While I do think there is a lot to love about this movie, unfortunately it just didn’t work for me overall. I think where it exceeds is obviously the insanely gorgeous visuals, the fun music, and just the overall cute romantic vibe.

But it wasn’t really much to me beyond a cute story. I’ve seen plenty of romances and in comparison I just didn’t see anything that made this stand out or made me care about their particular relationship. The science fiction aspect is cool but also leads to my biggest issue with the film.

I take issues with consent very seriously and it really impacts how I will personally feel about a film. And this film is VERY flippant with it’s approach to it. The way Taki non-consensually explores Mitsuha’s body is gross and it’s gross that this film 1. acknowledges that he shouldn’t be doing that and then 2. has him do it anyway while playing it for jokes. It downplays the issue in a big way that’s lazy and irresponsible.