What's also explained early in the film--the very first scene, in fact--is that the main character's love interest is going to die. I've seen a number of other films and TV series on the topic of terminal illness, but none were as blunt and up-front about revealing that ticking time bomb as was this film.
You get the sense that by dropping that bomb right away, the writer is saying "Okay, now that we have that out of the way..." It's actually a way of *disarming* the bomb. You don't have to wonder if there's some way out of it the whole movie. There will be no surprising against-the-odds remission. There will be no experimental miracle treatment. She's going to die. You know that, because the very first scene, before you even meet her, depicts her funeral.
That frees up the script to use the fact of her impending death to explore the themes it's interested in, rather than mining it for tension and drama. In fact, there is surprisingly little drama at all about the terminal illness; much more drama emerges from internal character struggles and external relationship problems than ever comes from dealing with death.
And that's the secret of Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai. This isn't a movie about terminal illness. It isn't even a movie about death, or mortality, really. Terminal illness is used shamelessly as a plot device to get the story where the writer wants it to go.
So what's it about, really? Well, that's still a little obvious and clichéd, because of course, it's about what it means to be alive, and of course the inevitable answer is *other people*. But the way the details are handled makes it work. I felt that each scene was handled with a better-than-average degree of subtlety, and that the characters were just believable and interesting and sympathetic enough to carry the story. Are there elements of the Mary Sue here, of writer insertion? Is it a little predictable, with some common overall character tropes and plot elements? Well, sure.
But execution matters. What you have here is just a really well-handled exploration of some fairly obvious themes and character archetypes, which gets all the details and character interactions pitch-perfect, to where you can't resist enjoying it even as you know that it's a bit obvious and unoriginal. And I'm fine with that.
I will also say that you shouldn't expect a high-end presentation coming into this film. The animation is pretty good, but no better than your typical upper-tier slice of life series. There are montages of still frames. There are no Shinkai-esque scenes of stunning beauty, though there are many attractive frames to enjoy. The music and voice acting are fine--good, even--but not incredible.
But if this review makes the movie sound milquetoast, trust me, that's not the feeling I had after watching it. Let's try this: I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is much, much better than the sum of its cannibalized parts. If you know you like this type of story, watch it without delay.
