I really enjoyed the art style. I have seen some condemn it as being lazy, but I think everything is presented intentionally. Detail is presented only where the director wants our focus. Further, the style lends itself to lively and emotional animation that is emotive not in the way a lot of anime is, but in a distinct and very human way. Strict, on model animation would not have served the story as well.
Speaking of story, what is Doukyusei even about? Well, it is an hour long high-school romance. It is fairly archetypical in that one of the pair is gloomy, bookish, and a bit plain while the other one is boisterous, lively, and a smidge ditsy. I suppose I should mention that the relationship explored is expressly between 2 male characters. Though the general stigma of such a relationship (much stronger in Japan than in the US) is touched upon here and there, it isn't the focal point.
The film is broken roughly equally into 4 parts: Summer, Autumn, A Complex Fool and a Simplex Fool, and Second Summer.
Parts 1 and 2 do their job, naturally, as I am very invested in the characters by parts 3 and 4. However, I found them to be comparatively much weaker--especially part 2.
Part 1 is a bit dramatic, but it is dramatic in a way that I quite like and really focuses on budding feelings and intertwined and dual-fold motivations for the characters spending time together. It serves as a great introduction to the personalities of the characters and sets up the rest of the movie well.
Part 2 is steeped in melodrama, which sometimes serves the story and its characters well but, in my opinion, largely doesn't. It especially relies a bit on some of the trappings and tropes that make Shonen-ai a bit...assault-y and weird. But it only dips its toes into the ocean of the problematic facets encountered in others of its ilk, so, while I do think it is the weakest portion, it isn't really offensive and if nothing else allows us to track the evolution of the couples' romantic progression.
Parts 3 and 4 I liked quite a bit more, with part 3 being my favorite.
Without spoiling too much of the specifics, part 3 captured and expressed myriad facets of young and early love in a way I adore.
Particularly, I enjoyed and laud the show's expression of the experience of seeing someone you admire and love in their zone, engulfed in their element, and how captivating and entrancing that experience is.
Similarly, I also think it captures the at-odds, contradictory feeling of wanting to put distance between yourself and anything that makes you feel strongly, out of a sort of primal self-preservation--the solution to which, somewhat ironically, is surrendering to the primal bits of you drawn towards it instead.
Furthermore, the third part also captures the doubt admiration of another can instill in oneself, especially in the context of a romantic relationship. It isn't healthy to maintain a SO on a pedestal, but it does and should happen in moments. In those moments, it can shake your confidence in a 'why would someone so good want someone like me?' sort of way.
Lastly, one of my favorite bits of part 3 was how they depicted the 'brain-fry' or sensation overload of the character in their skinmanship that is, ultimately, comparatively inert. That is, it doesn't take extreme passionate acts to bring the characters to the precipice both emotionally and physically in a way that captures the early stages of such affection really well.
Part 4, while not as good as part 3, does raise the main conflict of the story and resolves it. I suppose part 3 also had such a conflict and resolution, but it is raised and resolved so quickly that it really feels like part 4 was meant to be the main act, especially given it is a bit longer.
It does a pretty good job, if a bit overboard and exaggerated, about the conflict that arises when the future is uncertain and when the goals of you and someone you've become romantically involved with split or vaguely differ, which is a common end-of-youth occurrence as folk go off to college or work.
More than that, though, I think the biggest strength of part 4 is that it depicts the moment where internal, emotional turmoil manifests physically quite well. It isn't over-dramatic, but it captures the sensation from someone experiencing it quite believably and artfully.
It also goes a bit into how people understand and contextualize their relationships and the struggles therein in very different ways (ranging from abstract, to strictly sentimental, to concrete), but it is left a bit too underdeveloped to be considered a main aspect of the movie or part.
Lastly, I think it hints at the idea that relationships are, at times, asymmetric and rely on the bit of push and pull over time to balance if feelings are to prevail. Again, a bit underexplored to be called a main theme, but it got me thinking about it at least.
This review has been pretty vague, and that is because the story is already a bit predictable and by-the-books. I don't wish to spoil the experience of anyone going into it. And it is this relative shallowness of themes and story that prevent me from rating the movie higher, despite my in-moment enjoyment of its characters, art, and the ways it invokes and captures the emotions it aims to.
Overall, I give it an 8.25/10.
