Spoilers ahead...
Honestly I think this oter review sums everything up better than I could, especially the closing statement, so you can just take a look at that: https://anilist.co/review/15640
But I still wanna put my thoughts out there for the record.
Story: 7.5
Average for the most part but really confusing near the end. One example is Josee just completely ignoring him on his discharge day without any explanation, even after it seemed pretty obvious that they were to meet then. A lot of what lost me is really strange character actions, so I'll just talk about that instead. However, for some reason, I really really enjoyed Josee's storybook, so extra points for that. For reference, my story rating would be like 6.0 or 6.5 otherwise.
Characters: 6.5
Josee is cute and I liked Tsuneo's friends at the diving shop, at least for the first half. Then they seem to act kind of out of character just to move the plot forward or to create unnecessary plot points. The diving girl (forgot her name) seems pretty kind but then after Josee's grandmother dies, this girl visits Josee and starts insulting her which is like ??? - sort of understandable because the girl's attraction towards Tsuneo is shown earlier on but these venomous kinds of actions are definitely out of the blue. And that's not even the worst part: during Tsuneo's hospitalization, not only does she confess to him literally immediately after he trusts her with his thoughts and frustrations with no regard for what he said or how he's feeling, but also later on she then goes back to Josee's place and starts insulting her again, saying some incredibly selfish things about her own feelings towards Tsuneo and their relationship. And then her dialogue is somehow twisted at the end to become some sort of encouragement towards Josee ???????????????? like alright, she says some terrible stuff but it's okay because it's 'healthy' competition. But afterwards everything is cool with her, Josee and her are frenemies or whatever. I feel like if her dialogue and feelings weren't as exaggerated and over-the-top then things would have made sense. The dude is cool though, if not a bit generic. Josee is kind of confusing too, she really switches sides way too often although that's not wholly unrealistic given the numerous new situations she finds herself in.
Art: 8.5
Nice animation and art. Not KyoAni or Shinkai level but the animation is smooth, the framing and compositions are done tastefully, and the art style is attractive and stylized well enough. Tsuneo has kind of a generic look but I still found his design to be distinct with the art style, especially the hair and the eyes. Same for Josee and the other major side characters. The hair and eyes really made each character stand out from each other. Granny especially had a nice design.
Sound/Music: 8.5
I love Evan Call's compositions for Violet Evergarden and I was hoping for some good stuff here too. The music here definitely resembles VE's; honestly, some of the OST here kind of sounds like it would fit on side B or whatever for the VE soundtrack. However, it doesn't stand out as much and feels more set into the background, so the music itself is not as striking as it could be. Still solid though, I think he just outdid himself with Violet Evergarden. As for the opening/ending songs, I didn't really care much for them. They were nice but not something I would listen to on my own. Eve has a nice voice but for some reason I never like the melodies for his original songs that much.
Enjoyment: 7.5
Overall it was a nice movie. Story wasn't so bad that I couldn't continue watching, it really just made me sit there with a confused look on my face for a good while. Still was invested in the main development between Josee and Tsuneo though. I was fully committed to seeing Tsuneo's dreams come true. Even the reason behind them wasn't developed much, his work ethic and dedication showed their importance to him and I respected that. I also really found myself trying to understand things from different POVs, especially Josee's and trying to see how she would understand the world.
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