Story: 10/10
Firstly the story is told a way that at times is confusing, is still understandable. you may not be able to tell entirely whats going on, you still have a general idea. As a result this show also has a ton of re-watchability.
The story also does a lot of this series typical philosophy that in pretty much every other episode in this series tried, but ended up pretentious. The others try to tackle themes that were either irrelevant or didn't have enough character development to make us actually care about what they were trying to say.
However, this move had deeper themes of meta-physics while they were actually relevant, and had enough consistency to actually communicate them. For the rest of the series I typically recommend not reading to deeply into for as many times as the symbolism is done well, more often it fails. This movie is the exception to that.
Art: 10/10
Art is pretty much as good as you are going to get. Action scenes are done masterfully as well with the backgrounds in general. Its essentially the typical ufotable, when they are animating type-moon.
The art is also used well to convey the mature themes and ideas presented in the story, while keeping the dark atmosphere that makes the show so enjoyable.
Sound: 10/10
Essentially same as the art where it is used well to convey themes, and atmosphere well. The music is also amazing and worth listening to on its own.
Characters: 10/10
This show often has two criticisms. The pretentiousness and the characters. I already addressed the first one so I will now address the second one.I will only cover three of the major characters in order to save space.
This show has Tomoe Enjou for just this movie, who is an extremely well thought-out and to many people, highly relatable . His character develops very naturally and very well. I have and even the most critical of this series, find him an exceptionally well done character.
The next is the main character through out the series, Shiki Ryougi. This is a character who some say is boring and doesn't develop much. Make no mistake, this series is all about Shiki. This movie doesn't feature her excessively like the rest of this series, but she is a character that develops through how people perceive her and through her actions. This episode in many ways uses a lot of the development created in the first 4 movies in order to ensure that you understand her in particular.
Now we have Mikiya Kokutou. This is another criticized character for being dumb and dull. These people have missed the entire point of the his character. His character is defined well by his borderline obsessive love for Shiki. I do not think he is dumb however. He has an interesting nature of desiring to be normal, yet is attracted to the one who is very much not normal. His character in this sense is a contradiction like most of the characters in the series. His character also exists to help contrast with the other crazy characters in the series and helps us see Shiki in a different view.
Enjoyment: 10/10
This entire series is extremely enjoyable to me, however to some the at time s slow pacing will likely annoy some people. The only thing that at times hurt my enjoyment is when nasu tries to too hard and ends up pretentious, but as stated previously, this movie avoids that trap from its elaborate setup. The atmosphere is beautifully crafted, and anyone who enjoys reading into a shows symbolism and looking for some meaning, will find a few good gems in the overall not that bad other stuff.
Conclusion:
This show isn't as perfect as a 10/10 but this movie , as a part of the series in a sense, while being examined by itself deserves a 10/10.
