Secondly I would like to say this movie is probably not for everyone. It's a teenage drama! It depicts high school students with their seperate issues who are randomly put together in a group and their development. The movie could be considered quite cheesy, contains (possibly stupid) drama and would probably considered boring by abig part of the anime community.
That being said I think this is more or less a model teenage drama movie.
It's not super innovative and contains a lot of what you would expect in a teenage drama but it performs it incredibly well. Despite not being super different from many other teenage dramas it still managed to surprise me while still keeping what you would expect from the genre.
I'll go through my impression of the different aspects of the movie below
I'll generally not have any real spoilers and just have annoying vague indications of what will happen later.
Story: 10
Without spoiling too much, the story revolves around a girl called Naruse Jun who "spoke too much" as a child. Because of the trouble she caused she met an egg which cursed her to be unable to speak. And then in high school she is put into a volunteer group to make a event. Rest should be watched!
I just thought it was very interesting from the start as this was I wrote to a friend: "A little girl dreams of going to a love hotel with a prince because it's formed like a castle. And she sees her dad leaving the love hotel with another woman" (This is basically the first 5 minutes of the movie)
Art: 9
The same studio as behind Anohana. The backgrounds were very pretty and were really good at setting the atmosphere but it was not like breathtaking or similar.
The character designs were generally good but sometimes slightly inconsistent especially with the guys from the baseball club. It's apparent that it's made by the Anohana team but the character designs still differs a bit.
Sound: 10!
The sound is soooo good even though the majority of the songs are basically parodies of already made songs. I loved the voice acting, especially Naruse Jun's. The way her voice shakes when she tries to speak both touches you and may cringe you! When the characters sing in casual it actually sounds like people singing without studio editing without being horrible. However when the songs are performed it sounds sooo good!
Minor issue may be that I think the tones of the "egg song" are a bit off but that might just be me.
Character: 9
Most of the characters are archetypes without really falling into heavy stereotypes so this is a good thing. Pretty decent character development as well. However I think that the only character who truly grew and built upon the archetype was the main character Naruse Jun, so I think it was great but not outstanding :>
Enjoyment: 10
As the review might reveal, I greatly enjoyed this show. I've watched a lot of ghibli studio films and many of the "must watch" stand alone anime movies such as Summer Wars, Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and I think most of the movies in same genre pales in comparison. This movie simply delivered everything I wanted for a teenage drama. The only movie I can think of in similar genre which can compete is 5 centimeters per second.
I also think that this show is superior to AnoHana in every aspect besides art while they also have somewhat similar themes. (Also it probably won't make you cry I think)
Overall: 10
I think this was a masterpiece of a teenage drama anime movie. All the flaws that I've noticed were faults I could easily live with and they don't affect the enjoyment of the show.
If you were a fan of AnoHana then watch it! If you're a fan of stuff like Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, watch it!
Watch ittt...
