User Reviews

Absolutely amazing movie, it has been ages since I’ve cried watching a movie. The characters are likable and this is just an amazing story about real love

I had high hopes for this animated feature, however I was turned off by three significant issues: 1) The sound mixing is poor and it's hard to hear what characters are saying because so many are speaking all at once and are also overlapping with environment sounds. Subtitles are no help due to many instances of simultaneous text and multiple conversations. 2) The pacing is poor and scenes don't take time to develop so much as whip through to the next jump cut. They really could have cut scenes to take more time with what mattered the most. 3) The character designs (faces especially) are ugly and unappealing. The advantage of animation is that characters can be rendered with idyllic beauty, however the filmmakers made the choice to create a romance in which the audience would never fantasize about being with these characters. This seems like a huge misstep for this genre.

This is just hands down one of the best looking movies in recent memory. It’s a really unique style of animation, done at an expert level. It’s innovative and inventive, while remaining grounded. These characters feel like real people living out a remarkable story of loneliness and love. It’s wonderfully voice acted, beautifully rendered, and (although it can be a touch melodramatic) powerfully moving. Soundtrack is gas too.

Its strong point is that it tries to be original, without imitating the style of Japanese anime. That would be worthy were it not for the fact that the romantic drama looks generic and the connection between characters and viewer is weak, lacking empathy. Better luck next time.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]