‘Bubble’: A thin plot brings down exciting visuals

Anime directors never seem to tire of trashing Tokyo, but they’ve seldom done it as creatively as Tetsuro Araki’s “Bubble.” Forget earthquakes, nuclear attacks, rampaging monsters or psychic meltdowns: In the loopy premise for this Netflix original, the capital has been destroyed by a downpour of bubbles that wreak havoc with the laws of gravity.

In a surreal, post-apocalyptic vision of the metropolis, the streets are flooded, the skies dotted with floating chunks of concrete (and the odd train), and Tokyo Tower sports a swirling nebula around its midriff. It’s like a mash-up of “Doctor Strange” and the closing scenes from Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You,” with a dash of Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” for good measure.

Abandoned by its residents, the city has become an enormous jungle gym for orphaned adolescents, who spend their days engaged in bouts of competitive parkour. The most talented among them is Hibiki (voiced by Jun Shison), who lives with a crew of teenage tumblers aboard a Japan Coast Guard ship moored in what used to be Shibuya.

The only adults in the group are Shin (Mamoru Miyano), a husky father figure whose parkour days are behind him, and Makoto (Alice Hirose), an improbably buxom scientist who’s obviously got the hots for Hibiki.

Our hoody-wearing hero is still haunted by the memory of an explosion at Tokyo Tower that nearly killed him five years earlier, and a mysterious melody that he heard that day. During a solo expedition to find the source of said tune, he suffers a seemingly fatal fall, but is rescued from a watery grave by a bubble that suddenly takes human form (yup, it’s as weird as it sounds).

Hibiki christens his new companion "Uta" (TikTok star Riria), and they quickly establish a sibling-like rapport. There are obvious parallels with “The Little Mermaid,” and Uta even gets her hands on a Hans Christian Andersen picture book so she can point them all out. But this childlike innocent is closer to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” than Princess Ariel, and when the film tries to suggest a romantic attraction between her and Hibiki, it all gets a bit awkward.

Director Araki is best known for his work on the “Attack on Titan” series (2013-19), and “Bubble” frequently recalls the dizzying aerial combat sequences from that anime. Each time Hibiki and his pals leap off a building, the film takes flight with them, dipping and diving as they bounce off bubbles and stray debris.

Though these scenes are no more suspenseful than watching a video game walkthrough, they’re exhilarating stuff. For as long as it manages to keep its feet off the ground, “Bubble” is good, frothy fun.

Sadly, the rest of the movie isn’t quite so buoyant. The plot, from an original screenplay by Gen Urobuchi (“Puella Magi Madoka Magica”), is a hodgepodge of genre elements, sprinkled with some vague philosophical overtones that the film has neither the time nor inclination to explore. The more the characters try to explain the movie’s world, the less sense it makes, and “Bubble” might have done better to dispense with its pedestrian narrative altogether.

It’s better enjoyed as a rush of sensations, and there are moments when the visuals reach borderline-psychedelic heights. If only the film as a whole wasn’t so stubbornly earthbound.