I somehow timed this to the exact day it came out 6 years ago, I’m good at that for some reason lol. But, I hate to say it, the movie was not as good as the TV show. I did really enjoy it, it’s around an 8/10 for me, it had a lot of great moments and some really good drama, but there were just a few too many things that kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
The biggest one for me is that the time travel is very loose and not well explained, I get it involves dreams and whatnot but it just felt weird for Sakuta to be able to go back to the past just by going to sleep, he didn’t have to do anything special, just kick ‘er back and head on to dreamland lol, it just felt too convenient for my liking. Another thing I wasn’t a big fan of is the ending, like I’m glad it’s happy and all, I didn’t want Shoko to die, but the fact she simply redid everything and is suddenly okay now just felt, once again, too convenient. Thankfully I have MAL to inform me on how she’s even okay at all, and it’s apparently because that movie Mai was in spread awareness and got Shoko a heart from someone else, and that’s great and all, but what that doesn’t explain is how everything played out in a way for Sakuta to end up at the same school and meet all the same people again. Wasn’t Shoko’s future version supposed to be a key element of Sakuta getting over what happened with Kaede, and why he even went to that school? There could be something I’m not getting but it’s another one of those things that could have been better explained.
All the negative out of the way tho, this was still a very good film, I like that it answered some big questions that were left from the TV show, being what the hell is going on with Shoko and what is up with Sakuta’s scar on his chest, I’m very satisfied on these fronts. It also featured some nice callbacks, like the way Sakuta was even able to be confirmed as existing when he went back in time was from the ass kicking he and Tomoe did, I guess you can’t say Tomoe became irrelevant after her arc now lol, and I also liked that it came full circle with Sakuta being in a goofy rabbit costume while no one could see him, very much like Mai in her bunny girl outfit at the start of the series. I also want to mention the drama with Mai getting killed was well done, I knew there had to be more twists once everything with Shoko was out in the open but nothing can prepare you for the cute flagship waifu actually dying, of course I figured she would come back somehow but it’s still a very rough sight to see. And lastly, I really liked Shoko in this movie, she had some great moments with Sakuta with both the fun sized and adult versions of her, and her casually dropping that she just grows up sometimes felt like such a disappointment of an answer for what she is, but the later reveal that she’s from the future was a very cool twist, and hey even if I think the ending wasn’t as good as it could have been, I’m very glad she lived and that there was a future where she can carry on, hopefully this isn’t the last we see of her after all that was done to keep her around.
And with that, I have finally seen the first Seishun Buta/Rascal movie, honestly the fact it came out in 2019 means it wasn’t that far from when I originally watched it, I really shoulda checked it out sooner lol, but the important thing is I watched it now. It feels a bit surreal to have at long last witnessed what lies beyond the TV show but it is a good feeling at the same time. The train doesn’t stop tho, I got two more movies to go and I’ll be ready for the new season, I’m excited to see what else was cooked up from here. |