Oh wow, what a terrible movie this was. I watched this in the cinema with 5 other people and we all hated it.
My main issue is that the characters are unlikable and the story feels completely inconsequential and pointless. From the trailer I was expecting something more akin to AnoHana (e.g. Nazuna dies and he tries to save her by changing the past) or maybe even a bit of Steins;Gate with the reality marble thing, but instead it used for the most mundane, unimportant and inconsequential changes. I kept thinking "there must be more to it than this", but no, the guy basically just wants to go out with the girl and keeps jumping back in time/rewriting reality when things don't go his way. Not exactly high-stakes.
Then there's the fact that the Nazuna just comes across as a brat, rather than the mysterious girl I think they were going for. Again, I kept thinking that there must be more behind her trying to run away from home, but no, she's just being an immature brat. The main guy's friend was awful too, acting like a jealous jerk when he didn't get to go with her to the fireworks (even though you've already seen that given the opportunity, he chickens out anyway!) and all the other characters barely had any personality or involvement in the story.
And good lord, I got so sick of the stupid "are fireworks flat or round" conversations. I guess that was supposed to be profound/the motif of the film, but it was just stupid.
The animation was pretty poor too. There were a few well-animated segments but in general it just looked like a TV anime - and the CG, oh god the CG. It was absolutely terrible and cringeworthy whenever they used it, e.g. when they were riding bikes around looking like stiff, low-polygon aliens. How anyone can look at that and think it's okay is beyond me. It doesn't surprise me when I see that kind of thing in TV anime but for a movie you'd expect them to try a bit harder. I don't expect every anime movie to match that level of visual quality, but good god did this look cheap.
This is easily the worst thing I've seen by SHAFT and it's even more disappointing as a big fan of the studio myself. I've never seen them as a "big budget" studio but they're normally pretty good at still making their works look good even on a small budget (fans will be familiar with their unusual visual quirks - there were very few in this either), hell at the time of this comment "March Comes in Like a Lion" (also by SHAFT) is airing and it looks gorgeous by comparison and probably cost a lot less to produce too.
It feels like this was SHAFT attempting to create an answer to the likes of Your Name/A Silent voice etc and falling incredibly short.
Another weird and wonderful entry from Masaaki Yuasa. This shares characters and a visual style with the series "The Tatami Galaxy" (https://trakt.tv/shows/the-tatami-galaxy) so if you're a fan of that series you will definitely enjoy, and know what to expect with this one - although the film works just fine as a stand-alone piece if you haven't seen it (although you really shoud!).
Whilst I still think I prefer Tatami Galaxy more this is still a very fun and enjoyable romp, following the unnamed girl with the black hair through the crazy nightlife of Kyoto. Lots of drinking, trippy visuals and hilarious moments as we go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
Interestingly unlike Tatami Galaxy which almost exclusively followed the male protagonist's POV, here we spend a lot of time with the girl (voiced perfectly by Kana Hanazawa <3) and not so much with "Senpai", which is fine by me as she is joy to be around and is definitely the focal point of the story.
If you're a fan of Masaaki Yuasa's work this is definitely worth a look. Possibly not the easiest entry point into his works but not as bad as Tatami Galaxy and its infamous rapid-fire speech right out of the gate.
