An awkward blend of documentary and melodrama hobbles “Komada: A Whisky Family,” a new anime film about a small whisky distillery in rural Japan.
The film is the latest production by anime studio P.A. Works, which centers its content on places of, well, work. For example, 2014’s “Shirobako” was a fun and engaging dive into what it’s like to work behind the scenes on an anime series. “Komada” does the same for whisky production, minus the fun and engaging part.
The film kicks off as Kotaro (voiced by Kensho Ono), a peevish young news site editor, is assigned a series of stories about whisky. He’s set to write about Rui (Saori Hayami) who, despite her youth, is the CEO of a distillery called Komada and a rising star of the whisky scene. Rui’s dream is to revive Komada’s flagship tipple, Koma, which financial circumstances forced them to stop making years earlier, back when her father was in charge.