Kimi Ni Todoke Movie Review

This past summer, I had the pleasure of watching the live action film Kimi Ni Todoke. For those who are unfamiliar, it's a Japanese film based on the manga and anime of the same name. It was released in Japan on September 25, 2010. It was then released in the US at the Dallas Asian Film Festival on July 17, 2011. It's about the budding romance between an awkward school girl named Sawako Kuronoma and Shota Kazehaya played by Mikako Tabe and the unfortunately late Haruma Miura respectively. Without giving too much away, it's about how the main character Sawako, who's often given the nickname Sadako, finds love and even make some friends despite how creepy or eerie she may appear to other students and even some teachers at times.

Throughout the film, Sawako is sometimes seen as a good luck charm. She helps the class out with various activities including studying for exams. However, she can't shake up the courage to tell Kazehaya how she feels. The overall message of this film is to never judge a book by its cover. That awkward girl or boy school could be an amazing person on the inside. With that being said, some feel this film was rushed compared to the anime and manga. I personally don't feel this way. Not every scene from the anime will be in this film. Just like not every scene from the manga was not written into the anime. I also feel like some scenes from the anime were carried out differently in the film. There was also less focus on secondary characters like Ume Kurumizawa, aka Kurumi-chan, and Chizuru Yoshida.

Some characters and plotlines were left out of the film. For instance, in the anime version of Kimi ni Todoke during its second and final season, there's an outgoing character by the name of Kenta Miura. I also noticed that the homeroom teacher Kazuichi Arai, aka Pin, was less boisterous in the live action film version than he was in the anime version. I'm assuming it's because voice actors have to sound animated. Although many students in the Kimi ni Todoke movie felt Sawako was "cursed" or awkward, there was more emphasis on how Shota was trying to see past that. In other words, there were more romance scenes in the film compared to the anime version. In the anime version of Kimi ni Todoke, there were plenty of romance and non-romance scenes where some students initially felt like "Sadako" was the reason why bad things were happening at school. The anime also focused heavily on secondary characters such as Chizuru Yoshida, Ayane Yano and Ume Kurumizawa, who was Sawako's nemesis throughout the film, manga and anime.

Another thing to note is in the Kimi ni Todoke anime and maybe even the manga, the classmates begin to see Sawako as a good luck charm. This wasn't touched on too much in the film. However, I will say that the classmates in the end begin to warm up to her throughout the film. Getting back to Ume Kurumizawa, the anime and maybe even the manga version focused more on how she tried to get in between Shota and Sawako. She was painted as more of a schemer and bitter, jealous girl because he ended up rejecting her. Despite her unrequited feelings, she no longer tries to get in between them. We can also assume that Ume moves on in the end. Overall, I feel like everyone did a phenomenal job in portraying the characters. It's definitely a must watch and gets a 9 out of 10 from me.