Fragtime

Fragtime is a beautiful movie about teenager issues such as social outcast and pathological lying. Portrayed by two highscoolers, with one of them being able to stop time.

I have read the manga. It's mediocre. But what made this movie way better than the manga is its visuals. When a manga is adapted into an anime, you lose some parts of the story. But sometimes sacrifices are necessary in order to enhance the visuals. Sometimes the story would even portray better with better visuals. And apparently, Fragtime falls into that category for me.

I could tell already that this might become a hidden gem like ... Asagao to Kase-san. Damn, I really hope this movie blows up because it's actually pretty good. I really do.

If you're looking for another Shoujo Ai to watch then you must put this in your PTW list. It is worth seeing and it shouldn't be ignored.

“ZAA WARUDOOOO” *time stops* *looks at panties* Well that is what Fragtime is about.

Fragtime, a short slice of life movie with a touch of supernatural. Don’t go and expect that there is depth dedicated towards the power, because it is more important what the two main protagonist do with it. This anime has lots of subtle and more obvious hints towards their symbolism and deeper meaning. This is the story of two girls finding each other and their selves.
Given the nature of this anime I’m discussing the symbolism and characters at once.

Misuzu Moritani
The story is told as we mostly follow Misuzu and her thoughts. ... A quiet girl with no friends, no aspiration. Your average quiet kid of the class. Other people seem to have trouble with socializing with her because she kind of lives in her own bubble, her own world of 3 minutes silence. Her power is to stop time for 3 minutes. This is her escapism to trouble and pressure.

Haruka Murakami
Top student of the class, beautiful and most loved by the class. She has a unapproachable aura as she is to perfect for other boys or girls. However due to that she is extremely popular. You can see her being very lenient and helping other classmates. She is so lenient it almost looks like she doesn’t care at all. Being haunted and driven by hear own fear, she has no personality. She selfishly keeps on giving. Her line “do whatever you want” oooh damn, that’s hot.

Story:
So Misuzu can stop time and Haruka can move while time is stopped. While Haruka gives the most obvious hint herself “You love me, you want to spend time with me”. This is an extremely important sentence. Both of the girl has something they want to escape and obtain. Haruka can move in the stopped time because Misuzu wants it in her own world. Without too much fuss about the working of power it gives off a strong symbol. In the second half where everything goes downhill, Haruka’s actions all makes sense. Why she wants Misuzu and why she goes crazy in those 30 seconds. There are some more hidden symbols (with sort of flashes) but I didn’t quite get that.

I think this anime is easy to watch as it spells out the important aspects and quickly comes to the point. Both of the girls can take the initiative and aren’t holding back to much (unlike most romance anime). The dialogues or sometimes a bit cheesy and lacks some passion. It disappoints me that the voice actress didn’t do it as good as I hoped (they both voiced major roles) I couldn’t feel much emotions from them. All in all Fragtime is an easy anime with a clear message to tell you. It execution is a bit wacky but gets the job done. This is perfect for a chill evening if you like easygoing slice of life with a touch of yuri.

"If you could stop time for 3 minutes, what would you do?"

*proceeds to look at another girls underwear*

That about wraps up Fragtime. A Yuri anime movie with a compelling idea that fails due to weak writing and fan service that will make you cringe. The only good things about this movie were the animation and the idea. Beyond that, there really isn't much.

Starting off, the two main characters dilemmas are generic and uninteresting, making the story extremely flat. We have the popular girl who feels that she's a fake person, never able to truly be herself. Then we have the socially awkward girl with no ... friends. Beyond that, neither character has any personality to speak of.

The lack of interesting characters could be made up for by good character development, but nothing really happens until the last 10 minutes of the film. The majority of the movie is the two girls messing around with the fact that they can stop time.

Despite the weak characters and writing, the sound is possibly the worst aspect of the anime. The majority of the movie uses annoying classroom background noise rather than an instrumental OST. This makes the atmosphere feel awful.

Overall, I can't think of a reason for anyone to watch this movie.