Let my start by saying that i love Mamoru Hosoda's work. The girl who leap thought time is one of my favorite movies of all time (and i was thinking of tattooing "time waits for no one" at one point) and it brings me great pleasure that people on youtube whose videos i personally love, made videos about him, like MrAJcosplay, RCAnime, digibro and even Every Frame a Painting.
Watching those videos made me more aware of the awesomeness that is Mamoru Hosoda.
Although i love his work and he is one of the few directors that i can name at the top of my mind, i was prepare for this movie to be bad from the mix reviews that i read. I have to say, i am pretty cool with the result, it is a trainwreck of emotions.
It's starts of a little sad which made me worry that this was going to be a sad movie, something not ideal for a Saturday night experience, but it was necessary so you could understand Kyuuta point of view and not just see him as a noisy brat. Soon we are introduce to a parallel world and we get to meet the rest of the cast along side Kyuuta. One of the fist phrases that i learn watching anime and browsing in the related forums is "it's just anime", which may seem like a lazy explanation but it just means that details like land of Shibuten or the fact that Kumatetsu has to teach an apprentice so he can become a master of some sort himself doesn't seem very strange to you.
So... what do we get from this movie? What do we learn from this coming of age anime? I am not sure, i am way to young to be a father in my opinion so this movie doesn't have much to teach me, and no i don't have the patience to see if it will.
WAIT!!!
Patience! Maybe this is what it tries to tell me, i should have patience if i ever want to learn anything, also i should be open to learn from other people as well.
Appreciation? I should i appreciate the people that are close to me
no... hmmm... Maybe i should just call my parents, it's been a while (although i should probably leave the part about the movie out since you know, i should be studying).
Whatever it tried to tell i have a great time watching it, i fell in love with every character so the actions scenes actually matter to me, it has plenty of humor and honestly i had no idea where most of the movie was headed.
Music: meh it has ok, the movie had the appropriate music for every scene but it is nothing like the girl who leap through time, meaning i would not go out of my way to try to look for any of the songs in the ost.
Art: i loved it, it has a similar feeling of his other movies but i wish i could have seen this othe world more, oh well not everyone has the money of zootopia i guess.
What i noticed from this movie now that i am more familiar with Mamoru Hosoda's work is things like the lateral tracking shot when he was helping Kaede, the fact that the camera stays at one scene longer than usual to make us more in touch with the characters and something that i personally love in TWLTT, the fact that a lot of the scenes made a circle.
A lot of the scenes in the begging actually are reused as callback, other scenes are challenged like some characters who you think are bad or calm surprise you later, nothing is pointless, from simple things like Kyuuta name or bracelet to Kyuuta screaming to Kumatetsu to keep fighting.
As a fun of haruhi and not so much of psycho-pass, i like it when movies are philosophical without trying, just light hearted stories that challenged the big question with scenes that make us relate to every day lives, not with words that makes them look like thy are reading from a dictionary.
Closing this long review that no one ask for i would say this, thank you for this movie and thank you for this ending scene of him reading that SCREAM to me that it's time for me to do the same... because i have exams coming (see what i did there!!! it's a circle! because i mention this in the beginning... and Mamoru Hosoda does it in... ow never mind).
