Merry Days of Anime 2020: Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine

This entry really won’t be too long. There’s just not much to say with this one.

Unfortunately for this finale film, I went into this with two noteworthy handicaps:

1. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen the series’ second season.
2. I watched this with questionable subtitles.

Not only did it take me a good 20-30 minutes to get up to speed with what had all transpired from last time and recognize who everyone was, but what everyone was saying felt a little bit off. For example, everyone kept referring to characters who were clear women with male pronouns? And some sentences were kind of broken grammatically, or outright didn’t seem correct. Twice a character greeted another by saying “Yo”; the subtitles translated it as “Me.” Huh?

Regardless, through this wonderful analyst tool called “Reading the room,” I managed to get a firm(-enough) grasp of the situations taking place and what everyone was fussing about. Because fussing there was aplenty. I do recall some drama within each season of the series, notably with time constraints or pressing on in pursuit of one’s goals or relationship cementing. This 115-minute film manages to pack a ton of drama almost fervently, perhaps treading the lines of how one would expect a story within a visual novel to behave, given the central focus of game design.

It was fine. Nothing spectacular, but a little less than I was expecting given my previous fondness for the series, plus the title’s average rating on MyAnimeList. Felt somewhat messy in terms of plot progression, with unexpected turn of events simply happening instead of being built up to organically. A lot of what it attempts to do in bridging the romantic connection between Tomoya and Megumi worked early on, only to have it feel more rigid as other women interfere in their own way. I quite liked the late-night script readings between the two; the subtle ways they would show their affection whether through ambiguous words or being physically close. If only all the additional fluff that pops up as a sort of “Hey, remember us?” didn’t go and thwart the good vibes.

Many characters are simply given nothing to do; it’s basically the Tomoya and Megumi show, with special guests Eriri and Utaha. Most others kind of sit and say things, though serve little purpose in anything. Dressing for backgrounds, I suppose. If these characters were, say, removed, I think the film would be a lot better off. Give more time to the main characters that actually have things to strive towards, to bounce off one another. I saw one review for this that said it would benefit more if it were simply a third season, rather than a film. While agreed given the results that occurred, I think if they simply cut the fat and gave more effort to develop a cohesive plot where everyone was involved, that would also make it better.

By the way, I find the “X Years Later,” happily-ever-after ending to be vomit-worthy in most cases. Didn’t change here.

The rating for this title and all others can be found on MyAnimeList.

For more anime reviews, check out the associated archive.

Thank you for your time. Have a great day.