Sweet. I love this.

I liked the movie a lot. Reni-chan signed a towel and pamphlet and gave them to janken winners (happened to be 2 grade school kids). Kwkm was the manager on site. She did a cooperation exercise with a girl in the audience. They had to sit with their backs together and try to stand up without using their hands. 2 male fans also did it and got to shake her hand afterwards. Photos of the theater will be posted on her blog. We all sang the chorus of Hashire! together, too.

Oh and the cameos are a nice nod to mononofu.

mocha21 said:

ah, the Nihon Eiga promotional tie-in videos were taken off when I haven't save them yet

You didn't miss much, those were very short and basically just them repeating the tagline again and again.

I'm curious about reception as well. Since I don't live in Japan I don't have a way of knowing the scale of the project. Basically the only way for it to make it to my city's international film festival is for it to be critically acclaimed or some odd thing to happen =))

Well, it's far from perfect. From a mononofu's stand point, I'd give it a solid 8/10. From a general audience standpoint, around 6.5/10.
There are moments where their acting potential shines, but it is noticeable that they haven't been trained for acting.
The story really revolves around the growth and maturation of Takahashi Saori (Kanako). I guess as befitting the leader and main character, she does get the most screen time.
There are a few moments of well timed comedy, and when I saw it, the audience noticeably laughed (myself included) when Yukko's (Shiorin's) father was introduced on screen.
Momoka fans will be disappointed for 1/3 of the movie since she's hardly in the first half due to the nature of her character.
Reni-chan is the only member fit to play Garuru, but sometimes I felt that the energy of her character clashes with some scenes and makes her acting appear unnatural and forced.
The supporting cast does a good job, especially the art teacher/drama club (assistant) advisor, Yoshioka (Kuroki Haru).
One thing that bothered me a little was the use of inner monologue to express Saori's feelings through the first half or so of the movie. It felt like it was used to make up for the lack of acting discipline, that there was no other way to convey them to the audience.

I don't see a reason for non-fans to see this movie unless they read and liked the book though. However, if non-fans see it, I think there's a good chance they will become fans.

First time watching it doesn't really allow me to write completely objectively, but I do plan on seeing it at least two more times because I bought tickets from the 7-11 promotion.

Momoka has actual acting experience, but my guess would probably actually be Aarin.

(I haven't seen the movie)

MCZTamanofu said:

Well, it's far from perfect.

thanks for the review :) oh well so the problem still lingers at their acting, I was excited since the storyboard is done by the same guy who wrote my favorite movie Kirishima Thing so I except some cool story progressions, but looks like their acting can't be ignored too. I just watched momodra in the other thread and I can kinda see that..
for me Shiori fits the actress image among of the five, but only the image :))

^^There's definitely a naturalness to their performances but I didn't think Momoka was too bad in the third one. I'll admit I've rose colored glasses when it comes to her.

Mononofus!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a friend/fellow takanofu in Japan that's helping with the overseas movement and will be attending the AE screening next week with Reni being the one to talk to the audience. To give the girl's more exposure to us overseas fans,she's starting a project. Contacting her to be revealed later because it's posted on Facebook where she usually contacts some of us.

Edit: Here's the email renichanlove0621@gmail.com



The photo spoken of here is basically what was seen on Reni's postcard from Folkmura which I will upload soon (Not sure if it works on mobile.... and the group is currently closed as an experiment)