However that is the only praise for it's story writing that I can give. The pacing is a mess. It poorly built up the romance and that greatly impacts the entire second half of the movie. A decent chunk of the scenes only exist just to showcase how good at animation the studio is, which is unnecessary wasted time in a film where every second counts.
The second half is the meat of the story, however there it seems to have conflicting messages. It seemed like they couldn't decide whether the delusions were a positive thing or unhealthy. For a movie that's whole message is about moving on, the climax wholeheartedly acts as if her delusions worked. It's a smack in the face of the message and frankly ruins what should've been a decent film. How does justifying her deluded reality give any closure? And how exactly does him having a non-subtle effect on the world add to the clear message? The is easily one of Masaaki Yasua's weakest works. I enjoyed it, however I can't say that it's a good film with the major blunder that is the climax.
I recommend seeing his previous works if you liked this one. They do a better job exploring their themes.
