I think this movie was very good yet I found myself enjoying the specials more. Taking into account that this is just the 1st part, I'm really hoping it will pick up in the next one. The acting is still amazing, the music is still superb and the story is still entretaining, yet I felt not much happened plot-wise in this one compared to the specials. I felt the flashbacks dragged for too long and the performances were a bit too many; or maybe it was that, in the specials, they were more clearly used to move the plot along and here I felt they did it only in some instances. This movie is much more through Chiaki's perspective than it is in Nodame's, so I'm hoping that'll arrive in the next one. That being said, it's still a fantastic movie and extremely entretaining and recommendable. And the music is still and will always be incredible.