A plot like that usually works, because of course it would not be as common of a cliché as it is now if it wasn't for its success with its target audience. But in order to succeed and differentiate itself from others it needs to do certain things right, in order to keep our focus away from the genericness and predictability of such plot. Such things usually consist of a great character cast, breathtaking visuals or the movie relying on a unique twist while simultaneously having a coherent plot. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas had nothing of the above.
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(Part 1: Haruki Shiga)
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The main guy is a blatant character for the audience to self-insert into. A generic loner MC who has no friends, speaks to no one and keeps himself to himself. He is also kind of an asshole for some reason, since he completely disregards the fact that Sakura is going to die and, at first, seems like he just doesn't care about her situation at all. Other than that, he is completely unremarkable and forgettable as a character. He has little-to-no personality whatsoever and while his behavior is not that unrealistic (just incredibly bland), his whole character just feels like a cardboard copy of every generic highschool-loner-main-character out there, unintentionally making him the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be: one of the least likeable and relatable characters I've seen out of any other drama anime.--- ---
(Part 2: Sakura Yamauchi)
--- ---On the other hand, Sakura is portrayed as an emotionally fragile girl, who tries her best to hide her weaknesses and insecurities under the façade of a carefree and always happy and cheerful girl. However, the movie does the worst possible job at establishing her personality, with her seemingly "bragging" to Haruki about her illness at the start, since she outright tells him that she will die in a short period of time without any hesitation. This only works as an hindrance for the audience to relate to her and truly empathize with her, since instead of just brushing it off like it's nothing, (establishing her carefree personality further by saying, for example: "don't mind me, you don't have to talk to me, I will die anyway, the only thing I can do for you is basically be an obstacle in your life") she seemingly prefers to just start announcing her imminent death proudly at literally every stranger she happens to meet. Unless she has a serious lack of communication skills, there is no normal person that goes up to a random guy and tells him "I am going to die soon, lol". Similarly, there is no logical human being who would answer with a simple "oh, ok I guess idc tbh".
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(Part 3: Their relationship)
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After that totally not awkward and completely normal interaction, the two of them become friends... for... some reason? The loner "I have no interests in my life and idc about you and your condition" guy and the "really extroverted but I'm afraid of people I know knowing my secrets so I announce them at every stranger I meet instead (hey have I told you that I'm gonna die yet? Please give me some attention I beg you)" girl. Their problematic and totally unrealistic relationship continues, with Haruki seemingly hating Sakura for most of the film, but he is somewhat forced to hang out with her...(?) because he has no friends or something like that I guess. Sakura on the other hand seems like she wanted someone to torment for the last days of her life, just because she didn't have the courage to tell her friends about her terminal illness and that's why she picked Haruki, because he was an "easy target", a person with no friends that was easy to befriend and manipulate into doing whatever she wanted to do before her time comes. If you think about it, Sakura is mostly a manipulative bitch throughout the film who never thinks about how Haruki feels in this situation and Haruki is just forced to hang out with her due to his lack of friends, making their relationship kind of toxic and definitely not something that the viewer would empathize with. Their whole relationship in general feels forced and unnatural, from start to finish, making this film fail completely as a tearjerker in a record-breaking time of 20-or-so minutes.
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(and the twist...)
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Despite its abysmally bad characters and their equally as bad relationship, Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai could still be a mediocre (or maybe even an okay) movie, if it had a solid story, or if it nailed the drama. But it didn't. In fact the story was by far the worst part about this movie. No, its biggest flaw was not the predictability of the plot. We all know from the very start that Sakura is going to die, the film tries to be predictable, not avoid it, and I'm definitely not criticizing it for that. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai’s story is as stereotypical as it can be; but with a twist. And that plot twist ruined everything. It is for me one of the worst, most baffling plot twists of all time. After an hour of mediocre plot progression and bad character development, we get to the film's climax; Sakura's death. A scene which ended up being one of the most memorable scenes that I've ever seen in anime, for all the wrong reasons. Instead of getting the "normal" and predictable ending, (with what I assume would be Sakura in a hospital and Haruki crying by her side as she is slowly dying, or her committing suicide without telling Haruki anything, leading to that same scene in the end where he finds out her "goodbye" letter) what we end up getting is a total shit-show. So, let me get this straight; Sakura was going to die from a pancreatic disease. Her whole relationship with Haruki was based on that fact. Hell, the whole MOVIE was based on that fact. However, Sakura died from being stabbed off-screen, by a... random serial killer on the loose? What?! Literally any other ending would have been better. That ending was just plain inexcusable, for this fact alone I can't understand how anyone would give this movie an 8/10 or higher. I've had multiple people trying to convince me that this ending / twist is actually brilliant and that I'm missing something but honestly I just don't get how even the idea (let alone the execution of it) could have even been seen as "acceptable". Subverting the audience's expectations isn't always a good thing; sometimes it can lead to situations that completely nullify the very meaning of a film. A movie with a really unique and unexpected twist done bad can be infinitely worse that the most stereotypical movie ever done right (check out my review on Josee to Tora to Sakanatachi to see what I mean by that). If we ignore the initial "shock value" of this twist, the ending was way more comical than dramatic. Which is kind of ironic for a tearjerker movie.
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In conclusion, I don't understand why this movie is getting a lot of praise. I really don't. The writing consists of everything cliché this genre has to offer, but it seems like a complete amateur tried to implement all of those clichés into their work while at the same time adding their own twist into the story in a desperate attempt to make it stand out among the rest. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai completely throws everything logical out of the window and focuses solely on cheap melodrama and emotion, hoping that the audience will do the same, ignoring its obvious flaws in the process. Its sometimes great but other times barely above average (for a movie) animation isn't good enough to save the whole film, sadly. As I stated earlier, I believe that a movie which tries to be unique but fails miserably at what is trying to do is, for me, infinitely worse than a movie which just follows clichés & stereotypes and ends up being "good" at best, or "average and/or forgettable" at worst. Sadly, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas certainly belongs in the former category.