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First thing's first let me get this out the way:
The animation and soundtrack are absolutely stunning and amazing, I would recommend you watch it for these reasons alone - especially the track "Sky Over Tokyo" that plays during the Tokyo climax scene in the middle of the movie (literal chills). The atmospheric nature of this soundtrack as well as the ghostly voices used as the lead is great sound design, especially if you watch this in the cinema or proper surround sound as all the panning in the audio mix places you literally and figuratively in the center of the action.
The animation is purely top tier. I'm talking your name, demon slayer se2, violet evergarden levels of pure beauty that makes this an incredible experience.
However, the characters and the plot fall very short. As mentioned by other reviewers, the main character suffers from the anime trope of meeting a character for less then a day then instantly decides that they'll sacrifice their life for said person which makes the development of the relationship between the two main characters feel forced rather than a natural progression. It feels like the romance aspect was shoved into the film just so the film could be a romance. At least with other works by the author like Your Name the romance is a centrifugal part of the plot.
Also with the cats, I wanted more from them. One of the reasons I wanted to watch this film was the idea of having a cute evil cat be the antagonist, but this falls short on a lot of different levels. I can't go into too much depth on this point as this review is only mild spoilers, but if you're going into this wanting an awesome cat villain then you'll be disappointed. (Note: I will say the final scene with the cat was done very well and I loved that aspect, however all the moments with the cat leading up to that left something to be desired).
Another point is the relationship between the main character and her guardian. At a certain point 3/4 of the way through there was a point where the film showed real potential to add a twist and some type of real character building for both of these characters, however it's simply brushed off like nothing happened. I was so disappointed by this aspect and many others. I left the cinema with one resounding thought:
"Well that was good, but it could have been so much more".
In conclusion, if you love good visuals and music then you'll love this. If you're wanting a film that has an awesome cat villain, character relationships with a unique and dynamic plot then you'll be left disappointed at what it could have been.
Music: 9/10
Visuals: 9/10
Plot: 4/10
Characters: 6.5/10
Relationships between characters: 7/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
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