Though there is one major part of the story that I didn’t find really good: Suzu’s mother’s death (don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler as it’s something that happened before the story, is shown in the first 10 min and is in the summary of the anime).
First of all, I didn’t understand what was the big deal and hurry about that kid being stuck on the island… Why was this so dangerous that they couldn’t simply wait for a rescue squad or something? And ok, maybe the flow of the river was strong (and I’ll be honest, it didn’t look strong enough to kill an adult with a life jacket)… But that’s all… There wasn’t any storm, the kid wasn’t hurt or anything. I get that hearing them crying was probably really annoying, but that wasn’t enough to be reckless.
Another part about this that bothered me was the reaction of everybody about her death. I get that abandoning your own child to save one you don’t even know isn’t what logic would want… But she died trying to save someone ffs! Don’t start trash talking her like she was just a stupid, worthless person, especially in front of her child!
From time to time, I read some reviews where people are complaining about some characters' reactions being weird and that they don’t make sense, and occasionally, while I at least partially agree, it’s indeed something that would happen in Japan (because Japanese can think really weirdly sometimes). I really hope that this isn’t the case here and their reactions wouldn’t be the norm anywhere.
Now, two little things (that are connected) that I want to quickly talk about (but won’t elaborate too much because they weren't really in my “consented disbelief” range, but they were not important enough for me to not make a fuss about).
The first being the impact the game has on the world. Like every single person knows it. Even a professional sports player has to make a public video to clarify that he’s not involved in some events taking place in it, a group of old ladies from a small countryside village is playing it, etc. No game could be so omnipresent in our world, no matter how good they are (and especially when they are basically some kind of VR Chat).
The second one is, you can’t go in a VR world with just earplugs. That’s it. I don’t have to explain more than this because it’s so logical that I don’t even see why they did it.
A new issue that didn’t hit me at first was the moderation of the game. Why are some random players allowed to moderate the game and reveal private info about people? And if you tell me that those are official mods, the game should really hire better people who don’t let their pride and personal feeling dictate how they moderate the game. But to be honest, I don’t think they really are mods. Mainly because they actually need to play the game and battle the players to do their stuff (real mods would have access to some commands), the other players really seem to consider them as just players and because they have sponsors (they really are sponsors of the players, not the game). But in this case, it’s even weirder that some regular players have access to that kind of power without the dev doing anything.
And finally, one other element that I kind of felt was coming from nowhere is Suzu’s obsession with Ryuu. He just interrupted one of her concerts and then she absolutely wants to know everything about him… Why? Not because she’s mad or anything, she just wants to meet and get to know him. It really felt like it came out of nowhere…
With all of those issues I talked about, you probably think this story is bad, and I’ll be honest with you… At this point I don’t even know anymore. When I started writing this review, I only had the ones about Suzu’s mother in mind. So for me, the story had more pros than cons. But the more I wrote it, the more issues came to my mind… Though I still liked the anime… Making this review really confused me, but I would say that the story is a kind of story that while is full of issues, can still be pleasing depending on how you watch it.
Nonetheless, it still has some really good visuals. The backgrounds and sceneries were pretty good, the overall chara-design too, and some scenes had some actually exceptionally good moments.
The drawn part was pretty good, nothing to complain about. They aren’t especially mind blowing either though. I’ll be honest, both the animation and the chara-design are just what they need to be. I don’t really want to say “average” because it sounds bad, but they are fine, nothing more.
Kind of feels weird to have a whole section that basically just says “the OST is good”, but I really don’t have anything else… I don’t know if it’s because I loved the songs so much that it overshadowed every other aspect, or if everything else was just normal.
The first thing that would have made me facepalm really hard if it came true (and that I was expecting to) was if Ryuu was actually Shinobu and both him and Suzu would end up developing their feelings through the game. That would have been way too overused and kind of lame. I was really glad that wasn’t the case. It may seem a bit anticlimactic that Kei was so irrelevant before we learn who he was, but I still think it’s better that way (it would have been too cliché if it was one of the main characters).
To continue with Ryuu, one thing that seems weird is how he lets off steam in the game. I don’t want to say it doesn’t make sense, because games can help people unwind, but Kei doesn’t look like the type of kid that will randomly assault people in-game because of his family issue. He would be too busy trying to help his brother, I think (especially when he’s just wandering in his castle without any goal). Also, why his bruises IRL are causing tattoos on his in-game cape? And why does he get some in the middle of the game? Was his father beating him while he was playing? If yes, why would he keep playing?
The second thing I really liked was that Ruka, the pretty, nice and popular girl is actually nice. In a lot of anime, those characters are just manipulative and egocentric people that are just playing friendly. So I was pleased to see that she was genuinely nice. It’s really a small thing, but it mattered to me. I also really appreciate that she wasn’t in love with Shinobu. A “beautiful and popular couple” would have lacked originality. Instead, she’s in love with Kamishin, the goofy and unpopular one (and the “confession”, if we can really call this like that, was really well made and funny).
Now, let’s talk about the ending itself. I saw a lot of critics talking about it as that it was bad, mainly because we don’t know what happened afterward to Kei and his brother. But personally, I don’t really feel like we needed more. They were probably just taken by some child support service and still kept contact with Suzu. I know it could have been good to see it, but I didn’t really feel like it was mandatory. There is also the fact that we don’t have anything about Suzu and her feelings for Shinobu. But for that it’s quite simple, it’s not the point of the story (once again, this isn’t a Romance anime). So if we shouldn’t care, why is it in the anime you ask? Well… Hmm… Well, you see… I don’t really know. It has its importance in the story, for example, all the story regarding Ruka, but none of this was really important in the end. So maybe I’d say it was for some world building and maybe to make us think he was Ryuu… Maybe…
So in the end, do I recommend this movie? The more I look into it, the more its defaults are apparent, but at the same time, it still had some qualities and it tried to change some overused plot points. So I would say yes. You should watch it for what it did well and what it tried to do, but you should really have low expectations.
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