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STORY(9/10)

The story begins with Ren, a 9-year-old boy who runs away from home and manages to get into the beast realm. Humans are known to hold ''the darkness'' inside them which causes the beasts to give him a bad eye. Yet there's one beast who never cared that Ren, now known as Kyuuta, is a human. That beast is Kumatetsu, his new master. Due to his personality, Kumatetsu is not very liked by others, regardless he is trying to become the Lord. To do so, Kumatetsu needs an apprentice and Kyuuta is his only option, so they start to become codependent (in a good way). ... Their relationship starts a bit rocky but that adds up to the charm those two have. Kyuuta's training is shown to be beneficial for both sides, so they hold on to it. Over the course of years, we see that they influenced each other quite a bit.

There are also more bonds the movie will focus on, another very important one will be the one between Ren and Kaede, a girl Ren will meet in the human realm. She will help Ren in a way that Kumatetsu couldn't. There's much more to it but I don't want to spoil anything for you.

The story keeps you invested in it, I didn't find any second to be boring. It can be a bit predictable but that wasn't a problem for me.
I am a fan of those kinds of stories and, for a 2 hour movie, it is worth it 100%.

I also think the ''darkness inside of humans, not beasts'' is a great subject to think of. Often we are shown humans who fear beasts but here it's quite the opposite, beasts fear humans (even if they don't show it a lot). With all the morals we claim we have, with all the thinking we brag we do, with all the pride we take in our rational brain, a human holds way darker traits than any monster. We impacted our species and others, even life itself in a worse way than any other species.

However, there was one thing that bugged me a bit: Jiromaru and Kyuuta's friendship, Jiromaru was taught that humans are evil, something his father has shown to believe too, for a while. Jiromaru only cared about strength, once Kyuutoa got a bit stronger he became friendlier, and Kyuuta accepted him as a friend regardless of his past actions, which felt too idealistic.

CHARACTERS (9/10)
The characters are pretty much constant, not that they don't change but, they do it in such a way that it still feels natural, they don't change drastically in a couple of months, they change throughout the years. The main cast is greatly portrayed and made me feel their emotions inside my chest as well.
Some characters could have been explored more, such as Kaede, Ichirouhiko, Jiromaru and Ren's father, but the time limit wouldn't have allowed it.

ART(10/10)
The visuals don't disappoint, you'll see it for yourselves, the characters are drawn in a similar style to older anime or even cartoons but their simplicity is just a plus, also the backgrounds do a great job at transmitting the atmosphere.

SOUND(10/10)
I watched the dub for this one, while I am usually a sub fan I can't deny this dub was great.

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

I really liked this anime from the beginning, when it first aired, so I told myself that I had to rewatch it. Never been so excited after a rewatch! There's this redhead, his name is Reki, remember it! He is a great skater and he LOVES skateboarding, he knows EVERYTHING about it, too, he also participates in an illegal skating competition called "S". And there's this newly transferred student (half Canadian, half Japanese, lived in Canada until his father passes away), he has no experience on skateboarding at all, he just wants a well-paid job to financially help his mother since they moved ... back to japan(where his mother's from), his name is Langa btw. After Langa's failed interview, the 2 of them met on the streets and that's how it all started. Honestly speaking, Reki is the best thing that could have happened to Langa, he taught him that skating is FUN and that's where the plot focuses (Also portrays things as trauma, guilt, finding your definition of happiness, grudges and more)

LANGA AND REKI (10/10)
At first, I thought that Langa's character wasn't well-explored but after a rewatch, I can confidently say DAMN I WAS WRONG, his feelings are explored well enough for a 12 ep and his backstory adds up to and still influences him constantly. Langa uses everything he was taught about snowboarding in his skateboarding, but to do that, you need some innovation. This is where Reki comes in extremely handy, he makes a board just for Langa and constantly modifies it to suit his needs, to add up to his weak points, everything he modifies stands on Reki's observations alone, that guy's amazing. It's because of Reki that not only Langa can learn the basics but also becomes a GOD of skateboarding, his evolution is inhuman. However, how can a human like Reki compete to the God he created? That is an issue that he'll have to find a solution to. But this alone is not the only thing that will be bugging him.

OTHER MAIN CHARACTERS (9.5/10)
The main characters, however, are not only those 2. We have Miya, a young talented skateboard who's a national team candidate, SHADOW (Hiromi) "The S anti-hero" who always has tricks up his sleeves, JOE (Kojiro) a skater who uses his muscle mass as an aid to his skating style, CHERRY (Kaoru) a skater who uses an AI skateboard, his skating is rigid and calculated, a mysterious skater called SNAKE and of course our antagonist ADAM. The dynamics between the characters are great, JOE and CHERRY are childhood friends who constantly fight like kids despite being adults, SHADOW is your daily dose of wiredness who can get along or fight with anyone, MIYA is a kid who likes to insult others but is soft on the inside (it's fun when he uses game analogies, especially with Reki) but he can be blunt and inconsiderate of others, Langa who mostly hangs around Reki admiring his knowledge and telling him that he's amazing and Reki who was the reason this group of individuals became friends. I'd like MIYA and SHADOW to have a bit more screen time but in the rest, I really like the inclusion, they did great in my opinion. There's also ADAM with a particular kind of backstory that, to some degree explains his behavior but doesn't justify it.

SOUND (8.5 or 9/10)
The sound is good, I watched the SUB and I think it's amazing, the emotions are well portrait, I heard the DUB is funnier but for emotional impact I would recommend the sub. However it's clear that the one who dubbed Langa in Japanese was not a Canadian, in episode 12 it becomes clear as the ski in a sunny day.

INTRO AND OUTRO (8/10)
The intro is fitting it offers enough clues about the show without actually spoiling it, it also keeps the vibe up. I'd complain about the outro for a single thing, the impact it has after a serious episode, despite being able to go to the next episode and not have to wait a week to be posted, I found it a bit bugging.

ART (10/10)
The art jut nailed it perfectly, the street atmosphere, the character design, the way the adults have different kind of clothes from their daily live in order to disguise and also because they want to show another side of them that has been reprimed by society (best example is the antagonist)

Despite not scoring 10/10 in all those categories, I still give a 10/10 because it impacted me personally, especially after the rewatch.