This was on friend's rec list and I was intrigued enough to see a story about a porn writer to check it out. My review might be colored by the unconventional order I watched the franchise: this movie first then the Novelist drama, and skimming through Mood Indigo. It's essentially a character study on Kijima the titular character, and the story, like the character, is highly flawed. The 2 most poignant scenes that pretty much sums up everything comes towards the end of this movie and an after-credits scene in MI, of all things:
-When Kijima finally says "I love you" to Kuzumi and says "I can't even express how much I love you."
-Kijima's response to Kuzumi's flowery profession of love: "Words are amazing aren't they? I didn't really understand that, even though I'm a writer."

Those 2 scenes/lines is Kijima in a nutshell. The inherent contradiction of a writer, who desperately wants to write with everything he is, but being unable to express the finer emotions of life because he is scared of actually experiencing those emotions packs an emotional punch in its simplicity.

But this gets lost in the execution and that's the problem. I don't know if it's because the way it's formatted, 2 short dramas, a movie, miscellaneous scenes etc. Taken as a whole series, I found the story repetitive and aimless, or plain unnecessary at points. That "words are amazing but I didn't understand" scene should be more than a throwaway scene at the end of a prequel. Kijima's struggles and personality came through in vague and not so vague hints and suggestions and would've been better to leave it at that. Seeing it play out over and over again got tiresome and that by the time I got to Indigo, thought it was largely unnecessary.

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