Genre: Slice of life, psychological drama, romance
Length: Feature-length film
Rating: 15 for complex psychology and adult themes
Score: Very Good
Okazaki Tomoya is a student who goes to school only as a force of habit. He continues to be plagued by nightmares of a world with nothing left, where his existence is a mere conciousness. On the way to school one day, he meets a girl called Furukawa Nagisa, who from then on follows him to school every day, unable to climb the stairs by herself. While helping Nagisa to organize the Drama Club, Tomoya slowly starts to open up and actually enjoy his life again. But the dreams he has might be something more than just dreams…
Although the starting premise is almost identical between the film and the TV series, the film was made some 6 months before the series was aired and tells the story in quite a different way. The first half of the film is a compressed version of the TV series, but the second half extends a few years beyond the end of the TV series. You really must watch the TV series first, since the second half of the film will give you a kick in the guts, and might spoil your enjoyment of an excellent series.
There are mutterings of a second season of the TV series, so it’s possible the second half of this film might well be also extended to a full-length series. I’m looking forward to it, but if the film’s anything to go by, don’t expect it to be cheerful.