Review of Aura: Koga Maryuin's Last War

Overall good, but the movie was confusing several times, had some inconsistencies. By the end of the movie it becomes much more clear what the movie is about and these flaws can just be the result of the artistic freedom the writer/director took, but it's hard to tell on the first watch, not everyone picks up on the deeper message/fantasy plot that fast, it's really not that straight forward except for the ending, so many parts of the movie comes off confusing and weird. I'm not familiar with the source material but 1h 20m feels short, it makes the pacing, characters and story feel unpolished andrushed. There's close to no depth to the side characters, everyone has their bit and that's about it. Even the MCs are not as detailed as they should be. Art and sound are okay, it's not noticably good or bad.

In hindsight most confusing/inconsistent parts make more sense, so judging the movie after the first watch is not as obvious as it seems. I rated it 7, but it's more likely to be either a 6 or 8 after a second watch with more context.