emotional register is consistently high—exhausting for viewers who prefer lighter entertainment.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms poster

Weathering with You2019

Two young people in Tokyo fall in love while investigating a girl who can control the weather. Visually stunning, with Shinkai's trademark ability to make romance feel destined and fragile at once.

But It's more concerned with spectacle than character development, and the climate-change subtext sits uneasily beside the love story.

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories2016

Both refuse sentimentality about pain. Both understand that love and support live in small moments—a meal, a conversation, showing up. Both trust you to find the significance without narration.

A late-night Tokyo diner becomes a confessional for regulars carrying quiet heartbreak. A two-minute episodes across seasons, each a complete story about connection, loneliness, and the small graces of being known. Radically different form, identical soul.

But Ninety episodes means you're either committing to a show or you're not; two minutes per episode feels gimmicky if you're not already drawn to vignettes.

The Farewell2019

Like Josee, it's about people navigating real limitation—mortality, distance, the gap between what we feel and what we're allowed to say—without retreating into melodrama. Both find unexpected lightness in serious circumstances, and both trust the audience to hold contradictions.

A Chinese-American woman returns home to support her family as her grandmother dies, but no one tells the grandmother. Shot like a comedy, structured like a tragedy, intimate without sentiment. Lulu Wang's direction finds humour and tenderness in the same breath.

But It's bilingual and deeply specific to a particular cultural framework; those looking for universal sentiment may find it oblique.