My Impressions of Ore Monogatari!! (My Love Story!!)

(Image used from: http://www.digihara.net/review-ore-monogatari-film/)

I recently watched a Japanese movie called Ore Monogatari!!, which translates into English: My Love Story!! It's based of a shoujo manga of the same name, and it breaks the tradition of shoujo mangas where the main POV is a female character and she is attracted to a handsome counterpart. The main character, Takeo Gouda is often misunderstood by his big stature, but has a big heart to helping anyone in trouble. He has gain the respect of the male students at his school. On the other hand, he is best friends with Makoto Sunakawa from his childhood and he is hugely popular with girls including girls that Takeo had a crush on but he is indifferent to all of them. That is until he saves the female protagonist, Rinko Yamato, from being molested and the two of them fall in love at first sight. Due to his misunderstanding of Rinko's interest in him and Makoto, Takeo believes that Rinko likes Makoto and pushes his feelings aside to cheer the two of them on.

The movie makes a change in the storyline compared to the source material as the film focuses on the development of the two protagonists' relationship before getting together as with most (if not all) romantic comedy films. It helps with the structure of the story as it gives a beginning, middle, and end. The source material had Takeo and Rinko get together after 3 episodes and focuses on their relationship as a couple. This is to show their relationship as a first love. The change in the film allows to explore in a little bit more detail between Takeo and Rinko with showing Rinko's side of the story a bit more. They showed scenes from the manga/anime where they were already together like when Rinko showed her friends Takeo and his friends at the amusement park, or the judo competition. 

In a lot of anime shows, the character often exaggerate their expressions which would make it seem odd in live action if done horrible. In this movie, the actor for Takeo (Ryohei Suzuki) showed just enough exaggeration without me having to cringe. They took the story serious enough, but I could tell the spirit of the story was still there which may satisfy fans of the manga/anime. Ryohei's co-stars, Mei Nagano and Kentaro Sakaguchi, were on point with their characters. Mei played Rinko, while Kentaro played Makoto. Their acting were good and dedicated to their role. 

I think the weakest part of the movie was the music. It was good and it played its part in getting the viewer to feel for the emotional scenes. But it was forgettable in my opinion.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and it made me want to watch the anime after watching the movie. I would recommend it if you're a fan of the anime/manga and possibly if you're looking for a good romantic comedy movie. 

P.S. Make sure to watch the silent scenes in the end credits when Takeo and Rinko are together as they are cute, and one of the scenes was straight from the source material. Also... stay to the end to watch the end credit scenes! It's hilarious! Straight out of the anime/manga! As a fan, it's worth it ^^

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flash Fiction #13

Flash Fiction #63

My Impressions of Hinokio