I was really hyped for this movie, but I ended up really disliking it.

(spoiler warning here, go back if you haven't watched it but want to)

When it comes to an anime season being followed by a movie, it is almost unavoidable to compare the two. In the show, all girls get introduced smoothly, they are either being shown or being mentioned before their arc begins, their problems get a proper introduction, and then the story goes on with what Sakuta can do about it. In the movie, however, Shoko-san arrives to the scene very abruptly and does some morally questionable things. This causes me to dislike the situation she creates from the start.

It is later revealed that she is very sick and that her actions were done out of a sense of urgency; One part of her was anxious about her future because she might not be around for it, and she is in love with Sakuta (must be nice being a romcom anime protagonist), and she wants to live out her dream while she can. I feel like Shoko's problems are in a weird way relatable and understandable, and I actually quite like this part.

What I don't like is everything that follows.

It is revealed that Shoko will get a heart transplant, and that Sakuta gives it to her because he will die in a car accident. We know this because Shoko can time travel in some way that the movie fails to explain properly. Like, sure, at this point it's acceptable because there is college Shoko who has to know who gave her her heart, but it gets really weird later on.

Sakuta gets the idea that he should save Shoko and get himself killed. This is where the movie truly loses me. Sakuta has a loving girlfriend, and while Shoko is a very important person to him, she is not the most important person in his life. In the show, they even close off her arc by Sakuta not meeting her at the beach and instead writing in the sand that he has a girlfriend now. He should not be willing to give his life for Shoko, considering what it'd do to Mai. This is the first time I've mentioned Mai in this review by the way, because she hasn't been important at all up until now, which is another thing I dislike. Mai is a strong character and her not being as relevant as in the show does hurt the movie.

When she finally becomes important, it is not in a way I appreciate it. She catches on to Sakuta's plan and cries about it, desparately asking for him not to do it, because she couldn't live without him. Now this could have been a touching moment, but the way she does this is so out of character for her (Sakuta even says so) that it doesn't feel right with me. I'm not buying where the movie is going at this point. But we do arrive at the point where Sakuta (accidentally) is about to die, but he doesnt.

Mai pushes him out of the way, dying in his place.

This scene and the ones following it are all done phenomenally. Not often have I been this shocked by a work of fiction, and the survivor's guilt and depression that Sakuta develops are also portrayed in such a powerful way. It is very dark and serious, but that is a good thing. Too bad that none of it is real, because Shoko is back and she randomly allows Sakuta to time travel to save Mai by sacrificing him for himself, so nobody dies in the car crash. It doesn't make any sense at any point in time and it really sucks. I really hate it when a story puts their protagonist in a hole they cannot possibly climb out of, only to get them out of it because of bullshit. It's supposed to make Sakuta look amazing by achieving the impossible, but the use of some absolute ass-pulls makes it entirely meaningless. It also makes the grieving Sakuta did meaningless, because Mai isn't dead afterall.

But nobody died in the accident, so Shoko doesn't have anybody to get a heart from. This means that surely she'll die, right? Now I am not wishing her dead because I hate her, but it makes even less sense when she survives too. She does. After all this happened, Shoko revelas that her time travel powers are even stronger and that she will alter the past to a point where she never met Sakuta, so he doesn't have to grieve over her death. And then, if it all wasn't good enough yet, she survives in the end anyway, the closing shot is her and Sakuta encountering each other again.

I just hate how this movie tries to make everyone and everything happy in the end. In the show there was a lot of focus on the fact that not everyone could get everything they wanted and how to cope with sadness and grief - Koga and Futaba never got their love wishes fulfilled, and Kaede returns to her old self, essentially making sure "Kaede-chan" is dead, which causes Sakuta to grief. The movie has none of this, instead nobody loses, everyone is saved, the end. That is the main problem I have with it.

I feel really bad this is how the Bunny Girl Senpai anime is followed up. The show is one of my favourites, but this movie isn't the same on a fundamental level, even when superficial things (like Sakuta's witty jokes) are. Unfortunately, I have to say that this movie gets a 5/10 from me.