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Wow, that was a treat! A creative display of animation alongside well-formed imagery with characters from various backgrounds, highlighting their various characteristics and reason for fighting on the court.

Pros:
- A great pilot episode
- Lots of effort put into the match animations
- A funky and raw OP (See cons for more)
- Intuitive character metaphors and striking imagery to really convey their importance.
- A groovy soundtrack that will get you headbanging during the hype moments.
- The "rougher" art-style. This is contentious to some, but I believe it does a great job at humanizing the characters since it makes them look less like anime characters and more like ... real people.
- Tight story. This is a 12 episode show with a solid ending, couldn't ask for more.

Cons:
- Good number of reused cuts. Some shots are so quick that you might not notice it, but there are times when the same cut will replay 2 or 3 times. Surprised they didn't change a frame or two to hide it better.
- First 2 episode's opening are just a collection of shots that will be in the current episode, which slightly spoils you on the episode's content. From episode 3 and onward, it had a regular OP which is very creative and fun.

I will be honest, the first half of this movie was really good. The second half on the other hand left a lot of loose ends and added points that felt really contrived, predictable, and unneeded.

If you have watched a lot of Ghibli films and thought to yourself: "What other studios can produce movies that have the Ghibli feel?" I would point you to this movie. The art-style, pacing, and dialogue are very reminiscent of The Cat Returns and Whispers of the Heart. It does use some more modern animation techniques like 2D characters in a moving 3D environment, but overall that Ghibli vibe was ... present throughout the movie and it made it feel a lot more poetic.

My more detailed critiques of this movie can't really be described any more without devolving into spoilers, so here is your warning.

SPOILERS AHEAD (Mostly negative rant):

What the first half of the movie sets up is an interesting isekai mechanic, a strained love triangle, and a flip-flopped power dynamic going between worlds. These ideas really cemented in my mind that if the film addressed these points and made some very nuanced character development, the movie would be an easy 8/10. Instead, the film decided to abandon a lot of those themes and ideas and instead wanted to use the power of friendship to slay the villain and sing kumbaya. To top is off, I wouldn't have cared really until they decided to throw a match in the house before leaving with saying that....SPOILERS.... The two male protagonists are actually the same person from the 2 different worlds... Why. I understand they have a lot of the same hobbies and liked the same girl, but the film establishes very clearly that the people that are similar between worlds look similar. These two have blue and brown hair, different eyebrows, and different eye colors.

Another thing I thought was done poorly was how predictable plot points were. Villains are obvious villains, side characters will come in exactly when you think they will, and ideas that are "subtly" introduced are actually easily going to be the deciding factor in the whole ending showdown. When there was a lot more intrigue and interpersonal conflict in the first half of the movie it felt very unexpected and eye-opening at times, but since none of this was utilized, it makes the latter half of the film have no real meaning.

The main question for if you should watch this is: "Do you like reading manga?" Because if that is a no, you should watch this as a sort of "turn off your brain filler" type show. The plot is simple, the episodes are simple, and overall not much going on besides small antics between people that like to play shogi in their club.

If you answered yes to reading manga, then definitely read the manga. Most things exclusive to the adaptation (Music, anime-ified art-style, VAs) are lukewarm besides the OP (kind of a bop) and don't really add much to the experience of the story besides ... making it last longer. If the story interests you but you don't feel like sitting through a lot of slower paced episodes and common "mid" slice of life antics in animated form, the manga's art-style and pacing will be much more up your alley.

In simple words, its a comedy show that goes on very wild conversations and tangents stringing along many gags and jokes with no true purpose besides seeing how convoluted things can get, in a good way. I started watching this from seeing random clips on YouTube and am happy I chose to watch it.

Things you won't get:
- Conflict based narrative, or any real goal that characters strive towards
- Character development (characters don't change over episodes really)
- Serious or dramatic story beats
- Sakuga more than 1 or 2 times

Things you will get:
- Fast paced skits
- Gags that talk about a wide range of topics that ... I can't even give a proper range to
- Conversation that go in many different tangents and directions
- general hilarity and absurdity

It has the conversational length of something like Monogatari, without any of the philosophical depth and in the package of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things.

I scored this a 6

The question for if you will enjoy this small 3 episode OVA (wouldn't classify as a film per say) is: Do you like the poster art work and/or the trailer? If yes and your only expectation is good art, then you won't be disappointed. If no and you want something deeper, then you might not find it here.

The reason that I bench a lot of your enjoyment of this work on the art-style is that the overall story can be confusing to decipher and interpret. It does have a message and you will understand it and the themes present, but the ... in-between of getting to the smaller conclusions might have a lot of confusion mixed in that make it not as enjoyable to watch. Its like watching works that are really good at expressing concepts (March Comes In Like a Lion, Monogatari, Ranking of Kings) and having those expressions miss the mark.

What carried this show was the art-style and animation. Never disappointed when I hear unique art-style and Wit Studios in the same breath. Again, if you like the teaser or just the poster art for this and that is all you care about, you won't leave disappointed at the least.

I had the lucky opportunity to go into this film with only having seen the cover art. If you haven't been spoiled by anything yet, just give this a try, its only 95ish minutes. Now with that being said...


Boy was I surprised...In a good way. While this show is experimental in some ways, it is a good litmus test into what a show with a very even blend of live-action and anime elements would look like in a single show. Whether it was the choreography, dialogue, directing, narrative, or comedy, each element had something where I could feel it came from more of a live-action ... background or anime background. If not because you think the plot is entertaining, I would suggest this to any avid anime watcher to give them a really good perspective on how much room there can be for very different styles of anime.

Story: Story while a little scatterbrained, was still entertaining to watch. A lot of the times it felt like a big gag or skit where it just existed to express comedy, but the style of animation lent itself to also being able to turn on a dime into serious or dramatic moments.

Art: Without a doubt very experimental. I think overall they succeeded on an animation front. With how much was being blended from live-action shots and anime styled shots, I would have liked it if they leaned a little harder into feeling like one or the other more when the narrative or moment presented it. Moments that felt more anime-ish (running usually) tended to feel bogged down by lack of perspective or composition. Moments that felt more live-action tended to feel fine but I think a better distinction could have made for a more unique flow.

Sound: Sound was average, nothing really unique. I didn't hear anything I disliked.

Character: This is another area where there was an interesting blend between live-action and anime tropes at play. While characters weren't as expressive as in standard anime, the drawing from more organic or real acting made for characters that felt a lot more real. Alice and Hana's personality could really be felt from their VA performances alongside how the characters moved in the scene. (When they first meet is a really good example)

Enjoyment: I overall enjoyed this mainly for how unique it was all being presented. I will reiterate that I went into this with the expectation of an anime, and still came out feeling satisfied. Even if it was made in a more standard anime light, I would have watched it, but being able to see the extra unique flavor the blending gave it was a nice treat that will forever change how I view shows that try to cross the bridges of live-action and anime.

TLDR: Great soundtrack, extremely good art-style, difficult to animate sequences executed above average, rushed story but solid in its themes.

Story: While I would say it was rushed in everywhere but the middle, the story itself had the minimum beats a story needs. I say it felt rushed because many characters get no development/screentime and the development that does happen does "the music that is playing is the emotion you should be feeling".

Art: If you've seen any art or trailers for this movie, the art-style is phenomenal. There isn't much to say about the art-style aside from it making animation a lot harder to blend properly.

In ... terms of animation, for me it was hit or miss. There is a lot of parkour in this show and this combined with a very actively moving camera and level of detail of the environment being very high made characters moving really fast or sporadic feel out of place. It was about 50% of the time I thought the animation was a little off. There is one sequence though that I really thought was the pinnacle of their animation but I will say which scene it was at the end of the review*.

Sound: Sound was average/what I would expect. Very boisterous at times and very quiet at others. There was a good sense of control with the music that made some scenes very touching or hype, while it made others feel very forced.

Characters: Character designs were pretty solid. They did a good job at establishing everyone's position in the story so if you like not knowing who the villain is or not knowing if someone could backstab someone else, these designs don't really serve that purpose.

Enjoyment: Aside from nit-picking the animation when it came up or feeling like the story beats were rushed, the movie is a fun and entertaining thing to look at. The art-style alone was what peaked my interest so if you are the same you should enjoy it as well.

The story itself is very scatterbrained but makes up for it with proper narrative structure and above average animation quality. For a story with no real spoken dialogue, it manages to do a decent job. I rate season one a 6, while season two stepped it up to a 7.

The climax fight and conclusion made it worth the watch to be honest. Reminded me of Demon Slayer S2 in the most abstract, chorographical sense. Honestly, if you just don't know what to watch and don't want to think, maybe you're eating dinner or something, this show is a good pick for that.

The one word I would have for all of Tagaki-san but rings really true in season 3 is:
"Consistency". Not consistency as in "there are no climactic moments" but in the storytelling being a tried and true method the studio has built upon slowly and knows just the right knobs and levels to pull to really ramp things up over all the seasons. If you are not caught up with the other seasons you won't be completely lost, but you'll be doing yourself a huge disservice in not having that history with all the characters really flesh out their presence in the skits.

Story: Same as ... the last 2 seasons, very skit based with some bigger moments sprinkled in-between. Not much is changed here except a few more longer segments to house built up moments.

Art: The art-style itself hasn't changed much. The expression of the art-style is a slight step up to the post-2020 standards of lots more of depth of field and lens flares to give things a little more realism without having to be photo-realistic or anything. The word I would attribute to all these sections is you guessed it: Consistent

Sound: Background sounds and bgm hasn't really been anything crazy for this show. You have tracks that get variations throughout the show like most. Where this show does shine really well is in the VA preformances. No suprises that Takahashi Rie and "great preformance" are synonyms, but I would also say that Yuki Kaji did a really good job this season at making a wide range of emotions for Nishikata, it made those climactic moments as well as the quiet moments really shine.

Character: This season continues to do a good job at bringing in the reoccuring side characters and giving them a presence in the story, even if they are doing their own things. It very much feels like a "small world" scenario where characters cross pathes every once in a while and then drift apart. This effect causes side characters to feel weirdly confident/fleshed out which I really like from a more simple story like this.

Overall: Can't go wrong with this flavor of Rom-Com. It does nothing crazy except tell the story of two classmates growing up and realizing what it means to have someone that you can share your interests in, or do interesting things with.

To preface, I have read the manga before watching this, so a lot of my review will be talking about how well the material is adopted, rather than how it is by itself. Most other works I wouldn't do this but Berserk the exception in that the manga itself has such a high quality that any narrative change will probably be for the detriment. This will have slight spoilers.

Story: Because the movie is only 70ish minutes, I understand and am disappointed in the details they couldn't show in the order they were told in the manga. While it felt coherent because they left out details ... that don't make the cut, not having it makes fights not as impactful and not knowing the reason for doing things. Except for Guts' upbringing and the talk on the ramparts after one of the first battles, most of the important scenes are captured and done well.

Art: In terms of the talking moments and exposition, the artwork and directing is captivating. The character detail of the main 3 are super spot on and makes their interactions super captivating to watch. Where this movie really takes a nosedive at times is in their blending of 2D and 3D. Their use of 3D is nice, creating the big vistas and sense of scale the manga is known for. It is in the moment to moment where they are going in and out of 3D where you notice small details like the 3D models not having that same level of detail or moving in slightly more awkward ways than in 2D. I commend them for trying but blending the two a little more would have made moments far more enjoyable.

Sound: This may be the type of movie that is better to watch with headphones. I watched this on my TV and noticed the dialogue was so much quieter than background music at times, requiring me to change the volume around 5 or 6 times throughout the experience to be able to hear properly. The voice acting itself was really good and music choice was not what I imagined, but still made scenes enjoyable.

Enjoyment: Much of my enjoyment of this film came from seeing the important scenes done justice. While fights might be wonky at times, the moments where characters are talking were super enjoyable to witness and make it worth it for me.