andoR

Usually I love these "school club dramas". Especially when it's about music. Omotesando Koukou Gasshoubu, Swing Girls or Linda Linda Linda for example. But I couldn't get into this one, regardless of how good the acting or how well thought out the story is. I don't even dislike stories with problem kids or Yankiis, but this one is just way too far fetched for me. They go around and randomly punch people, destroy property left and right, gamble and smoke in plain view, etc. It's supposed to be a more or less realistic drama, so even if I turn off rational thinking they should be in juvenile detention, not still at school where teachers tell them "I believe in you" and "join the brass band". I think I could've really enjoyed the drama if they would've either lessened the crime spree or if the Yankii build up would've been no more than 2 episodes.

I really like these slow paced slice of life "detective" dramas. And it has a nice twist because they don't try to find a culprit but a recipe the customer wants to remember. The main story was also pretty interesting and Kutsuna Shiori does a great job as usual, she's one of my favorite Japanese actresses (it's a shame she went to Hollywood). But I really didn't like the acting of the male lead, Hagiwara Kenichi, who plays her father. He probably acts out the character how it was designed, but always using the most polite way to speak possible combined with the excrutiating slow pace he talks at kind of made me lose interest in what he was even talking about most of the time.

Good movie. If I hadn't seen the anime I would've probably given it a better score than 7.5, but there's just no way to get this story into a 2 hour movie without skipping important plot points. If you liked the movie, you should definitely watch both anime seasons. The in my opinion best parts of the series, the character development of everyone aswell as the friendships in class and especially between the 3 girls, was almost completely cut and the movie's basically only about the romance between the two main characters.

The movie's probably even better if you haven't read the manga/seen the anime.