The good: Long story short, Makoto Shinkai deserves a lot of praise. For me personally, the best part of this movie was the moments in which he depicted what it feels like to be in Tokyo for the first time as a young person. There are other movies that show Tokyo's dark side, but the enthralling joy he portrayed in this movie is also a very real feeling. The way the four Radwimps songs, including the ending credit song, were incorporated was also masterpiece level. It felt like AMVs on steroids and did not take away from the flow of the movie in my opinion. It was a choice the director made and I loved it.
The not as good: Just writing "the plot" seems like a cop-out but I don't want to write spoilers. I had a hard time finding an important message the director and creators wanted to convey. For me, themes are very important in a movie. I like having a theme that teaches me something about the world or new perspective. I had a harder time finding this on my own. I'll be scouring the internet to see what others noticed and I didn't. Also I enjoyed the first half of the movie more than the second half of the movie. However, the second half is still interesting and does provide a few "that's cool" moments.
A thought: I'm thinking that an important theme for this movie has something to do with the word 産霊（むすび). The grandmother said this word and usually grandmothers are good mouthpieces for authors who want to convey some sort of wisdom. My Japanese level is nowhere near the ability to understand this spiritual Japanese word about life, god(gods? God?), and threads.
