I am a huge fan of this manga and the mangaka (Nakamura Asumiko) so when I heard this was gonna be an anime movie, me and my friend started screaming at like 3am in the morning coz we never thought the day was gonna come! Okay heres the review:
Story: 8
Basically, the story is as simple as romance can get but that is a part of it that I enjoyed. There was never anything complex happening or no extremely out of the blue plot twists. It was just the two meet and we see them fall in love and see the romance blossom at a slow and (what I think, I haven't had my first love yet) realistic pace. However the movie cut out an important chapter from the manga which further develops the characters of Hara-sen and Sajou so i think it's a real shame that we didn't get to see that. Also this isn't a yaoi, its a shounen-ai, so if your here for the intense stuff you won't find it here.
Art: 10
One of the reasons why I read Nakamura Atsumiko's works is because of the unique art style. The movie was able to make this art style work with the animation and the colouring was also really amazing, using mostly soft yet bright colours that looked like watercolours (I dont really like the cell shading colouring style, it makes hair look oily and overly glossy haha). The animation was also amazing and didn't look awkward. I didn't think they would be able to pull it off with Asumiko's style but they did it perfectly.
Sound: 9
When I was watching the PV for the first time, my three main thoughts were:
"KAMIYA HIROSHIIIII"
"Whoa this guitar is really nice! Where can I download this?"
"Is that Oozaki Yuuki singing? *proceeds to google*
So to sum up my feelings I'll tell you guys this; I've bought the full official soundtrack and the drama CD's without any regrets and the main theme is downloaded onto my iPhone and i listen to it 24/7. The music worked perfectly with the scene where it was playing and all the music was calm and most songs had the acoustic guitar playing slowly and beautifully in the background. There were times where the movie had no music and only the characters voices which was no problem for me coz the voice acting was perfect and captured the charactors perfectly (Sajou's voice was real cute *bows down to Nojima Kenji*).
Characters: 10
There two main charactors are just (somewhat) normal high school students. Theirs the smart one in class who is a bit of an introvert and the popular guy who has a bunch of friends and is popular with the girls (not that there are any girls in their school). The dialogue helped show this, as the character's emotions where clearly shown by their lines, voice and facial expression. Their designs are also well adapted from the original, keeping the style of the manga but changing minor details to keep them looking more "up to date" with modern anime. It's really easy to get attached to them!
Enjoyment: 10
I will admit that I enjoyed this a bit TOO much. I first watched his with my mum and the next day i rewatched it. The day after that there was a carnival at school so I brought my laptop and rewatched it TWICE!! I'm trying very hard to not rewatch it again until at least a month but we'll see! (maybe I just have no life...)
Overall: 10
Wow this was long... longer than anything I've ever submitted to school TBH... But yea I think you should watch the entire movie, even if you don't like BL. It's a pretty short movie so it's not like it's a waste of time or anything. If anything, it was too short. I want to see more of these characters with animation and voices. I mean, the manga is good but I prefer to watch anime a bit more haha Also i bought the Japanese limited edition blu-ray and i regret nothing. Sorry for this long review hehe// sweats
PS: I wanna glomp Sajou
