Firstly the animation is lovely. I'm a sucker for 90s animation so maybe I am a little biased here, but nevertheless, it's stunning. The characters all look great and you can tell significant attention was paid to all of them. In scenes with many characters, even thr characters in the background have been realistically animation, not just the ones in the forefront. No more is this on display that the opening scene. The characters look fluid and, as much as animation can be, look realistic. This is something I feel is missing from modern animation. In the 90s, there was a realism to the characters, nowadays, the animation is incredible yes, but the realism element is sacrificed. Here, the realism is on full display.
The music here is properly cinematic. Its not outstanding so still does a solid job. The particular high point for me, which is most certainly not normally the case, is the closing credits. What plays after the rather sad ending is absolutely perfect for summing up the emotions on display. Throughout the film, the music does what it needs to do. It is a proper film score, rather than a selection of songs, and it give great service to the story being told and the atmosphere the film carries.
The story is great. Makes a refreshing change for me to watch something that could happen in real life. Recently I have been watching a lot of sci-fi stuff so a touch of realism helped here. However, I can't use this biased to up my rating. Setting aside this, there is a riveting story here. It has it moments of losing momentum towards to middle but still grabs yours attention for the moments that count. I often find love depicted in a little bit of a cliché way in anime, but it's delivered in a sort of believable way here, though still not realistic. Despite this, the culmination of this story, is satisfactory due to the love formed between two characters thus showing I could feel it meant something.
This is definitely a story worth investing time in. It has it's ups and downs but does a great job at keeping your attention just enough, and delivers a satisfying conclusion, that you won't feel like you wasted your time at all.
