Great movie.

Time travel is a touchy subject and one I always over-analyze. I kept that to a minimum while watching this one and definitely enjoyed it to its fullest.

The story unfolded very nicely. It started off light-hearted and got deeper as it progressed. The flow was solid and the few twists felt legit. I hate forced or fake twists and in retrospect, the one’s here felt genuine. What started off as a simple time-traveling story developed into a wonderful love story. Time is truly precious and no matter how it gets manipulated, it’s still short.

The animation was quite fluid with solid character movements. Beyond that, the most impressive part was the scenery. The backgrounds were beautifully displayed, highly detailed and brought about a strong sense of calmness.

Makoto was a great character. She had a vibrant personality and was wonderfully fleshed out. If she was real, I’d nominate her for a best actress award… well, almost. Her VA did a damn fine job but there were some parts where the voice acting felt stretched out.

The comedy was a riot. I wouldn’t classify this as a comedy yet I laughed out loud during every funny moment.

Like when Miyuki thought Makoto was gonna kill herself and was dragged around by Makoto…

Oh that was priceless.

Or Makoto’s entrance every time she leaped…

I cringed in pain each time while laughing hysterically. You’d think she’d have a concussion by now, hahaha.

Ultimately, the main reason I enjoyed this movie was due to it being a slice-of-life story. Yes, it really is that simple.

I have no complaints for this movie.

None.

If I over-analyzed the story, maybe… but then this entry would end up being 50 paragraphs longer. So once again, no complaints.

Just pure awesomeness.

Overall series score: 9.5 out of 10

What better way to open this up than with Nami fan service?

This fourth movie was a fun watch. It’s been a while since I caught a One Piece movie and this one was refreshing.

It had the usual silly antics…

…and fight scenes…

…and ominous new characters…

…but it lacked impact. Or “oomph.”

Too much time was wasted for the set-up and there wasn’t enough action by the rest of the crew. The story wasn’t quite as dramatic either. If they spent more time in the race and less building up to it, some of the latter scenes could’ve been sweet.

Oh yeah, and Robin’s power is so funky. It’s freaky every time I see her do it but the more I see it, the more it seems like she can pretty much do whatever the hell she wants.

I mean, seriously, making a huge ass arm with a crapload of her tiny arms…

…practical but still freaky.

In the end, it was just an entertaining watch and nothing more.

Especially crazy Nami, she’s always fun to watch.

Score wouldn’t even get past a 6.0 w/o some crazy Nami.

Overall movie score: 8.0 out of 10

(I know, low-res pic but I can’t find a HQ version of this specific one. Beh.)

First things first, I enjoyed the movie. Also, it was very depressing.

The reason I enjoyed the movie was mainly… or maybe, *solely*… because I’m a fan of the manga. The NANA manga is one of my favorite shoujo mangas. I can say with almost certainty that this movie was for the manga fans. I think those that haven’t read the manga wouldn’t be able to enjoy the movie near as much as those that did. There were several parts of the movie where the scenes kinda jumped around. One thing would happen then it’d go to another scene, seemingly in the middle of something, then jump away to something else again. For those that haven’t read the manga, I think they may derive a different conclusion to some scenes compared to those that have read it.

I can’t say how good the movie was as an Asian drama in itself. I haven’t watched an Asian drama in quite a while so I don’t have much of a reference. Plus, no matter how hard I try not to be, I’m biased. Obviously, I can’t compare it to American dramas since that’s like comparing American comics (X-Men and the like) to manga. They’re just too different.

Ah, I did mention it was depressing, too, didn’t I?

I’m not referring to “depressing” as in it had crazy sad shit happen all the time. It’s more referring to the overall mood of the movie. By contrast, the manga was a mix between serious drama with sad/depressing stories and random, silly comedy. The mangaka, Yazawa Ai, has the ability to tell a great, serious story but still use plenty of comedy and not disrupt the flow of the story. If I had to choose, the mood of the manga was more depressing than light-hearted but only by a bit. The mood of the movie, however, was almost totally depressing. Sure it had some comedic moments taken straight from the manga but they were rare. It seems they were shooting for something way more dramatic than anything else, and in that, they succeeded. This movie was definitely a drama.

I should mention that being depressing isn’t a bad thing. I liked the mood. The significant scenes had more impact this way. I actually teared up during one of the scenes. It had a good impact on me in the manga and seeing it live really struck a cord. Even I have weaknesses that cause me to bawl like a schoolgirl being dumped on her prom night.

The characters were portrayed surprisingly well. Since I had an image of these characters in manga form, I figured it’d be hard to shake that and really enjoy the characters in this movie. Granted, it took me about half an hour to get used to them but after that, they grew on me. The acting could’ve been a tad better (When Oosaki Nana tries to be really pissed or cold, it doesn’t come off as such. Well, it’s obvious what she’s intending but it doesn’t seem “real” enough). Still, the characters did look freakishly similiar to that of the manga and the primary aspects of their personalities transferred over well so I shouldn’t complain at all.

The story felt a bit rushed but I guess it’s not easy to tell 5-ish volumes of manga in just two hours while making sure to build up all the drama so it seems real. What’s interesting is that they left out quite a few side stories and some characters. I haven’t read the manga in a while so my memory is vague but there were definitely some stories not in the movie and at least one character. Oh, this isn’t a complaint. Had they included more stories, it would’ve only made things worse. Additionally, the things they left out weren’t that important towards the main stories so no worries there.
EDIT: Then why the fuck did I bring it up? Yeesh…

All in all, I definitely enjoyed the movie. Most of that is due to liking the manga so much but do I care? Not in the least.

Overall movie score: 9.25 out of 10

EDIT: I watched this fansubbed, why didn’t I take any screenies? Why the hell did I snatch some crappy as pic from the web and use that? Ok, I probably liked the pic but I could’ve still taken some screenies, sheesh.