Nerawareta Gakuen

Oh boy...this movie was a sit to get through... Alright before LA starts thrashing this movie, LA might as well get what it did RIGHT before tearing into this one. There will be mild spoilers ahead you have been warned! So this movie has time travelers and psychics involved and what they do with it as iffy of subject it is for time travel to pull off of...LA will be at least a bit lenient and say that Nerawareta Gakuen did...."ok" but even then it has some problems but that a bit later. The voice acting wasn't that bad all thing considering with Kana Hanazawa doing her typical nice girl scthick down to a T to the straight-forward violent tsundere of Mayu Watanabe as Natsuki AAAAAAAND that's it. Well let's get down to one of the strength's weaknesses LA pointed out, that of time travelers and psychics, well as much as the plot has this for a setting and some of the characters are one and everything, Nerawareta Gakuen focuses more on it's character relationship dilemma's and cellphone banning than time travelers and psychics. Though some might defend the cellphone banning being tied to the psychics BUT that plot point is brought up constantly saying how cellphone is bad for the school and everything however what the problem with this defence is the mere fact that once Kyougoku stops changing people to psychics, the cellphone banning isn't brought up AT ALL, almost like the cellphone banning wasn't going anywhere, thematically or plot-wise. Kyougoku's plan of "saving the world" is also kinda weird as well, like turn people into psychics then bring them over to his timeline and that would work through cellphone banning???..huh?...see how the cellphone banning isn't exactly thematically woven in properly?, well that and what was the point of Kenji, Kahori and Natsuki defending their ground against cellphone banning?...don't bring your cellphone and get turned into a psychic, bring your cellphone and get severely and hilariously put on trial (no seriously this happens). LA DOES get the point of the cellphone banning situation, due to psychics having telepathy thus the need for cellphones are useless but again...it isn't brought up again and that rather kills it's theming of "knowing people's feelings" if it just drops like this for a sorta shaky time traveling sideplot. So those characters...yeah there ALL bland characters, we got the ditzy bland male protagonist Kenji Seki who has a crush on Kana Hanazawa's character Kahori with her also having a crush on the new mysterious transfer student Kyougoku and finally we have the violent tsundere Natsuki. Kenji and Natsuki defiance against the cellphone banning does tie into their relationship theming of not understanding each other and as blatant as possible of the entire "show your emotions, but if your psychic it's pointless and it's not their true feelings" spiel is executed weirdly considering the situation. The rest of the cast really have no bearing on the plot as the main focus are just on these four. Sure we find revelations about Kenji, Natsuki and Kyougoku but base personality wise all that changes is Kenji turns from ditzy main protagonist to...confident protagonist. KAHORI is the worst of lot as she really doesn't change from ANY of this. So characters and the plot turned on it's head, how about the animation?..from Sunrise no less?...well the best way LA would say is a combination of "visual overload" and "movement porn", what does LA mean by that?, well visual overload occurs frequently in Nerawareta Gakuen due to excessive use of lens flares ANY chance it gets to characters' movement being rather erratic any chance that gets to, so seeing those two elements think of combining the two with some pretty decent backgrounding only for "things" to distract you with LOTS of movement any chance it gets. LA will be honest but LA was hit with the visual overload in less than 5 minutes of the movie with how it bombarded LA with this much hyperactively bright animation and constant motion. And this leads LA right down to the fundamental problem of Nerawareta Gakuen animation and LA will take an excerpt from the Nostalgia Critic's Smurf's movie review if that isn't a bother to anyone. "This safe, boring and repetitive movement is the same as looking at a watch waving back and forth. They're both trying to hypnotize and relax you so that you don't think about what you're watching. And that's not what a movie is supposed to do. You're supposed to think about it. You're supposed to be sucked in. But this method is an ingenious way to numb your brains without feeling bored, so you think it must be doing something right, when really, it's just junk food for your mind. And it's all over the movie." AND that's just how LA felt about this movie's over-excessive use of animation on that front too, just the difference between Nerawareta Gakuen and Smurfs is that the Smurfs were being lazy and placid for the sake of laziness to prove this point, Nerawareta Gakuen does it because of it's over ambitiousness and hyperactive nature to prove the point. So essentially we have a movie where the more interesting elements of the movie isn't used to it's best potential (or at all) and favours "talking" and typical relationship dilemma's instead, characters are as bland as cardboard and hardly develop, over-excessive animation barring on visual overload and movement porn any chance it gets with some decent voice acting here and there. Is Nerawareta Gakuen like some illegitimate love child of Hand Shakers and Glasslip or what?. As harsh as LA had been with this movie and yes LA was harsh in some instances, LA DID want to like to this or find some strengths that might redeem itself however too many factors barred LA from enjoying this movie let alone desperately find something to hook LA but how Nerawareta Gakuen was executed especially in it's over-excessive animation and especially the last quarter of rushed plot was the final nail in the coffin for LA from even trying to enjoy it. Nerawareta Gakuen "tries to be interesting on visuals alone" but fails in this regard and LA won't say this is the worst movie LA has seen of all time but uhhh...it's up there, it's up there.

So… I have to start by saying this is one of the most confusing movies I have seen in a while, but also very well done. The reason why it’s confusing may be because it went though about eight different adaptations. ‘Nerawareta Gakuen’ was a science fiction novel written by Taku Mayumura in 1973. It became a television drama in 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1997 with two live action films done in 1981 and 1997. The one I am talking about now is the 2012 animated film version which came out around the same time as the manga. There is one small problem here in my tackling this animation, I have never seen any of the other adaptations, nor have I actually read the novel. I feel like I missed a lot within this story sadly. Where do I begin with this show? To talk about the characters would spoil so many things sadly and you can’t really talk about the story without spoilers as well. I will do my best but it’s hard not to spoil. Our main character, Kenji Seki, is a middle school student like any other. He has a girl next door, Natsuki Suzuura, who has been his childhood friend for much of his life, and the crush on one of the popular girls who seems pretty much perfect in every way. Of course, there is this three way love triangle that is in all romances, where you just want to yell at them to confess their love to each other. One day, a mysterious new student shows up as the people around the school are starting to act a little strange... and that’s pretty much all I can say without breaking spoilers. The story, I’m not going to lie, is a bit dull. The major points do make you think and have a rather deep meaning to them if you are like me and love diving into psychology and sociology, otherwise it’s basic and bland clichés. So, this is the point where I have to tell you to skip this paragraph if you do not want spoilers at all. I am going to be talking about a bit of philosophy that is set within the movie and why I feel like I missed something really important in watching this. This may also be sort of a rant because it’s hard to explain fully. Spoiler stuff starts sort of. A big part of the show talks about the limitations we place on ourselves and how to break those limitations. One aspect that we limit our evolution is using cell phones and our way to express how we feel though words. According to them, the cell phone is only a false sense of bringing people together. Instead of bringing people together, its pushing people apart but we cling to the cell phone like a security blanket as to not feel lonely. They even make a very large attempt at banning cell phones in the school, going as far as to expel anyone caught with a cell phone. Opinions of people who wake up to their psychic powers also seem to change their views very fast to follow what the group thinks making the concept of the psychic mind sound much more like a hive mind, similar to the monster called “Legion” or “Unity”. There are two small problems with this concept that they have brought up to this movie. The first is that I love a world where we can voice our own opinions (I am talking civilized discussions, not trolly ‘I’m right and your wrong’ yelling matches). It’s a way that we can see others point of view and even if we disagree, we may find that we have more in common then first thought. Second, the idea that cell phones are pushing us farther apart (or even the internet pushes us apart) just doesn’t seem right. I have friends I have met online who live thousands of miles away. They are some of the best friends I have ever met and though we do not talk often enough, when we do talk, it’s like we are in the same room. I don’t even think psychic abilities would even be able to replace that. While the movie does seem to change the idea and try to make up for it, these concepts take up most of the movie. Spoiler stuff ended. The backgrounds of this show are so beautiful and serene as though you’re only getting a faint glimmer of the world around you. It’s as though you’re looking through a fog or you’re not quite awake through the whole movie. The times when the art gets a bit darker and more defined are the more intense scenes, much of how we will see most dramatic points in our lives more vivid then say what we had for breakfast two days ago (unless you had a awesome breakfast that day). Sadly, the characters seem to be lacking against this sort of background. Many times, they feel as though they lose their proportions or have almost a weightless feel. There is even one scene where a girl sort of jumps another on the back but yet she seems to float in place for a few moments. The other doesn’t even show that any weight has been put on her body as well in this same scene. The clothing also doesn’t seem like its actually flowing right on the forms that are there. These might be very little things to nit pick about but when you have such a beautiful landscape and then you see the characters, it sort of pulls you out of the moment. The music is amazing, with a very beautiful piano melody that feels like its placing you within a dream. This piece works really well with the very soft watercolor/pastel style artwork. If you want to look it up, the song is called ‘Clair de Lune’ which is French for “Light of the moon” or “Moonlight”. They played is so much that it’s the one piece of music that stands out in my head now looking back but it never got old. The English voice acting is not bad at all, although it did sound a bit preachy in some spots. I don’t know if this was because of translations or if it was because the sub was that way too. What I found was this movie first was showed off at a thing called ‘Scotland loves Animation’ so I think that the dub had been made first though this is only speculation. So is this movie worth the watch? I say it is. Although there are a couple things I did not understand or did not agree with, the show did make me think and has a very sweet little romance story involved. The backgrounds are a work of art and the use of ‘Clair de Lune’ made it all that better. Some things to note before you watch it; the story is a bit lack luster in how it was executed, very cliché. The first part of the show almost made me want to fall asleep to it. They didn’t get into the interesting stuff until they got farther in the story. If you like shows that make you think, then you’re golden. If you like more action base, then you might want to look elsewhere.

TLDR: Don't watch unless you're one of those sadists that likes watching garbage films. Before I begin this review and go into depth about my reasons I must first inform you that this is the absolute worst movie I have ever had the displeasure of watching. I hope this will save you the agonizing ~2 hours of your life that I unfortunately threw away watching this train-wreck of a movie. Story: The story is confusing, painful, and just plain difficult to watch. The first major plot line introduced is the fact that cell phones are banned at the school because apparently (you don't learn this till you're already an hour into the movie and even then it doesn't explain it well) some girl tried to kill herself or something because she was being bullied, I have no clear idea why or how since everyone seemed to be absolutely fine with her once she came to the school. Anyway this random sub plot continues for the entire movie slowly progressing in it's strictness (no reason besides the one previously stated) until it literally has girls sobbing on their desks and I believe some random person also gets killed because they opposed the rule (kinda ironic since the entire reason they banned it was because someone almost died. Further more the main plot revolves around a guy from the future (who's a psychic) trying to take control of the school to help his father with something (never explained) and the main character (who's apparently a badass psychic) putting and end to it after he gains his power. Art: Absolutely beautiful, one of the best animations if have seen. The only issue I have is that there was an excess amount of cherry blossoms in every scene. Sound: Clear and easily hear. The sub had a couple of obvious mistakes in it though. Character: The main character is hard to like in my opinion and only becomes tolerable until the very end when he gets his psychic power or whatever. The reason I gave this a 5 was because the love interest between him and his neighbor was the only redeeming quality I could hope for while watching the movie and he totally fucks it up. Like to the point of being unable to watch without cringing. Enjoyment: If you read the rest I think this goes without saying. Truly difficult to watch and enjoy. Overall: The only reason why this wasn't ranked lower is because of the art and the minuscule love interest between the main character and his neighbor.

STORY ~6 The basis for the plot was good. In fact, good enough that I could have given it a 7-8, but I had to reduce it down to a 6 because, even though the idea was a very good one, as I was watching it, I felt that the story was very 'jumpy' and 'all over the place,' and also rushed through. They left a lot of unanswered questions too, which brings it down more as well. This could have been avoided by playing things out in a straight forward manner that was easy to follow, at least so that you knew what was going on at least 90% of the time instead of 60%. Basically, they could have saved the story line if they didn't make it so that it was confusing and leaving the viewer feeling like they missed out on some of the movie even though they've watched it all. ART ~10 The artwork in Nerawareta Gakuen saves the movie completely. Every scene was beautiful and colourful; you can tell they really put a lot of work into the animation. SOUND ~8 Not much to say about this, but it was enjoyable. Nothing to praise, nothing to diss. CHARACTER ~7 There was nothing particularly wrong with the characters -they were relatable and pleasant to watch. That being said, I feel as though there was something missing from them. It's like I just couldn't get attached to them like I normally get attached to the characters while watching something. There wasn't a lot of character development for any of them, besides for maybe Natsuki, but even at that, there wasn't much for her. ENJOYMENT/OVERALL ~6.5 Overall, however, I enjoyed watching Nerawareta Gakuen because even though I thought the plot progression was a bit of a mess, I was constantly wondering how things would end up in the end throughout the movie. Although I doubt I'll be watching this again, and if I do it won't be for a long time.

As for this movie, I would have to say it's not half bad... The story had an unsorted pacing though... but overall I was satisfied by it... Story = 7 For me, it has a mild and calm setup... for people who wants to watch this movie; i think you would be delighted fair enough... The main problem I saw was the sequencing/ pacing... But I think it will depend on your how you try to understand it... overall of the story is sufficient... Art = 8 I think its art and music are the main fortes of the movie, it belongs to the latest art styles we commonly observe now and has a soothing aura for the people who watch it. Sound = 8 I especially liked the song selection of the movie. One of my favorite song of all time, Giniro Hikousen by Supercell was in this movie... So great and mellow :3 Characters = 7 Their development in the first part was pretty normal but begins to accelerate fast going in its climax, but still inclined with the story and still understandable in sense. Enjoyment = 8 Enjoyment is simply good, I had a good time. Overall is good... and had fun watchin' it, have fun too :D

Some people will say that they didn't like it because it was cliche or because the story was badly explained. But this is why I loved this movie, without spoilers it's hard to explain but, it was cliche in not a bad way but it brought a very unique twist to it and the story was very interesting, touching and hard to understand. I'm pretty sure you may feel frustrated because you didn't understand the story. Personally I didn't understand everything, but once I did it all came together and I simply loved it. I love to be mind blown by a story and this is why I liked it a lot. Those who made this movie are not incompetent in their ability to explain a story, in fact they are super talented in making it somewhat mysterious until the end. Oh, how many movies are predictable, for this one it wasn't the case in my experience. So if you're looking for a very beautiful (in every sense), touching (cliche) story, but in a unique way that will get you thinking, this movie truly is awesome.

At first, I found this a slow-paced anime that was heavy on the typical Japanese nostalgia (cherry blossoms, high school, etc), but at around halfway when the actual plot kicks in, it starts to become compelling in spite of itself. If you are looking for an actual psychic war, this will disappoint, but in an odd way its slow pace and reticence about the details makes it a lot more watchable than if it was explicit and explained everything. It's more of a healing anime than anything, something you watch to relax and enjoy the gentle points being made. Unfortunately the downsides of the anime are many and prevalent. The art is good, but tries to evoke nostalgia too much and resembles a Thomas Kinkade painting will all the emphasis placed on multicolored light. Towards the end, too many things just happen without much grounding in a solid plot. And the first twenty minutes are slow enough to turn you off the anime, with focus on rather normal school lives and obsession with mobile phones as a barrier to real communication. You can't help but wish for a bit less blushing love, and more of the awakened psychics acting in the school (done absolutely wonderfully, as it's not really a "war" at all, and then the whole obsession with mobiles make sense) and just a little more of the science fiction part of the film. I found it good to watch, but I can definitely understand the low scores. It's a film you'd need to watch to find out if you like it or not.

## - Find this hashtag if you don’t wanna read this long review. Well… There’s really pretty fascinating stuffs in this… But it no doubt frustrates you, even if you like the movie, and I can’t really figure it out, why this anime is getting good scores, because it’s really uneven, it’s really good…. And really bad at times…. Tons of 8/10, tons of 7/10, what anime did u guys watched today?? I mean, maybe my experience was ruined because, I did watched till the end…and I realised, something went wrong… I was about to make this an 8…. BUT no, I didn’t!! When I watched the trailer I was like, omg, the animation, it really tops the level of the anime. And then after that, I went crazy and mad after watching this I was hoping a good expectation, but did u guys even know what just happened after watching this? There’s no way they’re ending like that with all those holes! To me…. This anime was a BEAUTIFUL LOOKING DISSAPOINTMENT. Starting off the beginning. the Story was FINE.. Literally fine from the beginning and then it destroyed the plot at the end. There are parts of HEART TOUCHING ROMANCES which is fine… TBH, I’m more into romance animes, I’ve SEEN TONS OF GOOD ROMANCE ANIMES and bad ones. It devolves into Braingames and clues which you need to frickin know what the heck it’s going on!!!! I went like what… cuz its similar to that masterpiece movie, Kimi no na wa! That ending was one of the confusing and open ended scene. So we’re gonna have to WAIT until the next sequel!! It made me feel, like everything I went through it was for nothing but a waste of time!(4/10) Despite some ANIMATIONS!! FANTASTIC! I LOOKED THE STAFF AND FOUND OUT HE WAS THE SAME GUY WHO MADE “GRIMGAR, FANTASY AND ASH” AND I CAN’T STOP LOVING THIS ANIMATION AND ART. IT’S WAY BEAUTIFUL THAN GRIMGAR! THAT’S THE WHOLE PART I LIKE ABOUT THIS WHOLE MOVIE! That’s probably why the rating is, higher than it should be. (10/10) The music! Again! Fantastic! They did a perfect timing when comes to some scenes and we have to listen the beautiful orchestra while watching the anime! It has a beautiful and heart-warming feel to it. Pretty much everything (10/10) SPOILER AHEAD!!! Some characters were okay and some aren’t… I’m okay with the characters! HOWEVER! HOWEVER! There are characters which the movie never explains how and why!!! OMG, I got so angry when this CHARACTER, Kyougoku, Ryouichi, like how did he get on earth, what is his purpose ?!?! And what is he trying to do with that thing….whatever that Thing, this magical tool thing….. YES, there are Little details about that tool is…. Same goes TO Seki, Kenji. AGAIN! How did he got those powers? Female characters went slightly out from the plot, especially the side characters…. Romance parts I saw were good! SOME PARTS! AGAIN! Heart-warming scenes for some parts… OH RIGHT! I ! There’s one part that this main guy came in to the atrium with his swimsuit! And he takes his phone out from his underwear!! YEAH!! IM NOT JOKING! Like from the front. That gave me a mind blown because how the phoneis not clearly seen in front? What is this? DORAEMON’S NEW POCKET?! (4/10) ## Overall – The final verdict for this anime is a 5/10. Maybe lower… I know it sounds good! I know it looks good! But the plot is the problem here for me. The STORY IS THE PROBLEM HERE… THE ENDING…. Parts of it were okay! But it overuses the plot holes up till the ending. THAT ENDING you will have felt cheated even after reading the articles, finding the ending explanation! It made me insanse! There are tons of UNANSWERED QUESTIONS and I know that may have been the intention but opening an ending like this have been done better. I wanted a satisfying ending and no plot holes that leaves me wanting more… not this where I BET YOUR THIS 2nd SEASON is going to COME AND FINISH THIS. It’s okay, enjoyable at times… BUT CONFUSING, ANNOYING, UNDENIABALY, TOO MUCH PLOT HOLES! If you’re looking for a GOOD ANIME like this, I’ll tell you what, START WITH “GRIMGAR, Fantasy and Ash” I WANT YOU TO WATCH THAT SERIES and then after THAT, should you give this one a try? Well…. I guess that’s it… (5/10)

I want my time back. Wow this movie is only about beautiful color, but to the point that is annoying, I mean the color palette is beautiful, the scenery, the photography of the movie is very cute, but when every single shoot is the same then is loose the impact very soon. I can tell immediately that the director like Sunrises, ray of sunlight throught the windows and the beach, ahhh and don’t forget the trains, or sakuras, sakuras in every single shoot. Animation/ Sound ( 9/10)…. Like I wrote before, is the only good thing about the movie, the scenery and the cute animation. Plot (1/10 ) : Nonexistence, inconsistent, very boring and full of WTF , yeah at the end anything make sense. I have no idea how I manage to end this movie. Characters (1/10) : They barely show any development, you have no idea what are their purposes , dialogues are plain and don’t give any support to the plot, they are barely a medium to show the reason (which is still stupid) of the movie, replace them with cardboard and will have the same effect. I can even say they are the typical archetype since they are even more boring that that. Enjoyment (5/10) I kind of like the first half, then I have to pause the movie, continue with my life, then again take ir back since I rarely drop a movie, I mean I spent my time on it, but I get bored with sakura petals in every single shoot, even on the beach, I think that was overdramatic, force drama, force love, force everything. Overall ( 4): I kind of enjoy first half then I thought maybe character will show any development or maybe plot with make sense, but no, WAS even worse, plot was a mess, character stay right there in the “I´m generic boring zone” and well animation was cute but come on don’t make all the movie the same. I don’t recommend this movie, you can do better with the time you will spend of this ._.

I like this movie, after watching this movie the first thing I thought of was the old love quote, "I love you to the moon and back." This anime movie is indeed a bit cliché, but in a good way. Not too many animes try to take the concept of using an old story, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which is continually referenced, but made a subplot out of it and making a somewhat modern story out of it. I do agree that the title, "Psychic School Wars", a bit of a disappointment when you don't see too much psychic abilities featured or warfare. I was kind of hoping the plot was more like "Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!", but with psychic abilities. But they weren't actually referring to actual war in the movie either, the quote "All is fair in love and war" loosely fits the plot of the movie. There are however some moments in the movie that they failed to develop much plot behind, almost as if there was originally an anime had been planned at one point. (Like as if this movie was supposed to be a sort of recollection of the actual anime. Something like "Star Driver: The Movie".) Over all the movie is great if you enjoy brain teasing plots, classical music, and beautiful design. If it wasn't for the fact I'm used to animes using tear-jerking moments, this may had a chance of being a tear-jerker too.

Even though the movie was stuffed with whole bunch of clichés. I generally found myself enjoying it. This anime has its issues and I would call it far from a master piece. But it also has its moments. Firstly the characters in this movie felt real and their emotions were genuine. Next were the was the art which I have got to say amazed me every time from small details such as the sand on the beach to the way that the characters looked. Overall I would recommend people to give it a try and I'm probably going to rewatch it sometime .

Meh I can't even recommend leaving this on for background entertainment as it's so muddled if you don't pay close attention you will be lost. You'll probably be lost anyway but that's not surprising. As there's 25 characters credited in a 105 minute movie. The story line is fraught with cheap tricks and annoying shifts in focus. There's the continuous use of interrupting the characters while they are in the process of moving the plot forward. Tolerable in very small doses, but more than once or twice it becomes annoying and lets you know that the author is just trolling you. There's large swathes of exposition lapsing into pretentious mysticism that's meant to convey the background of the world and the rules of how things are working. Unfortunately it just makes it a talky confused muddle. Worst for last there are the cliche plot devices, love at first sight, the woman who sacrifices everything for their love, lovable clueless guy, he's really a superbeing but we locked downs his abilities for reasons, they really were meant for each other all along. Get the feeling they tried to pull too much here to do anything well ? You are not wrong. The ending literally makes no sense at all, and the afterward feels like it's tacked on to leave you even more confused giving even less of a f**k about what happened. The art is something of a Jekyll and Hyde affair. The CGI for the psychic special fx, and the light special effects is really down beautifully, but the character designs and drawn backgrounds could all be better. The music is very good if rather overpowering and needed to be deployed better. You had those previously mentioned exposition/mysticism bits fighting with background music. I often found myself wishing I could turn off the dialog and just leave the music to go with the animation. I think I might have been able to come up with something on the fly that was more entertaining. Verdict: Skip

Warning, very personal criticisms. Please don't get angry. I've watched very little anime and most of my time watching said anime is rewatching anime that I've already watched because they mean a lot to me. Things I've watched I would say that they were very easy to follow. I'm a very emotional guy but I love to look for romance when finding new things to watch. But with watching much romance, for me, I get a very bad emotional baggage (which I enjoy because I feel like I grow as a person when struggling with it) where I think about the emotional coaster the anime has gotten me into. The anime Nerawareta Gakuen was very hard to follow for me. Throughout watching the anime, I couldn't relate or get emotionally attached to any of the characters. Nothing in the plot made sense. I understand that explaining the entire plot is boring and I understand that as long as you understand what is freaking going on, there's no need for explaining. My favorite show which does this correctly is House Of Cards and Black Mirror. Both shows not needed to explain the plot because it is easily understood. Leaving the viewers to question plot holes is very much part of the enjoyable experience. An anime example I would like to throw out there is Your Name. Very little explaining of the plot, but very easy to catch on to and very enjoyable plotholes. The anime Nerawareta Gakuen might not be an anime for me altogether. Maybe I just don't like plotholes and open-ended questions that I need to answer on my own when watching anime. But I know that's not the case because there is a short film that I watched that counters this argument, Shelter. Full of questions, a very enjoyable part of the experience. All in all, I didn't enjoy the plot of the film, nor get attached to the characters. But I will rewatch it because maybe knowing what's going to happen next while rewatching will help me catch the details that I missed. P.S. Another anime I've watched where I felt the same way like this* (in said review) is Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. I've given it an 8 because it was doing well during the early half of the film but then gotten crazy during the rest of it. If you guys know what's wrong with me and what is something I can improve on when watching these types of films to get what's going on, I'm all ears.

Rather than saying "Psychic School Wars", let's start off instead with "The Mysterious Life of Kenji Seki". The title of the anime is definitely relevant, however it's only REAL purpose is to start your journey into the many hidden meanings throughout this anime. It doesn't require a high intelligence to understand it, but it does require a little bit of inquisitive problem solving. Story wise of course. The word "feel" is important in this story AND in this review. The art work and the fluid motion of it is truly amazing. You literally feel that something is in motion every second and it really expresses itself with it. The music, voice acting, and all the subtle little noises and sound effects are top notch. You could close your eyes and still enjoy the show. It's not the best I've experienced, but it's pretty up there and one I will remember. The character development is natural and you can really feel as if these are real people living in that town. The way they interact with each other, and express themselves. You can watch not only their facial expressions, but their body language and immediately know what they might be feeling/thinking. The scenery and setting pieces in this puzzle fit perfectly enough that you couldn't even slide a sheet of paper between them. The story itself is deep. On the surface it may come off at first as another generic supernatural story line with fancy visuals. But within the first 10 minutes you realize you couldn't be any more wrong. I was enamored by the many levels of this story that were going on at once and continued throughout. It also is good at not adding anything unnecessary to it's purpose. So, no random pointless tangents. I'm not throwing out any examples as I'm trying to avoid solving any story mysteries or answer any potential questions because it's best to experience it all as you go, and find your own conclusions. This anime does have deep meaning throughout and may give you pause at some moments, but it's brilliant in it's execution. After all the praise I have for this, there is but two things I feel are off. Almost everything about this was fantastic to me, except that I feel it had just a couple too many "ah ha, so that why" moments, and if I had to ask, they could have stretched out a few of the quickly tied up ends around 3/4 the way through. All in all, I really would recommend this to anyone who appreciates a deep meaningful story and excellent artwork. Side Note: Sit through the credits.

The animation in this movie was STUPENDOUS! Very well done in the art department and fluid animation. The characters had many different facial expressions and their actions were realistic and well done. The storyline was pretty good as it went along, although it left some to be desired. The thing that bothered me the most was the ending, there are SOOO many unresolved questions! Other than the ending, I enjoyed the animation and watching it was fun, but mainly because of how well the animation was. Overall an enjoyable movie.

“Psychic School Wars” is what happens when you cut out a good 30% out of your script and lose its identity along the way. I would divide this movie into two parts: The first part could work as the first act. It actually does most things that the first act should. It establishes the characters of interest (Ryouichi, Kenji, Natsuki and Kahori) , their relationships and interactions, presents the status quo of the world, and introduces the catalyst of change. Is it done competently? Not even close. It’s like watching the first draft before it goes through an editor. Even this early the movie sets up plot points that are never explained despite being rather crucial for the overall plot. The movie has a runtime of about 100 minutes (without the credits) and yet it deems fit to waste the little time it has, setting up things that it will never return to. The second part is… hard to watch. It piles up more and more mysteries, more and more questions that are important to the plot that will never get answered and it tries to be deeper than it really is with the pseudo philosophical angle and the use of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” as a metaphor. It culminates with the most nonsensical finale you could imagine. Now… I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”. I don’t think I saw a more convoluted mishmash of plot points and stories. This movie wants to do too much in too little time. It wants to be a coming of age story, a romance, a time traveling tale and have a deeper message about connections. It failed on all fronts. Some more than others but in general not one plot point is resolved in any meaningful way, and sometimes not at all. The most insulting thing in this movie is a simple question of why Ryouichi even travelled to the past. The answer to that question changes depending on what the movie is pretending to be. Ryouichi states that his father sent him to the past to enact his revenge. Fine. That’s a simple and straightforward enough reason. But that point never comes up again. We never get to know on whom, for what or even how that revenge was supposed to go. The second reason that is given is that he is to awaken psychic powers to as many people as he can so that an apocalypse could be prevented. Ok… how? How would that help? Even on a small scale the movie presents, it would only create a divide between people with powers and those without them. The school is a perfect example of that. So how would awakening a bunch of teenagers help with anything? Do you need to wait until they are grown ups in positions of power to do anything? Ok, but it will take time. Let’s say at least 10-15 years. During that time the divide between the powerful and powerless would only grow. It wouldn’t stop the apocalypse, it would just create a dystopia on earth. And before you start saying that some would want to help, yes but as history of mankind shows, playing the “Us vs them” card is a powerful tool of control and the majority will want to be in the group that will provide the most benefits. It’s just human nature. On top of that nonsense the movie contradicts itself. Ryouichi states that if he fails he will take all that awoken to the power with him to his time. That implies that he thinks a bunch of kids can stop an apocalypse. An apocalypse that isn’t even on the horizon yet. Sounds like a really bad plan. The script really wants me to think of Ryouichi as a tragic hero but I find him annoying and rather boring. Especially after one event. The first person he awakens and recruits to his cause is a troubled girl he saves from suicide. For whatever reason that girl starts to act like she is in charge of the operation. She still listens to Ryouichi but in general she acts like she’s the top dog to the point of even using the hourglass (I’ll get to it) to test other people and goes as far as to threaten those that get in her way. Also we don’t see her after she tests Kahori. She just disappears and we don’t know what happens to her. She becomes one of the most important antagonists and yet she is just forgotten. On the subject of powers… I’m an avid fan of fantasy, fairy tales and SF. Two of my favourite writers are Franz Kafka and Phillip K. Dick so mind fucks and weird things that happen with little to no explanation aren new to me. This movie does them wrong. Every time Kafka made his protagonists go through strange shit without any explanation, the event itself wasn’t as important as what comes after. My favourite example of that is from Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. Gregor Samsa wakes up an insect? That’s not as important as what happens to him and his family after that. The transformation is just a catalyst, nothing more and nothing less. The process itself isn’t important to the greater story and plot. This movie positions the powers as one of the most important aspects of the plot but never truly establishes them. In the beginning it seems those are just something like telekinesis for communication and mind reading but at the very end it’s shown that they might be more than that. Ryouichi is told to erase Kenji so it’s not as simple as just telekinesis. What is known is that Kenji’s powers are far superior to Ryouichi’s but, again, we are not told in what way. Is it just a numbers game or does it also relate to what exactly he can do? Don’t think about it, the writers didn’t. Speaking of Kenji. It is stated that his powers are sealed and it’s implied, and later confirmed, that his grandfather did it. Ok. Why? Because he wanted his grandchild to have a normal life? Does one of Kenji's parents also have sealed powers? Why not just train Kenji to use his powers properly and thoughtfully instead of sealing them? Kenji had no idea about those powers even existing just a couple of days ago but grandpa unlocked them on a whim and now he’s a damn Kwisatz Haderach that saves everyone and can use things he never saw before. No training, no exposition dump about his powers, nothing. It’s just so damn lazy and nonsensical. I really can’t believe this script got accepted. The mechanics and rules of time travel are really vague. It seems that to travel back in time Ryouichi had to use a futuristic hourglass. Ok. Solid idea to have a tool for that but… it’s also stated that Natsuki went back in time to save Kenji without using any sort of tool. So how does that work? That time travel also drained Natsuki of all her power. So now the power has a limit? Is it a resource that you never get back or is there a way to regenerate it? Will Kenji lose his powers if he plays with them too much? The script answers none of those questions. The hourglass itself is also a rather interesting multi-tool. Not only it works as a time machine but also as a tool to test people if they have powers. Judging by some of the scenes it could also be a memento of Ryouichi’s mother but that’s never stated outright, it’s something I came up with after seeing some of the scenes. If you think the movie can’t have more abandoned plot points you are in for a disappointment. Ryouichi is accompanied by a talking animal that in the beginning is positioned as sort of a secretary. He said he needs to report back to Ryouichi’s father only to later be revealed that it is his father… Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? If those animals are people then who is the animal that Kenji is seen with in the after credit scene? I have so many questions about this… Kahori is the most useless and pointless character within the main cast. She does nothing and her only function is to be a pseudo love interest for Ryouichi. I’m using the …

Look, the idea was good and the story was not too bad, same with the visuals, but the implementation was below mid. It was straight up bad. Firstly, the womans wer so DAMN SEXUALIZED. They all have bid chests and skin bodies. Talking about skin bodies, even the boys weren't save from them. After watching movies from a studio that doesn't sexualize its characters, this felt like trash to me. Secondly, the story was confusing like nothing else. As I said previously, the idea was great and all, but eveything felt too sudden and random to a point that ten things were happening at the same time with too many things at the same time. It was okay to understand, but hard to follow. Thirdly, don't even get me started on the characters loves. They felt unrealistic and bad. It seemed as if they were just into the other person's looks. That's all I'll say, before I just start shit talking again. Fourthly, oh fricking god, why did he have to be such a perevert? I mean, not as perverted as Mineta, but still... It was hard to watchg, for real. Especially since I normally LOVE clumsy male main characters. Fifth off, the lines were cheesy, but in a bad way. Not the way that makes you feel better afterwards or that make your heart flutter, but just in a way in which I just want to turn off the movie. And lastyl, it has to be said, the ending did NOT feel finished. I mean, yeah, it is an END, but it felt too random and too sudden like we didn't have time to prepare for it, so I couldn't react emotionally as well. Btw, the plottwists were weird and cringy and randon and bad and bad thought out. They were just bad. I DO NOT recommend this movie. Honestly, stay away from it as far as you can. The omly reason this has TWO instead of ONE star, is because except for being a pervert, I kind off liked the main character. BUT I HATED EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

Spoiler free article: A short description that's just a bit longer than normal synopsis to give you rough idea what to expect from this anime. Conclusion for TL;DR at the end of the articles. Reading time: 2 minutes read Review: I'm not sure where to start with this...the story is long but short, it's simple but also complex, it's truly something else, just not in a good way. They started very simple, with everyday life of junior high school students and their interactions, paced really well as if it's a slice of life anime, then the mystery started to unfold slowly, and here starts the confusion, the story getting even more complex by minutes but at the same time, the pacing of the story also multiplied by many times, a lot of things happened suddenly, without proper explanation, time skip here and there, then suddenly I'm at the end of the story, with ending that's not explained at all, how they can reach that ending, why, what, who, none of it... So this is what I get when someone tried to do some scifi, but in the end get themselves confused and just throw anything to complete the show. The visuals can mainly divided into 3 parts, the background, the characters, and the animation. The background are the only part that stood out from the visual department, partly thanks to Takumi Tanji, the guy who also made the breathtaking background in Kimi no Nawa, 5cm per Second, or Garden of Words. The characters are on par if not even worse than some of those generic characters, it's sorely lacking of unique points, and the quality are dropping every now and then, inconsistent quality and generic design? A superb recipe I guess...for a disaster. The animation are something else, due to any reasons, they need to have small count of frame rates, so what did they do? Put effects everywhere to hid partial if not all movement to give the sense of movement, or just put motion blur for the other half, or just pan out the frames, right? They did this blatantly for most of the movies, that I don't even remember any scenes with a proper animation... By the time I listened to one of the songs, I know the rest of the OSTs will be of high quality, with ryo from Supercell to arrange the songs? Nothing can go wrong, supported also with Watanabe Mayu (ex-AKB48) the songs deliver even more feels than the story itself, it have a huge impact for me while watching this movie, the lyric and the melody emphasize what happened in the anime way above the requirements. These are OSTs that you will repeat over and over again. The seiyuus are okay, they're not that bland, but, it feels like they didn't realize what their current situation, is it cheerful, is it calm, is it dangerous, I can't feel any change in their voice at all, although the arts and dialogues are clearly different for each scenes. The sound effect are also disappointing, most of them are recorded in studio if not made from scratch in studio, it felt so artifical...Not to mention the bad syncing of the lips movement and the voices, ugh. Conclusion: Reasons to watch: -If you're looking for some great anime wallpaper -Great OST throughout the movie Reasons NOT to watch: -Bad story with confusing plot and bad pacing overall -Generic characters design -Bad voice acting and the time syncing of the voice

The premise for Psychic School Wars was a bit misleading. I was assuming that this was some sort of sci-fi drama about struggling against psychic control over a school. Instead, I get a film that appeared to be trying to create something like Makoto Shinkai films that involve long-distance relationships complicated by some sort of paranormal gimmick. But whereas Shinkai at least created natural chemistry between characters to make the relationship developments in his works feel genuine, the ones here feel more forced and unnatural thanks to the title's milking of melodrama and rather sloppy and cliched storytelling. The storytelling and character elements to the film mostly milk cliches typical of high school and sci-fi titles with stuff such as the mysterious transfer student, time traveling, childhood friends, a love square and one of the love interests being a violent tsundere. The milking of melodrama such as use of overly dramatic music and exaggerated emotions hinder the film more than help it as it only makes the cliched characters within Psychic School Wars more unbearable to put up with as the slightest tensions make a character get angsty. The writing for this is also rather sloppy as it acts pretentious in trying to make you think it has meaningful things to say about human relationships with cell phones, forgetting to address or resolve lingering plot developments and sudden plot twists that were not properly foreshadowed thus leading up to a rather convoluted and anti-climactic ending. Visually, Psychic School Wars appeared to be trying to emulate Makoto Shinkai's drawing style and does this well for the most part. Scenic shots are gorgeously drawn and highly detailed, and movement with characters and vehicles were fluid for the most part with only some occasional still shots I took noticed of. On the bad end though, the character designs for the movie are rather average in quality and it has a bad habit of overdoing things with lighting effects as such where they can usually obscure things taking place onscreen. Overall, Psychic School Wars is rather underwhelming as a movie since it attempts to and fails at trying to incorporate story elements of Makoto Shinkai's films to create a coherent and engaging film. I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you go into this with low expectations for what it has to offer.

Hand down to the art, visual and music, those are well mastered in this movie, Music is good, original, different from the usual kind you can find in most anime, made me think of the musics of Hyouka even if not as great at all (they sticked to 1 or 2 songs all the way in this movie), Art is very well done, details and beautiful character design, the only point that "disapointed" me is that they lacked coherences in small details, the main part of the art and even the story is very good but the the small details about them lack coherences... for instance the story take place in Fujisawa / Enoshima, but besides the famous lighthouse from Enoshima all the other places are completely fictionnal, could have been great to use more the real places around the city to get more coherence, consistency and getting you more into it.. Same logical apply about the story or the characters, i believe the story and the character are okay, i like the way they kept it simple and easy, the characters are realistics but also not boring, interesting it's easy to relate to, but some small details lacks coherence and make you ask yourself "why?" like Natsuki jumping from house to house in double jump 360, or slapping Ken 3 meters down to the ground.. having a beautiful realistic and unboring set i can't understand the point to add those small unreal details that give no sense, About the romance, it was quite well done objectively but purely personal point of view i do not like 4 ways romance story, i prefer keeping it simple, 2 main characters, 1 main love.. getting 4 main characters, 2 main love it's too much for me, in every romance you want to relate to 1 guy, and support 1 girl, having 2 guys and 2 girls may give you and unwanted outcome about the matching pairs and hurt you a little haha :) Due to the 4 ways romance and the small details that are not coherent i cannot resolve myself to give a 9 (or maybe a 8) to this movie, but despite all that, all the other point have been really worked into and it deserves at least a 7 (Good)