Reviews

I watched and enjoyed the television series before watching the movie, which may or may not be rare. When I walked into the theatre, I was actually the only person there AND I was 5 or 6 minutes late, both of which are a real shame, until a small group of people walked in at least 25 minutes late. Anyway, the first half of the film was amazing, leaps and bounds over the television series which, in my opinion, was already good. I did enjoy how far the film went into Okko's depression and even serious PTSD over her parents' death, which the series kind of brushes over. Okko even has dreams/visions of her parents still being alive and with her, when we never got to see them in the TV show, as far as I remember. I LOVED the focus on Glory and how she was such a good adult gal pal to Okko, and she makes a terrific older sister character. I also loved that there was no shoehorned romantic subplot, all the ghost hijinks, and the voice acting/dialogue for the English dub was very well done (Matsuki's famous quotes were neat, the jokes and jabs were good, and Suzuki's voice was amazingly funny). Over all, I thought everything was very well executed. The thing that ultimately kept me from enjoying this movie more was a certain twist that happens with Uribou and Mio. They don't get much focus in the second half despite starting off as great supporting characters and friends for Okko, and there's really no time for any of the three supernatural characters to get full character arcs. I love them already from watching the TV series and I love all the screentime they did get, but I don't know if a movie-only viewer would get as much from them. And the climax was something predictable that often happens to ghosts in movies, which I was really, really grateful never happened in the TV series and really hope it never does in that canon, but it did here, so the ending was a real bummer for me. I would like to watch it again...if my emotions ever recover, which seems unlikely.

TLDR If you liked the movie, you should definitely give the show a try. It's not as flashy, but it's happier and should cheer you up if you were depressed by the movie's ending. Also more Matsuki.