My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999

Boring at Lv999

It's been awhile since I read the original manga, but I swear it was a lot more charming and sweet than the live-action made it out to be. It's a shame because I feel like the main couple visually matched their manga counterparts really well, and I was excited to see what Ryuto would do with his character since I enjoyed him as the younger man in Nagatan to Aoto, but in my opinion, this movie put all its energy into the visuals and saved nothing for the actual story, which I found to be the case in most of this director's other projects that I've watched, especially Jack O'Frost and Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto. I feel like one of the most difficult aspects of movie adaptations is that you have to make the most out of a limited runtime, so tell me why we wasted time watching Tsubaki's glasses fall dramatically to the floor and her and Yamada getting pelted by the rain when they weren't even the main couple?? A lot of the shots are strangely framed and linger too long on unnecessary things, too, like the closeup of Akane's foot as Yamada was helping her put on her shoe.

Above all, the romance just has no build-up and is devoid of chemistry. I thought Tsubaki's confession to him was way more romantic than anything Yamada and Akane got up to, and even that was just standard shojo fare. All Akane did was get belligerently drunk (twice!) and constantly rely on Yamada to help her - what reason does he possibly have to fall in love with her?? The gaming aspects aren't well-utilized, and the characters have no substance, not to mention there are too many of them that have little to no impact to the story. Like, I'm always glad to see Maeda Oshiro on my screen and I'm glad he's getting his bag, but what was he there for????

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