Aura

So... uh, spoilers ahead. It's best if you watch the movie without knowing anything about it, and such.

I think what finally won me was Shimazaki's play in this scene:

Wakaru yo. Kuddaranee yo naa...

Besides, you know, what he was actually saying. But that was present in the whole movie. I mean, yeah, the Japanese love to save the idiotic conclusions from the sane factors for the end of the anime, like how Chuunibyou ruined everything (yeah, the comparison is inevitable, and Aura comes off as a much better work).

But the entirety of this was sane. A really sane play on this subject. Next to none dramaturgy involved. I mean, no Rule of Cool, no Rule of Drama... it just was. Besides this huge fort at the end. I will give this to necessary dramatic composition. It was actually pretty nice; it kept me wondering if they are going to actually include supernatural elements at the very end.

That was one of the things; the reason I try not to spoil anything about this movie. At the start I actually expected supernatural elements to be involved. I think that made everything better. No explanation for the girl's behaviour. It makes her truer. And it means Ichirou was right. Not too right, in Medaka sense, just the right amount of being right.

This is the other thing. Satou Ichirou was a great character. Between his morality, his guts and the fact that you could see how he's always thinking, he will remain one of my favorites. And yeah, Shimazaki's acting was equally great. So great that I had to check anidb before realizing that the girl was voiced by HanaKana.

As far as plot goes, it's within that "sane" thing two paragraphs up. That's it. The rest of the characters fall in this category too. They were nice, but the movie was made by Ichirou, not by them. Not that I am implying that "sane" is bad, just they didn't manage to grow out as something more than the sane execution of this topic. Although "sane execution" by itself means they felt true, as real people and not plot devices, only Ichirou makes an impression that will last forever.

As far as production goes... great voice acting. GREAT. UTTERLY TERRIFIC. Animation was lackluster, and OST was nice, but not 10/10 will download and listen again.

Yup, that's about it. 9/10.

In conclusion, that was so good I'd think of forcing my friends who are not into anime to watch it with me, but they probably can't really understand the whole concept of eight-graders syndrome. That's quite the prerequisite, I guess. Even if you are smart enough to make the goth/emo relation, you'll be losing of stuff that is addressed in the anime without even being mentioned. Oh well.

P.S. Best touch in the whole film: how we hear his sister shouting from the other room.