Her Blue Sky

Once again director Tatsuyuki Nagai and writer Mari Okada (both did "Anthem of the Heart") have teamed up for an excellent anime depicting elements of fantasy in a reality-grounded story that most people can relate to. And the end result is an engrossing slice of life drama with gorgeous visuals and pretty good music.

Nagai directed also "Anohana the Movie." All three of these movies share the similar combination of having fantastic elements intertwined with stories of normal teenagers and young adults striving to understand their paths in life. It's an effective use of anime to give voice to what I'm sure many people have felt before.

Okada also wrote "A Whisker Away" and who is easily one of the best anime/manga writers in the industry today. In these three prime examples of her work, the protagonist is a young girl who comes to terms with growing up, supporting by a cast of fleshed out characters and situations that are very relatable.

The is what anime as a medium can do so well - give us stories and visuals which are a feast for both our souls and our eyes.

The ending song - Aoi by singer/songwriter Aimyon - is also pretty good.

This is a Tear Jerking Movie. But in the end you want more

This movie is about Aioi, a teenage girl who wants to become a star bass guitarist. After Aioi's parents died, her sister Akane gave up her love with her boyfriend, Shinno, who inspired Aioi and also wanted to become a star musician. The movie covers what happens to them after 13 years and how their lives unfold.

The story has good potential to make a good drama film with heavy emotions. The characters are written well as what they want, how the course of life changed them, what their current mindset is, etc. The emotional scenes were good towards the climax. The difference between Shinno and Shinnosuke was that they were written well and contributed to the story.

The story narration and pacing were slow, which made me distracted from the movie. The humour scenes did not work well for me. The movie looked stretched just to make it longer. The story progresses mediocre until the climax, where the emotions are high, but it ends very flat.

The animation is amazing as in some landscapes, the background frames look real. The voice acting was good as I watched it in Sub, which made the emotions connect well. The music was good, but the songs were not admirable. The strength is the strong character's emotions towards the climax. The weakness is the narration & pacing, and it took a long to tell a short story.

In conclusion, I have mixed thoughts as I like the emotions and character arc. But I can't watch it again due to the way they presented it as a film. I would recommend it if you are into the romance/drama genre and can withstand a slow-pacing narration.