LIKES:
Cinematography, production, choice of cast, colour palate, scene locations, were all well done.
MUSIC for the Japanese cheer team was decent, but nothing memorable.
STORY: Based on a true story, which was nice because I didn’t know prior to watching this that Japan had any form of cheer competitions.
COSTUMES: I liked the Japanese cheer costumes, especially for the JETS.
CONCEPT: Youth sports and dancing, high school pressures, friendships, were all well delivered.

DISLIKES:
MUSIC: They used Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) song to depict the American cheer championships. So many other songs could’ve done the same.
DIRECTING & EDITING: a lot of moments too drawn out, pacing became an issue. Some parts were really choppy.
STORY: They didn’t need the boy crush angle between Mackenyu’s character and Suzu’s character or Ayami and Kentaro. Also it wasn’t a comedy, although there were some light hearted moments. Based on a true story, but even with 2 hours it mostly focused on training and not really the competition, so the end wasn’t as impactful. There was no adult version conclusion for some of the supporting, first string girls like Taeko or Yui, they only showed the future selves of Hikari and Ayano. That was frustrating because they did give some back story of Taeko.

OVERALL:
Easy and light watch, even though it was 2 hrs. I did tear up near the end. I would recommend watching it, however there’s nothing so appealing that I would want or need to watch it again.