I don’t think the movie quite lived up to the hype. I didn’t dislike the movie, it just didn’t stand out to me.
I didn’t connect to the characters. The movie attempted to portray a realistic love--a love which fades with time and distance. I appreciate this, and realism can be great in anime, but it doesn’t matter if I am not made to care for the characters.
I do not think the movie gave the characters enough time to shine. The movie gives snippets of the characters lives by way of three different “acts”. In each act, the characters are significantly changed. What I think I missed out on was the *process* of the characters’ growth and development. I didn’t spend enough time with any character at any point in their lives to get to know and understand them. I didn’t feel I had enough time to connect.
On a more positive note, the art and animation were fantastic. The scenery was beautiful, the characters were well drawn and moved fluidly, and the art direction was top notch.
In general, the music was also superb; the one exception to this being the last song. The lyrics were very fitting for the story, but I didn’t like the singer’s voice. He was just enough off key to annoy me.
I think that the strength of a story is dependent on the quality of its characters, plot, and presentation, and to me, none of those was good enough to make this movie great. I didn’t think it was a bad movie, and indeed watching it was a fine way to spend an hour, but I’ve certainly seen much better. It was merely OK.
