Tsuneo Suzukawa is a 22-year-old university student studying marine biology. He works part-time at a diving shop. On his way home after a lecture, he saves a paraplegic young woman named Kumiko Yamamura, who insists on being called “Josee”. After being invited over for dinner as a token of gratitude, Tsuneo receives a job offer from Josee’s grandmother, Chizu, to become Josee’s caretaker. The 2020 anime film is based on a short story published by Seiko Tanabe for Kadokawa in 1984. The story inspired a Japanese live action drama film (2003), this anime film version (2020), and a Korean drama film called Josée (2020) which loosely adapts the 2003 version to a Korean setting.
It very much feels like Josee was planned out with a focus on place and encouraging Seichi-Junrei in mind. In an interview for the Japanese Film Festival’s web blog, Josee (2020) director Kotaru Tamura had the following to say about the screenplay’s locations:
“There are surprisingly few anime that are set in Osaka. Also, I felt that the image of Osaka often relies on Tsutenkaku Tower and Dotonbori, and I wanted to update that image. To do that, I thought about what the attractions of Osaka are. When I actually visited Osaka for research, I was really struck by how the metropolitan area and ‘shitamachi’ (historic working-class neighborhoods) coexist in close proximity. The shitamachi like where Josee lives and the metropolitan area where throngs of people go are only separated by a few train stations. I felt this chaotic townscape is distinctive of Osaka and wanted to share it in anime.”
Many of the essential locations in the film engaged with crossover brand partnerships, including the Osaka Aquarium, Dipper Dan Crepes, and the Osaka Metro. With the exception of private residences, every location featured in the film is public and easy to find. There is even a very thorough official map available through the movie’s website.
If you’re seriously interested in visiting the locations, I recommend this 2-part travel log made for the Osaka Metro website. It includes more details like hours of operation and exact transit info (published in 2021; things may have changed).
Here’s some promo art from those collaborations.
