Story: 7
Tonari no Yamada-kun is a movie that is filled with a whole lot of shorts, that range from short to long, that show the Yamada family experiencing all of the wonders in life. One of the first long shorts deals with the Yamada's accidental leaving of their daughter, Nonoko, all alone at a mall, and their quest to go get her back. The humor in it was nice, and it showed how the family acted with each other pretty well. One of my favorite parts of the film, which is the short where there is a biker gang causing a ruckus outside, and Shige and Matsuko comically force Takashi to go outside and tell them to stop. Here we then see a change in art style, and a tense moment, albeit comically stopped as Shige and Matsuko come outside and make the biker gang go away by banging pots. We then see a daydream of Takashi's where some criminals kidnap Nonoko and Noboru, but he then saves them with his heroic powers. It then shows him on a swing where he was most likely thinking about what we just saw, ending the scene in a dramatized way.
Art: 7
The art style of Tonari no Yamada-kun is like comic strips, which fits in with the style of shorts. The only time we see the characters look realistic, is the scene I just explained above with Takashi and the bikers, which was refreshing before it went back to the original style. The style fits in with the movie, as it feels like you're watching an animated collection of comic strips throughout, which was nice to see a change of style from Ghibli. There wasn't a lot of detail in everything though, and backgrounds were just white adding to the comic style which kinda disappointing me, as I wanted to see the backgrounds in a comic like style.
Sound: 8
The sound is crisp, clear, all good. The voice actors did a great job, and made the movie very enjoyable. The music wasn't really pronounced to me though, I wasn't really feeling the music at times, and was like, "Meh". There also some weird sound cuts, but they weren't that bad.
Characters: 7
I liked the characters in this movie. It showed them interacting with their family, and growing as they did. They went through fun, silly experiences, and showed their strengths a lot. It was enjoyable to watch them, and I wasn't annoyed by any of them or dislike any of them. They were great.
Enjoyment: 8
All of the shorts had something fun in them, and a lot of them made me laugh or chuckle, but some of them left me kinda bored, and as I said before the music wasn't really adding that much to my enjoyment. The main enjoyment factor comes from the interactions with the family, and the results they get from doing certain things.
Overall: 7
Tonari no Yamada-kun is a nice movie, but it isn't the best movie that Ghibli ever made. There are funny moments, but there are some trips along the way. Some sequences are funny, others are semi-serious, others are both. People that don't really interact with their families probably won't find a lot of this stuff enjoyable, and people who want to be rolling in laughter the whole entire movie will be left disappointed, as it delivers the humor in jabs, mainly at the end of the short. The music isn't OMG I MUST JAM TO IT EVERYDAY, it does it's job, it fills the scene, makes it more relaxed, and chilled. The characters chemistry's with each other fit well, and the style of the art fits well enough. It's an enjoyable film to see, but it's definitely not an anime film that you must watch to be praised by the anime lords. I recommend seeing it on KissAnime, and if you like it enough, then you can buy it if you would so desire that.
