The film starts off practically right after the anime series ended, but instead of focusing on Mafuyu and Ritsuka, it focuses on Akihiko, Ugetsu, and Haruki, much like how the manga is structured. What stuck out to me first thing was how great it was to see how Mafuyu has changed after experiencing that catharsis post-Fuyu no Hanashi/episode 9. He's way, way more expressive not just verbally but overall, which Ritsuka helpfully points out in the film (side-note: best boyfriend? Best boyfriend. Mafuyu is LUCKY.) as he tries to cheer Mafuyu up. Seeing the progression of Mafuyu's and Ritsuka's relationship, albeit in a minor way, was nice, too.
I feel like I can relate a lot more to the main characters of the film- not to put down Ritsuka or Mafuyu by any means, but they're high schoolers with high schooler issues, feelings and levels of maturity- and I'm a lot older than that. So, having characters like Akihiko, Ugetsu, and Haruki in the spotlight is kind of refreshing considering the problems they're facing are more relatable to myself. They're all well-written characters, even those that ended up in the background this time around, but it was just really nice to see the complexity of especially Ugetsu and Akihiko, not to mention their relationship. The build-up to the mature scene of the film is incredibly solid and though it happens fairly early on in the film, it certainly didn't feel that way (mostly because there are eleven anime episodes preceding the film, of course). The conflicts feel realistic and Akihiko's 'redemption arc' is a tough read and watch, but it's all so, so, worth it in the end.
Overall, the only real issue I had was that it was too short of a film and that it felt rushed sometimes. That's only to be expected, though, considering everything they crammed into less than 60 minutes, and when seeing it that way, it's also impressive that it for the most part DIDN'T feel rushed with everything that was covered. They stayed very true to the source material of the manga, and since I absolutely adore the manga, both the anime and the film are great as a result.
