Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine's movie more or less starts us straight after the events of the second season of the anime series with Tomoya's circle continuing with making their game for Winter Comiket whilst Eriri and Utaha has started working on Field Chronicles in a different company. So right off the bat LA will say that the movie has all the trademarks of Saenai Heroine's "meta" storytelling in mirroring the events of Tomoya's writers block in writing the "main heroine's plot' to the romance route to Megumi from everything from the trials and tribulations Tomoya and Megumi encounters.
Character-wise, the movie not only fleshed out the majority of the characters from the second season but made them way more likable characters namely Akane Kousaka, the person whole "stole" Eriri and Utaha off Tomoya's circle, though Akane is the biggest example due to her weight in the plot and how she factors into almost everyone involved. Though the second season saw her as the insanely strict busybody, we still see that here but in a bigger perspective whilst also being something of a mentor to Tomoya with his scripts. we do see latter that Akane means well to Tomoya let alone some her setting in motion events that happened in previous seasons at that. To that end, Eriri and Utaha gets their just dues with this movie, due to the massive *ahem* "debate" that occurred during the second season that Akane's proposal to them and everything, the movie rectified it all in more ways than one and more or less "cleansing" that "*ahem* ♭ taste off.
Ok before LA talks about Tomoya and Megumi's relationship, LA does wanna talk about LA own internal waifu wars with this series, as LA was an avid Utaha fan and Utaha got LA into the series, Utaha being the seductress and senpai type only elevated her to best girl and it did kinda broke LA heart when she started working for Akane and betraying Tomoya...though uhhh the kiss at the end of the second season made up for it, but nonetheless her actions were kinda justified and made it solidified here. So with that Utaha history out of the way, this movie IS Megumi's route and because of that, LA wasn't exactly the best fan of Megumi as Utaha already had the position of best girl and with her maturing in this movie to being the one into being the voice of reason for Eriri and like Utaha says at the start of this movie that their now bit players to the real plot, LA could still get behind this. Utaha is best girl still in LA's eyes but this is Megumi's route and how it worked out, LA still absolutely agrees with the outcome the movie went with.
Now as for Eriri, well she got the development she needed to finally move past being "the childhood friend" as character development which worked out for her which was great and finally Michiru was probably being the support to both Tomoya and Megumi in many ways through this movie, she didn't do much, much like in the anime series besides her own "arc" but with how things were going between Tomoya and Megumi that was kinda expected.
Now one more thing before LA actually goes into Tomoya and Megumi's relationship and that would be that Izumi and Iori Hashima as character probably got the least development from the movie as a whole due the massive amount of focus towards Tomoya, Megumi, Eriri and Utaha's resolutions thus much like Michiru, they became supports with little fleshing out of character development and the such, kinda to the point MICHIRU got more development with what little even she gotten.
Ok, so onto Tomoya and Megumi's relationship and it quite the unique one, one in which probably got alot of people into the serie sin the first place and really it's unique in that yes, the script of the game Tomoya is making mirrors that of their own relationship but we more or less got to see Megumi's true personality coming into focus with this movie, something that was shown a little bit during the second season but the movie really did flesh out Megumi as a character as the not so "pure maiden with a sense of wit" character but as something else that made her alot more human in that ways, especially when the trials and tribulations of the Akane incident within the movie starts up and we get to see Megumi opening up to her true feelings as subtle or not she portrays it. It made her likable oddly enough as being more human, yes Utaha is still best girl for LA but this was kinda the development LA wanted from Megumi but LA guess the anime series left the best til last with this movie to show it off. Tomoya as a character more or less is his usual self though he to opens himself up to Megumi even at the risk of his love life with her during the more dramatic moments of the movie at that. It's an interesting and rather unique relationship to say the least as in anime terms Tomoya would've routed Eriri instead but this isn't just any romance anime as the title of the anime series shows.
The animation done by CloverWorks were stellar as they took the stead from A1-Pictures to have the same animation flair as the anime series with ALOT more polish towards every other element. Though the movie is a rather talkative movie, the animation work CloverWorks did to the movie was stellar without a shadow of a doubt.
The voice work was also great with all the returning cast members form the anime. LA will give HUGE props to Kiyono Yasuno as Megumi with her stoic monotoned, tsundere cadence giving off ALOT of subtle hinting to Megumi as a character, along with Ai Kayano as Utaha cos of course and finally Saori Oonishi as Eriri making this voice cat extremely well, expected when the voice cast mingled with one another for two seasons of the anime itself. Nonetheless MVP easily, EASILY goes to Kiyono Yasuno with the movie.
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine's movie is the finality, the conclusion to the Saenai Heroine anime series and it left in great strides, now is it a masterpiece?, well for LA yes, for romance animes?..well sure it did ALOT of plot curveballs to be "original", which to some elements it did and executed decent to fairly well in LA's eyes. But for all the flaws and "debates" it caused during it's anime series, the movie concluded and wrapped everything quite nicely at that. LA did love the metaness of it all, which is a staple of Saenai Heroine's humor, considering the premise of the anime series itself and everything let alone the movie itself being tongue in cheek sometimes especially towards the end. But LA loved this movie, as it gave new insights to the majority of the characters from the anime series, made HUGE romance strides for the main cast and gave the proper resolutions for the cast needed to make this series go off in the way it did to make LA satisfied through and through.
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Flat left itself in a bitter flat note in it's ending but Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine...left off in a fine yet happy resolving note.
Didn't know Utaha played Fate Grand Order though............huh Utaha still is best girl~!
But Megumi won...
