Story:
I personally found Anohana as a live action to have met and well-exceeded my expectations of what i thought the drama would be like. Some fans may complain that the plot is not followed to the T, but that is exactly what i appreciated the most. An 11 episodes anime squeezed into 2 hours is quite an incredible feat by itself, and i am impressed the essence (friendship and portrayal of Menma) still remains. Kudos to the production team. The live action is well-executed and is as realistic as it can get given the supernatural-ness that surrounds the whole story. The only complaint is that the characters are not being developed enough to show us how different each of them are from one another and how Menma's death affected them, that It kind of became plot-driven. Still amazing nonetheless.
Acting/Cast:
The cast is awesome. There is no other way to describe how great the cast work to portray the originality of the characters (i felt that they did their homework, and they aced it). However, it is a tad disturbing/uncomfortable when you see tears and more tears as the story progressed. I mean i am impressed how much the actors could cry and the whole point is to be tear-jerking. Yet especially in the second half of the movie, it felt as if the story could not continue without any tears. Like seriously? I do believe however that the young actors/actresses are quite new for i never heard/watched them before. They are definitely worth looking out for :)
Music:
For the whole duration of the movie, there is only one song playing from what i have heard -- ''secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ (10 years after ver.)''. It was the ending song for the anime. This is my bias-ness speaking for this very song is one of my few favorite Japanese songs ever, but it does fits perfectly into the whole atmosphere of the live action. I love how both the original song and the instrumental version are played.
Emotional? Check.
Beautiful friendship? Check.
Selfless Menma? Check.
What more can one ask for? But be forewarned: prepare a (or a few) box full of tissues before you start watching because you would need it (my tears flowed like a dam throughout the entire movie).
Definitely highly recommended! :)
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I've already seen the original AnoHana anime series back when it came out in 2011 and I also watch this recap/after story movie as well and I have to say they both had absolutely fantastic story telling, however, I felt like generally the anime versions weren't nearly as emotional than what I felt while watching this live action adaption here. Sure, it had it's issues since the pacing felt a little off at times and they had to shorten some things in order to make everything important into the movie, but that was honestly a good thing. When I watched the anime version, the episodic format of that series had felt way too limiting as well for me, like since the story has been splitt up into mutiple episodes, some emotional events that took place didn't feel as serious since it has been"so long" since they last mentioned some important key plot development in an earlier episode if anyone knows what I mean.
Having this whole story as it's own movie that captivates it's viewers from the beginning til the very end is definitely the best format to tell this absolutely fantastic story about childhood and how children cope with their friend's dead over the years. People that have very strong opinions about the original anime may be displeased about some changes they had to do in order to make this story appear more realistically, but exactly the additional realism that this adaption provided is the very reason why I think it's the best version of AnoHana. Nothing is more emotional to see real people's sad faces full with tears as even though they are just acting there, I do believe this story speaks to you in an ever deeper emotional level out of pure instinct.
And speaking of the acting, I also have to say that the actors were absolutely fantastic as well! Probably one of the most disliked aspects of live action adaptions are the way the actors look, since either they try to make them look way too much like their anime counter parts and it looks absolutely horrible since... well, nobody normal in real life looks like an anime character, or they don't even try to make the characters look similar to how they looked like in the original and people feel no connection to the story that they already love. This time however, I genuinely believe that they couldn't have found better actors for each of their positions! Only one character looks drastically different than in the anime since her hair color used to be white and in this version brown, but that's definintely a good decision since white hair would simply look weird and not really relatable to someone in their person life for most of the audience.
So yeah, if you go into this movie open minded and don't compare everything to it's original all the time, trust me, you will definitely have an awesome time and an awesome experience to live through this fantastic story once again! Just don't be too elitistic about it :)
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This review may contain spoilers
Tearjerker in its own way (T_T) A single act in a past which lead to a lifetime guilt.I think the added value for me is that I haven't watched the anime version of this title. In fact, I also have not had time to read the manga. Why those become the added value? Because it means I don't have excessive expectations for this movie, so I can enjoy it more without any hope.
I really love the story, it’s touches my heart in a strange way. I also love the ending, when they all finally can see Meiko. As for the ridiculous moment is when Atsumu dressed up like Meiko, wear a wig and showed up in front of his friends. It should be a sad and touching moment, but I've distracted with the style, so ... I laughed. Hard (^o^)
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But not in the way you probably think.
This movie was gutting. It was "I'm gonna rip your heart out, stomp on it, and throw it in the wood chipper. Mwahahaha"
It was great.... and had no warning that the end would leave you sitting, staring at the now blank screen trying to patch yourself back together mentally.
It's weird though. Because no matter what, I mean.... you KNOW how it's going to end. You know. It's a Slice-of-Life. How can you not know? But that shit still breaks your heart. lol
Everyone's acting was on point, I forgot I was watching a movie most of the time. Gotta love movies and shows that make you feel like you're right there.
But I just can't give it 10, even though I want to. That star is going towards my heart. You broke my heart and I don't ever ever ever EVER want to see Nijiro cry again. I mean, he is a actor, so I know he will.. but I can't handle it. I want to put him in a bubble so nothing hurts him. Lol I'm biased, can you tell? XD
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This review may contain spoilers
i was just scrolling in my tiktok account and out of my curiosity i search this tittle on bilibili and i just fond out that the original series is made of anime and i watched the live action untill the end and i never thought that i would burst on crying because of this movie in the middle of the night and now my only problem is my family would see my swollen eyes tomorrow and they will literally think that i just broke up with some body HAHAHAHA anyways its worth it to watched they have similarities of the movie Your Name but different plots which is good :) Was this review helpful to you?
It can compare to the Anime for sure.
OverallI think that this movie is just as great as the anime. It's one of the few where I think I like both the Live-Action and the anime the same.
Story:
The Story is overall the same as the one in the anime, with some changes here or there that don't affect the story much overall. Things like storyline plots the support characters had in the anime were lost due to the restraint in time and some characters.
Acting
This was the first time I had seen any of the actors the first time I saw these but I really enjoyed them and now that I have seen them act in different things I know they are great.
Rewatch value
This movie is great to rewatch and get a feeling of the story. The anime is great and I have rewatched it but it is close to a 5 hrs and a half watch altogether. This movie is only 2 hrs and it hits all the highs of the show plotwise and has great acting.
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live action remake. The story is pretty much the same, without the
confusing back and forths. The best thing about this movie, part from
the story, which is very touching and emotional, are the performances.
Sure, there is too much crying, but the actors were great portraying
the characters and their emotions. Especially enjoyed the conclusions
the movie gave on every ones story, as it could have left things as
they were after the final scene. Probably the story was dragging a bit
and there weren't many twists, so it did got a little tiring towards
the middle, but the ending was rewarding. So, 5 out of 10.
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