Dounika Naru Hibi

Given the other reviews, I dared not give it an 8 like I was going to. I agree with some points of the other reviews: how the stories don't go anywhere, how the characters are somewhat generic, how at points it can get a bit cringe/uncomfortable. But, to me, these are part of what make the movie nice. It might take a certain perspective to see this, and I will try to outline mine. First, you should not see this as some drama celebrating lgbt+. This is a slice of life, with romance. When you think the characters are bland, it could just be that theysucceeded in making them approachable people you'd meet in real life. If you feel the stories are too common place, slice of life might not be for you. The point is to appreciate those little moments of ordinary romances. And by that, one might take it as a silent tribute to lgbt+. I'm not going back on my previous words: the point is, the stories treat same-sex relationships as any other common place relationship instead of celebrating them as special. Second, the moments to note are the struggles. They are generic as mentioned, but nonetheless great. They are portrayed really subtly, and all the more rewarding and wholesome to witness, at least for me. The moment a girl is told that her ex from high school is getting married; the moment a guy sees another who looks like someone who might have expressed romantic interest in him, but disappeared from his life before it became clear; the moment a primary school couple is introduced to porn early (by an attractive relative acting in it), and face their sexuality in secret. Rights, I may have used 'moment' loosely and just snuck in a summary of the stories. But, the point is, each of the story shows some struggle, and will end with some change in the main characters' lives: behaviourally, they are miniscule, almost insignificant for others around them; but for us viewers, who have shared parts of their journey and peeked into their struggles, we get to appreciate the big mental steps forward they have taken. Finally, a tad more about it as a work of animation to justify the rating. If you see the cast, there's no way the voice acting wouldn't be great. Granted, the music and art are not awe-inspiring, but, very fitting for the slice of life genre. All in all, a nice short movie to watch.

What we have here is a strong case of "what did they mean by this?" and "why did they post this?" Like, it's not BAD. It is by no means GOOD. It seems to be trying to depict semi-taboo relationships that are nonetheless totally normal, which is fine in concept. But if these are more-or-less direct adaptations of stories from the 2002 manga (I have no idea), then I just have to scream "things have CHANGED!" Gay couples, like, exist. And always have. So opening a movie with this theme with a completely ordinary lesbian couple gives off weird vibes to me. (I recognize that Iam writing as an American and this is a Japanese movie, but I'm explaining my feelings here.) The other three stories were about relationships that had real boundaries that were somewhat inappropriately crossed, so I just thought starting with an odd one out made little sense. Maybe they were connecting it to the others by having the high school girlfriend kiss her unprompted, but that's not the relationship that the story was really about. Very little happened in this story and it didn't bother giving us any characterization as to why the women were into each other, so I didn't care very much about it. It was the least objectionable one, though. The second story was about a high school teacher man whose boy student confessed to him. This went nowhere, which is fine. But the story was more about the teacher's sense of longing for connection to his students, symbolized by kinda wanting this romantic fantasy to work out. Which is less fine. At that point, they're not teacher-and-studnet anymore, so I'm not going to say they would be breaking a Rule or anything, but the framing of the story keeps the focus on the high school kids of future classes and is consequently uncomfortable. But, like I said, it goes nowhere. It's very whatever because, again, we never actually get characterization. The third short is a story about a grade-schooler's relationship with his cousin who has been disowned by her father because she appeared in a porn tape. She's very sexually open and talks to him about sex and teases him about his close friendship with a girl who goes to his school. And I think this is weird because sex is not high on my list of things to talk about with children, but I'm not going to pretend like keeping kids completely ignorant of sex somehow protects them. So, like, I'm not going to condemn this out of hand either. Its real sin is that it ends abruptly and serves mostly as a lead-in to the fourth short, which is about that boy and that girl. Do I even need to say that we don't actually get any reasons that the boy and girl like each other? So, in the third skit, the girl proposed having sex with the boy and he declined. The fourth skit takes place years later, when they're in high school. It's about how they still want to have sex with each other and are awkward about their sexuality. And, like, ugh. There's no other way to say this. I don't understand any adults' fascination with children having sex or wanting to have sex. Acknowledging it exists is one thing, and that's what the third short skirted just barely on the "Uh, valid, I guess" edge of. This fourth skit is a lot more explicit about how horny they are and how much they want to have sex, but he doesn't feel ready in the way that she does. I just keep asking myself "Who is this for?" Who's the audience for this? Is this a movie for high school kids? If so, I Guess this could work as an interesting subject that could give a young person some sort of validation. But if this movie's audience is adults (or "everyone" 9_9), then why are we dwelling on child sexuality in this way right after the skit from a teacher's perspective about romantic feelings prompted by a student? I dunno, dawg. The movie starts with something easy and palatable, but then takes risky swings for really difficult subjects. People have serious, valid hangups over these sorts of situations, which are nonetheless serious and valid themselves. The way that they depicted these scenarios seriously did not work for me, and the intentions of the film are truly opaque to me.

I'm writing this review after watching this movie for the second time. The first time I finished it, it was so bland that I didn't even remember watching it. Nothing about it stood out to me, the art was pretty but extremely simple. There is no plot either. The characters lead a mundane life and naturally give me no thrill either. If this came out in the cinema, I wouldn't watch it. But I watched it on a very casual day, eating my dinner alone and worrying about my exam results. I didn't have any anticipations, any expectations or any need to be entertained. Themovie kept playing in the background and I had the time to think about myself. I found myself thinking 'That happened with me too.' and I didn't feel anything. The movie ended as soon as I finished my dinner (I must've been eating that meal very slowly, now that I think about it.) but it was okay. It was a nice distraction. Halfway through the film I realized I've already watched it once before. Honestly, I'll forget about this movie again, probably and then return to it thinking it's a cute lgbtq+ film. And then I'll binge it again on another mundane day in my life and think, 'Wow, my memory is really bad. This is the third time.' Or maybe I'll be watching it with someone else, and they'll laugh at me for my bad memory. This movie was no cinematic masterpiece, but it is worth a watch on a holiday with nothing better to do.

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