I saw the information about this movie in the social media of one Indonesian cinema chain. Apparently it only played in that particular cinemas and it proved to be a challenge to see it as the options were limited. I was intrigued to watch it especially since it seemed to be having positive views and it had been a while since last time I saw an anime in theater. Anyway once we got the chance on Sunday, I managed to convince my wife to accompany me seeing it together as I thought it would be something she like. Well let us get on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Movie was narrated through the eyes of a high school boy who referred himself as Boku (voiced by Mahiro Takasugi). Through some coincidence, Boku found out that his classmate named Sakura (voiced by Lynn) was having a pancreatic cancer. Sakura did not want to reveal this fact to her childhood best friend Kyoko (Yukiyo Fujii). Sakura somehow felt that she could be open up to Boku and immediately decided she wanted to spend the rest of her days with Boku.
Thus started an unexpected friendship between the very cheerful Sakura with the introvert and anti-social Boku which really made their classmates felt very weird. Kyoko was the one who could not accept this fact and she disapproved of their friendship. However, Sakura still persisted on maintaining this unique relationship. Both young teenagers would experience a lot together and their lives would be forever changed.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this tearfully sad romantic teenagers drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Even from the synopsis of this movie and some comments saying there would be no dry eye leaving the theater, I already could foresee this would be a sad movie. So both my wife and I were already preparing ourselves for such story. And this movie was indeed a sad one with some quite emotional scenes especially towards the end. However, the ending was quite unexpected and there was a part which bothered me and my wife. We felt that some particular scenes did not have the impact we would have wanted. Somehow those scenes instead of making us feeling sadder, it made us felt a bit weird (my wife said too much fantasy) and the emotional feeling somehow vanished but not in a good way. But then again, that's just my personal opinion and feeling.
The movie itself started quite good, with the meeting and the interaction between these two quite nice to see, though I felt it was a rather slow burner. Not after they went for the trip that their relationship become to a really beautiful one. I thought those were really the positive highlight of the movie. Aside from those there was also one beautiful romantic scene towards the end which I know affected my wife as it was also sad at the same time. There were very few humorous scene and I thought the film felt a bit serious but not too heavy that would make it not enjoyable.
The animation for this anime movie was beautiful. The characterization were nicely done. There were not too much scenes where the expressions of the characters were made to the extreme like we would usually see in an anime/manga. Btw, this story was adapted from a novel titled Let Me Eat Your Pancreas (Kimi no Suizō o Tabetai) written by Yuro Sumino. And it has also been adapted to a live action movie titled the same as the novel. The cast voicing the main characters were also very good. Even if we could not understand Japanese, we could really picture these 2 characters in real life. This also were made possible through the wonderful animation.
This movie was categorized for 13+ in Indonesia and I thought it was quite spot on as there was scene which I thought not suitable for kids, and the plot was too heavy for them anyway. The music were beautiful and there were instrumental music which I felt was really beautiful and added the emotional feel in some of the scenes. We also got an ending Japanese song which had got perfect lyrics for the movie, titled Shunkashūtō (translated to The Four Seasons) sung by the band Sumika. Oh before you leave theater, you might want to wait for the post end credit scene which gave a sense of closure for audience.
Overall, this was a beautiful movie about friendship with some wonderful animation and got some emotional moments but with an ending which did not provide us the maximum heartbreaking feeling we kind of expected. Although one can also see this as a positive thing because we could focus on the heavy moral message that the writer/movie maker wanted to emphasize on. This was a movie that I think would be more enjoyable to be seen together with friends or couple/spouse rather than by yourself. Those looking for a touching anime movie about two teenagers' beautiful relationship, could certainly give this one a try and should be able to enjoy this But if you are looking for a light anime movie, this might not really suit your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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