Youkai Sharehouse: The Movie (2022)

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If you've seen the previous two series, then you know the drill. Mio struggles with self esteem while saving the world with her loyalty and steadfastness and, of course, the support of the monsters in her sharehouse. I strongly disliked S2 because it immediately undid all her character growth from S1, and never even brought her back to the same level of maturity she reached at the end of S1. However, the movie here is somewhere in between the two seasons for me in terms of how much I enjoyed it. It's framed around a topical albeit tepid plot about how AI might reshape our world, and kudos for getting this movie out maybe 9 months after the news about chatGPT and AI art generators were breaking news.

All the usual suspects are here in addition to the five principal characters. Many of the major secondary youkai from the series show up for at least a cameo. The acting remains broad and OTT like the prior series, but Koshiba as Mio anchors the chaos as always and has some moments to shine. The new ML for the movie, Mochizuki Ayumu as Aito, does as well as one could expect in the tropey AI learns what it means to be human role.

If you liked either of the previous series, it is worth checking out, IMO. And if you just want to sample the world, it is comparatively standalone, though personally I would recommend the first season over it.

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Season 2 went downhill and this movie went off the cliff.

I loved season 1. I managed to get through season 2. I started this hoping it would redeem season 2, but by the end I was watching at 1.5-2x, and I still felt like it was a waste of time.

What happened to this series? I noticed there's three screenwriters credited on MDL for season 1, two for season 2, and one for this film. Did they keep firing the best writer each time?

The best part of the movie was seeing the BTS clips in the closing credits.

The moral of the story is basically "AI bad". Everything kicks off the same tired way that we're now used to. Mio inexplicably falls for some guy she barely knows who turns out to be a bad guy.

But this time it's worse. The bad guy was totally pointless. He was all about logic and chasing his vision of the new world right up until the end, but then he conveniently changed his mind at the last minute and completely undid all of season 2 and this movie. Even the youkai he apparently killed are brought back to life.
The writers never explained his powers or how they related to real-world technology like the app, nor how his physical body worked.

Where was the Mio from the end of season 1 that could actually achieve something for herself? Even at the end the guy had to kill himself for her.

The main cast were all good, or as good as the material allowed them to be this time. I didn't really care about the villain at all, whether that's the actor's fault I'm not sure.

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