Review of Saekano the Movie: Finale

The movie is nearly 2 hours long and normally I wouldn't care but the more it went on, the more it felt like "This just keeps going, huh?" There could've been a season 3 with all that time and have actually fleshed some things out (which makes me wonder if a movie was the plan all along). In fact, that after-credits scene is probably the longest I've seen to date, they probably didn't want to let it go just yet but if it wasn't for that, the ending would've felt lacking, like it should've been cut somewhere else. The thing is, that I was finewith the pacing and the material used, that's what makes my opinion so complicated, it did a lot even for its runtime but maybe it should've been more focused.

Is it worthy of a movie though? Yes, I could see some parts why someone would say or suggest that, it's not bad but I feel like it hypes you up then gives you the short hand. The one pacing issue that I will complain about though is the opening. They go through like 3 different title screens and one was just for the game so it lingered on the title until the song was done as if it's a loading screen, it was a very odd choice.

The animation is pretty good, nothing mind boggling but more like a highest definition version of the anime (I mean you don't want it to stick out too far from the other seasons so it's all good). The subtitles were wonky though, they were passable and understandable but there were a lot of errors.

They revisit certain topics that just didn't need to be brought up, such as certain aspects of Eriri's route (which I got the impression was pretty much closed) but they dig it back up, which would've been passable had they treated everybody else like that but they didn't...there were also a lot of crying scenes, one after the other which made it not come off as genuine to me. And it bothers me that the women that didn't get chosen never get over him, which doesn't help any of the characters or add any depth, just gives a reason for them to be there and add more jokes.

This part is a spoiler for the second season but how did they handle Eriri and Utaha's departure? I felt they gave them solid reasons to stay relevant and they even mentioned it a few times. They had enough screen time and I got pretty much what I wanted as a Utaha stan but as I mentioned, they kept trying to add reasons when the main plot was reason enough for me.

All in all, I'd give it about a 7/10, there were points where I would give it an 8 though. All we need now is a dating sim for it.