I've Always Liked You

Several relationships are running at once at Sakuragaoka high school. Natsuki decides to tell her childhood friend Yu how she feels. In the end she says it. But Yu takes it for a rehearsal; Natsuki had practised on him before for telling someone else, and he assumes it is the same again. From then the narrative follows both this pair and the other couples around them; everyone wants to say something and nobody finds the right moment. Tetsuya Yanagisawa directs. The film dates from 2016. The source is a series of songs published online; the tracks were widely listened to and the characters came out of them. The structure has many strands; several relationships are told at once and the sections are short. The humour is built on misunderstanding, and that is the film's only idea. The animation is measured; the school settings are detailed while the movement is limited. The songs are used inside the narrative and each relationship is tied to a track. Its limit is depth; the characters are given in short introductions and some connections are missing for anyone who does not know the source. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese school romance and productions drawn from music. Who it is not for: the narrative is simple, the characters thin, and there is much repetition.