Have you ever felt a melancholy of sorts? The music is gone, the games have been forgotten, and you are all alone remembering...
I think this movie is like standing up to the breeze on a summer evening: it's a slow-paced trip full of nostalgia about something that's gone, and an ode to those things that can't be anymore.
I Want to Return to That Day is a movie that knows it can't be whimsical any longer. The indecisive nature of Kimagure Orange Road, which once gave us laughs, fun, and good times, evolves into a determined dramatic journey that is focused on giving our favorite characters, an impending conclusion.
Hikaru is in her best moments throughout the film, because she's not playing the annoying character that gets on Kyosuke's way to being with Madoka, but rather a human being that's hurt, that wants to get what she wants but is unable to because the love of her life is simply not interested in her, and on top of it all, she knows, she's always known.
Kyosuke and Madoka have been outgrowing Hikaru throughout the series, the more they realized they loved each other, but this could only mean that the ending is hopeful right? That since our favorite characters have accepted each other, they will live happily ever after... Right?
Well, this movie opts for a more realistic approach to the characters and becomes as tough and as depressing as real-life can be. If anything, it truly depicts what losing something for another really means. It is still losing. And even though we would like Kyosuke and Madoka to enjoy their choice, we can't forget they're losing Hikaru on the way, Madoka's childhood friend, Kyosuke's source of those sweet memories in the previous year of his life (for as cliché as that sounds)
I Want to Return to That Day openly wants to go back to those times where it was all blissful happiness, even if it wasn't gonna last forever, however, it knows the impossibility of doing that since the damage is still going to be done at some point, and as I said earlier, it is very determined to tell you that this tragedy like drama could not have been avoided. Once Kyosuke makes his choice, someone will suffer for that choice.
The greatest thing the movie made was not to involve any of Kyosuke's powers, because as we learned in the show and the OVA, they ain't gonna help him when it comes to his decision of staying with either Hikaru or Madoka. Yes, the powers may help him in life-threatening situations, or in simple things such as getting to school on time, but when it comes to deciding who is your partner for life, yeah, there's not much telekinesis or mind control or even teleporting can do.
It feels like it matured at some point in its development, knowing where it came from, and knowing where it would go. Nevertheless, it acknowledges that all the comedy it once used was strongly tethered to Kyosuke's nature of being unable to pick either Madoka or Hikaru, and now that we know he has resolved who he will choose, there isn't any space left for the light-hearted side the show used to have.
The Orange Road will be whimsical no more, and even though it's for the better, the execution masterfully focuses on the sorrow of the now, which is why it felt real to me, real enough to love.
