SPOILERS TAGGED
I wasn’t planning on writing a review, but when I noticed nobody else had, I figured I might as well. So, here we go. This review should still make sense even if you don’t read the spoilers.
I rewatched this movie recently on impulse and let me tell you. It does not get any less confusing the second time through. Well, ok, it might actually have made a little bit more sense if I’d rewatched the entire series and not just this movie, but I was still pretty confused.
This movie had a lot of potential. Three masterminds as the antagonists with an interesting direct conflict meant there were a lot of good places this movie could go, but I feel like there were some issues with execution.
First off, this movie was more confusing to me than Howl’s Moving Castle. That was the first ghibli movie I watched and I was quite lost, so for Dead Apple to confuse me more—that’s a real accomplishment. I think after watching the first time I was able to piece together more of what happened through reading several different summaries, but I can’t say I feel like doing that again (I have a very poor memory), so I guess I’ll just forever remain confused. I mean, I understand that there were three masterminds coming together to outwit each other, but still! If the story isn’t written and explained in a way for the audience to understand what's going on, then what’s the point? To me, it seemed like they tried to explain some things, but there wasn’t enough context or information given for it all to click. Plus, they didn’t even try to explain everything (at least not that I caught). There were just too many missing pieces to make this movie enjoyable for me. A complicated plot with complex characters is no reason not to explain crucial elements of the story.
Another issue for me was the animation. In some parts it was great, but in others, it definitely seemed like they were working on a low budget. I know Bungou Stray Dogs isn’t known for its outstanding animation, but a lot of moments were lacking where that’s concerned. I did appreciate, however, their use of Deadly Drive, Reason Living, and Bokura during various scenes.
Now, although a lot of the philosophy and motivations went over my head, there were still a lot of beautiful parts of this story that I was able to catch.
*an 8/10 on my rating scale is “amazing but less enjoyable”
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