To the Solitary Me Who Loved You

These are 2 multiverse anime movies that are related to each other. They were released on the same day at cinemas in Japan. So there's no particular order to watch them. People are saying that the ending changes according to the order, and that it's sad one way and happy the other way. But not exactly. Is it happy or sad? Well, I don't know whether that'll be a spoiler or not so let's just not.

Now to the main question - how are these movies? - I'd say they're fine, but nice enough that I don't regret watching them.

The idea is still very interesting and the storytelling method is cool. Because the story of these 2 movies complete each other. And I don't mean they complete each other horizontally (like your normal sequels). The stories are parallel to each other while, from time to time being entangled in each other. So there are many cool story moments when your mind's like - "oooooh I see now". And when I think about these movies and their stories together, it's pretty cool.

But having this structure of storytelling, makes these movies - individually - very confusing. And the way they explain the multiverse phenomenon is very confusing too. I'm not going to keep pausing the movie to understand every confusing sentence in it. You have to make your Sci-fi elements simple enough for your audience to understand. Steins Gate did that brilliantly. And the movies are lacking some energy too - in terms of voice acting and soundtrack. There are some redundant scenes in the 2 movies too - like 10 minutes worth.

Overall the stories are heartfelt for sure, and the romance is very nice too. But it's definitely confusing. And if I'm being honest, I'm probably going to remember these movies just for the storytelling idea.

So, I know the story can get confusing with the terminology. In my case I don't really care, what I care is the background of the characters and the plot that unravels in the 2 movies. I would watch them in the same day or at least 1 day of difference

What I liked the most!

I wish there could be more movies in this format, I think getting different perspectives is algo a main part of the plot and I also like the sci-fi and romance aspect of it. It makes you think and put things in perspective

What I did NOT like I feel like the voice in this movie is weird and it doesn't match the character which makes it weird (only complaint here)

Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e is a movie that made me cry. I like and hate it at the same time.

The idea for a plot is very unique and should make movie gripping. Unfortunately the rest is poorly done. The film has problems with such a basis as the audiovisual setting: The visuals are tolerable, not top-notch, but bearable. The soundtrack, however, is just pathetic. There are almost no ambient sounds, and the voices of the characters sound like they were made in a cheap speech synthesizer.

Unfortunately, the characters presents no emotions. This is the aspect that really catches the eye because a lot of scenes evoke emotions because of the plot itself, and at the same time the characters behave like dolls.

The idea is really romantic and unique. It's cold; but it's important for you feel the 'cold' to romantically realise what 'warmth' is. That coldness is a vital part of the story (which's directly proven in a particular scene of the story).

Both the movies: 'To Every You I've Loved Before' and 'To the Solitary Me Who Loved You' follow the story of two studious students who seem to love each other but never fell in love. They married but there seems to be no love involved in that either. The girl had a nice attitude but it was mostly cold.

It appeared that the girl gave more importance to the child than her husband; this kills romance; some people don't see kids as a sign of romance (you know it's -> Japan).

There's a lot of science and nerdy stuff. Which makes its further unromantic and confusing altogether.

There's also a sister movie set in a parallel world which adds the romantic element to the whole story.

Some say that the idea is not realised properly, representation could be better; but it's really hard to come up with a better idea than spreading the story across two movies to make it easier to understand.

I know it takes great efforts and IQ to understand the entire mechanism. Pausing and rewinding movie several times is inevitable.

You've gotta trust me. There are movies with such nice story which fail at just marketing and don't get popular. It's one of them.

This is a bold strategy. "to the Solitary Me Who Loved You" was released the same day as "To Every You I've Loved Before", as if they were Pokémon games of the same generation. The director used this as a way to highlight the shifting parallel universes that the movie goes into. I admire the ambition, but this movie bit off a bit more than it could chew. I like how matter of fact they are with their imaginary science. Everyone is just OK with the fact that parallel universes and ghosts exist. There is no villainous force trying to use the technology for evil, it is just a fact of life. But this strategy does make it hard for the audience to follow what is going on.

A bit of housekeeping, if you are watching these films back-to-back like the director intended, you can go ahead and skip 1:06:00 to 1:20:00 because that is all recycled footage from "To Every You I've Loved Before". I do prefer that film, but both of them feel incomplete. I wish they had come together to create this unforgettable story, but the two halves do not make a perfect whole. In this one, Koyomi is too obsessive and refuses to move on with his life. And comparing the two, the romance is done better in the first one.