[Story]
The story was simple and cute with an interesting dynamic. I learnt a bit more about news reporters and stop motion and it was an easy watch.
[Art]
I liked the way the art was. Also simple but cute. No yaoi hands or chins and pretty eyes.
[Sound]
Meh, could've been better but it's just a romance anime so it's fine.
[Character]
While the MC and main love interest didn't seem to have any friends lol, their personalities were both sweet in their own ways. I would've loved a deeper delve into it but that might not have suited the vibe of the movie so idm not knowing more :)
[Enjoyment]
I found myself laughing at the tropes that I saw. I guess as someone who has seen/read a fair amount of bl I'm used to them and worse so this just kind of felt innocently thoughtless. The only potentially 'damaging' aspect of this movie was the semi-last scene where they (spoilers) had sex.
Now I personally find it very very annoying when writers needlessly do this. I would have much preferred if they both consented and instead of showing him literally saying 'no', show him saying 'yes' if you know what I mean. Playing devil's advacate, I could say that it's in Kei's character to be a little tsundere and not be honest with what he wants when it comes to romance at least and that's why they still had sex, but I could ALSO say that Tsuzuki seems to be the type of guy who would listen when someone says no with how caring he was shown to be.
This is a problem with bl, but also romance fiction in general. I love it when the more submissive person in the relationship is still a person and consents and enjoys it. Roleplay is different (the rape fantasy) compared to when characters are explicitly rejecting the proposal but it happens anyway. I don't care about this shit in hentai but writers...when we've read/watched about their damn relationship and root for them, don't expect it not to annoy us when you make poor writing decisions.
...that said, I don't think it took much away from the story. Yes it's a, frankly, toxic trope that we would do 10298% better without but what if Kei actually wanted it? What if they had a good time and later discussed consenting better? I, personally, can sort of move on from it and ignore it in a sense as another bad (bad bad) trope and still see the movie as a good watch. I do respect you if you can't though.
[Overall]
I'd recommend watching it. It is not as bad as these reviews are making it out to be, I've seen much much worse which isn't to say it's flawless, but come on...
If you like bl, try it out.
