Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    EA Sports Madden NFL 26 Head Coach But Why Tho 5

    Dear EA Sports, Why Can’t I Make A Hot Coach?

    08/14/2025
    Blade in Marvel Rivals Season 3.5

    Blade Can Shut Down The Other Team In Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 If You Know How

    08/08/2025
    John Cena and Cody Rhodes during Summerslam 2025

    The SummerSlam 2025 Main Event Was A Fever Dream We All Needed

    08/08/2025
    Street Fighter 6 Sagat

    Sagat Brings Depth And Approachability To ‘Street Fighter 6’

    08/07/2025
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
  • Indie Games
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Apple TV+
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘Trapezium’ Delivers A Mixed Bag of Hard Truths

REVIEW: ‘Trapezium’ Delivers A Mixed Bag of Hard Truths

Charles HartfordBy Charles Hartford03/01/20255 Mins ReadUpdated:03/26/2025
Yu Azuma in Trapezium
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Trapezium is a pop idol drama anime film produced by CloverWorks, directed by Masahiro Shinohara (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpei), and based on the original novel by Kazumi Takayama. It tells the story of Yuu Azumi (Asaki Yuikawa, The Elusive Samurai), a young girl who dreams of being an idol. She’s prepared to do whatever it takes to make her dream a reality. But things go sideways for her when she draws three other girls into her plans.

A common problem is the inability to recognize that not everyone is like them. Just because you love something, it doesn’t mean everyone else will, too. Anyone who is plugged into social media sees this every time a big game, movie, or other piece of media drops. People struggle to accept this and can even lash out when someone doesn’t share their opinion.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

This lack of empathy is also found at the heart of Trapezium. Azumi is so fixated on becoming an idol that she can’t see that it may not be what others want. From the first moments of the film, it’s clear her convictions are going to go badly as she recruits the other members of her future idol group.

Azumi’s obsession drives the plot forward and opens up a world of conversation.

Yu Azuma in Trapezium

I say recruit, but a more accurate word would be manipulate. Rather than be upfront with her three potential partners, Mika (Haruka Aikawa, Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie), Kurumi (Hina Yomiya, Wuthering Waves), and Katori (Reina Ueda, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii), she approaches them under the guise of just wanting to be friends. She then pushes them into situations in the hopes of creating a”spontaneous” moment for them to be discovered as a group and become famous.

The key flaw in Azumi’s plan rests in her selection process. She picks three girls, one from each side of her hometown, and makes sure they are cute. Location and attractiveness are the only criteria. The fact that Kurumi doesn’t like crowds or that Mika is dedicated to volunteer work never factors into Azumi’s plans. After all, being an idol is great! And once they make it, the rest of the girls will understand how great it is too. Or perhaps not.

The emotional roller coaster the girls experience during their rise and fall from stardom is presented well visually. The characters’ body language always does a great job of conveying their feelings. The tightness of emotional strain runs across bodies, and the weakness conveyed through skillful facial expressions brings the motions to life. Scenes are frequently set up artfully to convey states of mind like frustration and isolation through the use of lighting and setting.

This is most dramatically delivered when Kurumi is seen being dragged into a dressing room as she kicks and screams, begging to be released from her contract. Yomiya delivers the best voice acting of the film here, as she leans hard into the girl’s pain and terror.

Dreams quickly become nightmares in Trapezium.

Still from Trapezium

As the narrative of her idol group NEWS (North, East, West, South) begins to slip away from her, Azumi quickly becomes the worst version of herself. The smile she wore as they did their early performances is soon replaced with scowls and sneers.

The trajectory of Trapezium‘s narrative delves into hard themes, but important ones nonetheless. It uses Azumi to look at dreams and how they can become nightmares. How hope can be replaced by obsession, asking questions about when a dream is still worth pursuing, comes with some solid payoff.

The best moment from Azumi’s final act of soul-searching comes from a talk with her mom. When Azumi asks her mom some difficult questions, her mom gives her daughter difficult answers. However, despite the fairly harsh response her words make, there is such gentleness in her tone that there is no doubt where the answer comes from. This gently painful moment helps set up Azumi’s final moments of redemption well. However, that redemption does have its problems.

A lackluster and ambiguous conclusion fails to give much satisfaction.

Still from Trapezium

The reckoning that Azumi faces in the film’s closing scenes feels too amorphous. Exactly what she’s apologizing for is left vague. Trapezium never shows her fully confessing to everything she did, leaving her atonement feeling shaky and weak.

The one place where the visuals fail Trapezium, they fail hard. While the film does a great job of conveying emotion, it fails to land its most dazzling sequence, when the girls are seen taking the stage. During NEWS’ first performance, the animation opts to bounce between 2D and 3D for close-ups and wide shots of the group moving through their dance number. The models for the characters look so different, and at moments genuinely bad in 3D, that it ruins the entire sequence.

Much of the 3D animation looks stiff, and the faces don’t look well-designed. The general shape of the heads is different, and hairstyles are flattened out. All of these changes are not only jarring but definite downgrades. None of them would be recognizable if not for the matching attire with their 2D counterparts.

At its core, Trapezium creates a compelling story about dreams, obsession, and when the former turns into the latter. While it tries to deliver an emotional beat for its lead character at the end, it fails to stick the landing completely.

Trapezium is streaming now on Crunchyroll.

Trapezium
  • 6/10
    Rating - 6/10
6/10

TL;DR

At its core, Trapezium creates a compelling story about dreams, obsession, and when the former turns into the latter. While it tries to deliver an emotional beat for its lead character at the end, it fails to stick the landing completely.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Solo Leveling’ Season 2 Episode 9 — “It Was All Worth It”
Next Article REVIEW: ‘Solo Camping For Two’ Is A Tonal Misadventure
Charles Hartford
  • X (Twitter)

Lifelong geek who enjoys comics, video games, movies, reading and board games . Over the past year I’ve taken a more active interest in artistic pursuits including digital painting, and now writing. I look forward to growing as a writer and bettering my craft in my time here!

Related Posts

Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa in The Map That Leads to You
8.0

REVIEW: ‘The Map That Leads To You’ Is YA Romance Done Right

08/19/2025
Lurker promotional still from MUBI

REVIEW: ‘Lurker’ Probes The Intoxication Of Fame

08/19/2025
The Knife (2025) promotional still
7.0

REVIEW: ‘The Knife’ Is Simple And Too Much At The Same Time

08/17/2025
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

08/16/2025
Fixed promotional key art from Netflix Animation
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Fixed’ Is Top-Notch Animation But Bottom Of The Barrel Comedy

08/15/2025
Denzel Washington Highest 2 Lowest
7.0

REVIEW: ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Has A Ton Of Fun Missing It’s Own Points

08/15/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

By Sarah Musnicky08/16/2025Updated:08/17/2025

It is understandable how Shin Godzilla succeeded at the box office nearly a decade ago. The strength of its story still stands today.

Botanical Bliss Update Palia But Why Tho 5 News

Palia’s New Botanical Bliss Update Brings New Flora, Decorations, And Quest Mechanic

By Matt Donahue08/18/2025Updated:08/18/2025

The Botanical Bliss update adds new event, more plushes, and a host of quality-of-life improvements and more to celebrate 2 years of Palia.

BOOTS Netflix First Look promotional images News

First Look at Coming-of-Age Story BOOTS, Coming to Netflix This October

By But Why Tho?08/17/2025

Netflix is reporting for duty this fall with the new eight-episode series BOOTS, a comedic drama starring Miles Heizer and Vera Farmiga

Nuestra Magia Secret Lair Art Interviews

EXCLUSIVE: How The ‘Nuestra Magia’ Secret Lair Found Its Identity And Raised Over $1M

By Kate Sánchez08/15/2025Updated:08/15/2025

We spoke with Ovidio Cartagena about Magic: The Gathering’s Nuestra Magia Secret Lair drop, its impact, and the real treasure within.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here