Goro Taniguchi, director of 2022¡¯s massive hit ¡°One Piece Film: Red,¡± is back in cinemas with ¡°Samurai Ballerina: L¡¯etoile de Paris en fleur,¡± an original anime film with a setting not often seen in Japanese animation.

The film takes place in the early 1910s, when Japan is emerging as a major player on the world stage, and centers on two young Japanese women, Fujiko (voiced by Ami Toma) and Chizuru (Lina Arashi), who have fallen hard for Western-style painting and ballet, respectively. Despite the disapproval of their families and the skepticism of those who doubt anyone from Asia could master Western artforms, the pair chase their dreams all the way to Paris.

Fujiko makes it to the City of Light by lodging with an uncle cashing in on Japonism by selling imported woodblock prints and ceramics, while Chizuru is there with her parents, who have set up a dojo catering to Westerners interested in learning Asian martial arts. Things don¡¯t exactly go smoothly for either of the young women: After her sketchy uncle skips town, Fujiko finds herself working full-time in a restaurant with no time to concentrate on her passion, while Chizuru is forced to hide her ballet lessons from her parents, who fear it will interfere with her martial arts training. And their positions in Paris become even more precarious as the specter of world war approaches.?

The idea of moving to a dream country only to encounter unexpected challenges will likely resonate with more than a few readers of this newspaper. Many elements of the script, by veteran screenwriter Reiko Yoshida (¡°Violet Evergarden,¡± ¡°The Colors Within¡±), feel true to that experience, like how the local friends both women make are outsiders themselves, from Chizuru¡¯s ballet instructor, a dancer born in Russia, to the fervent Japanophiles as excited to learn about the country from Chizuru as she is to learn ballet. The city itself is depicted as vibrant, full of life and probably much cleaner than the actual Paris of the 1910s, but that makes sense: It¡¯s Paris as seen through the eyes of two newcomers captivated by its charms.

Other parts of the script lean harder on cliche, like Fujiko¡¯s co-worker, a bigot who gains grudging respect for her as she shows how hard she can apply herself. Near the end of the film, there¡¯s also a sudden jump in register from elevated realism to full-out whimsy that made me think a dream sequence had started.?

It¡¯s also jarring that while Fujiko is set up as the film¡¯s main character, most of the action ultimately goes to Chizuru, whose ballet career advances as Fujiko¡¯s art stagnates (clearly, whoever thought up the film¡¯s official English-language...