Sekaiichi Hatsukoi Movie: Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai

*Taken from my AniList Review, I am using the 0/100 scoring, instead of 0/10.

Story (70/100) The Case of Yokozawa Takafumi is by all means no masterpiece. In reality, it is far from it. It is filled with cliché moments found scattered all about in the Boys' Love genre, and Nakamura is no stranger when it comes to said cliché. (-10 points). When you look at it as a whole, if this was any regular story, it would be rated extremely low. But since this is the ever-so popular BL genre, it is safe. You start out with Yokozawa awaking in a stranger's house. Seems...okay, right? ... Well, YtnB stays like that throughout the whole movie.

'Okay'. Nothing too exciting happens. Man meets another by accident (in this case, they sort of knew each other), they hang out for awhile (in actuality, Yokozawa was blackmailed), and love sprouts off-screen, instead of showing them actually falling in love. (-5 points). This is where I thought it might have been better as a 4 episode OVA. I dislike how Yokozawa gained affection for Kirishima off-screen. Over the course of what seemed a few days, or maybe even weeks by the minute. (-5 points).

After falling in love, of course there is a huge conflict that keeps them from confessing. It always happens. Whether it be a past lover/break-up, misinterpreted cheating or anything else in the bag of cliché. (-5 points). In the end, they live happily ever after. (-5 points).

Character (85/100) Despite all its' cliché story ideas, Yokozawa is by far one of Nakamura's best characters. He acts like a true person when it comes to breakups and love. No one is able to get over your first love so quickly like most BL show. You can see Yokozawa's inner dialogue throughout the story, and you understand why he is the way he is. Why he is so rude. Why he is unapproachable. His gentle side, too. Although I dislike how Yokozawa is tsundere, and even Kirishima points that out.(-5 points).
Kirishima is your typical seme (-5 points). but with a twist;He has a daughter. And he loves his daughter. He wants the best for her, like any caring dad. His constant antics toward Yokozawa are quite amusing, as well. But he does them for a reason. That doesn't take away that he's a typical topper, though.

You have your other known characters as well, such as Takano and Ritsu. It sort of goes into their relationship as well, but what Ritsu tells Yokozawa is unlike him. (-5 points). I can't just see Ritsu up and telling Yokozawa what he did.

Visuals (80/100) I'm not really a fan of Nakamura, so for me, that retracts 5 points. (-5 points). But the visuals were done very nicely.

Now the bad things. Typical. BL. Bodies. HUGE hands, tiny heads, and odd proportional bodies. (-10 points). . Some of the movements looked weird because of their distorted bodies. They weren't fluid because of it. (-5 points).

Audio (95/100) Audio was done very well. I don't really complain when it comes to audio, though. Everyone's voices fit perfectly fine. I don't remember any of the OST's, if there were any. (-5 points).

Enjoyment and Final Scoring (82/100) 70+85+80+95+80=410/5=82

Overall, it was a nice movie to pass the time, and since I'm a sucker for BL, I had to watch it, seeing as how there are barely any adaptations of BL manga. If you love Nakamura and Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, I recommend this. If not, and you are just a BL fan, then dive right in.

That was surprisingly much better than I expected. In fact I dare say it is -- by far -- the best of the entire Sekaiichi Hatsukoi oeuvre.

It still has typical BL problems, such as feeling incredibly rushed -- or maybe that was a feature of it being a 50 min movie instead of a, say 4-6 episode OVA; I haven't read the source manga -- I didn't keep exact track of how much time passed between Takano breaking it to Yokozawa that there was no chance at them ever getting together, but it felt like at most 2 weeks. Hm. I should ... rewatch to check out the weather, because at the end the cherries bloom; maybe more time passed than I realized. Anyway, it felt much too fast, because it takes time to let go of the old feelings, even though Yokozawa sort of always knew that there was no real hope with Takano, he had just settled into that role. And I don't believe anyone would introduce their new flame to their kid this fast, and leave them alone together.

I also didn't like that Yokozawa got ukefied, and into a tsundere to boot; ugh. Why can't more mangaka let go of the idiotic stereotypes? I am pretty sure at this point Japanese women can handle the occasional BL couple who both act like men, and who switch. But at least they didn't have him undergo a complete character change, which means he has now replaced Yukina as the most transgressive Nakamura character -- an uke who doesn't at all look like an uke and doesn't behave like one in public either. Nicely done, Nakamura-sensei. Go on, be more daring!

Since Yokozawa got mildly ukefied, of course we needed an über-seme, henceforth the very forceful Kirishima, who didn't shy away from a little friendly blackmail because right after my rapist, my blackmailer is who I'm gonna fall in love with; so much for realism. Well, we can't have it all. At least we were spared a naked apron scene.

But it was still better than any of the silly seme-uke pairings of the main anime with their never-ending push-pull antics. Not a lot of time was wasted on superfluous drama and artificially thrown up barriers like random women standing between the men, or their own weaknesses preventing them from actually grabbing what agency they could get, unlike the other pairings. Kirishima was very straightforward, to the point of hurting Yokosawa's pride at one point, which was a realistic problem -- some things, however true, are very hard to hear from somebody else, especially somebody by whom you want to be respected, but Yokozawa pulled himself together without weeks of moping.

This is now my favourite pairing because they acted the most like adult men, and actually gave the impression that they could have a healthy relationship, not something I feel is a given for any of the other couples. Yokozawa was a bit of a prick to Onodera in the previous installments, but I never saw him as a true villain, and here he completely redeems himself, in more than one circumstance.

Being a huge Sekai ichi Hatsukoi fan (it's kind of my guilty pleasure), I was very excited when a movie was announced. I remember visiting online anime websites every week just to see if the movie had came out. I finally watched the feature film in December and, well, it wasn't disapointing, but I expected much more.
The story itself is VERY previsible. You don't even have to watch the trailer of the anime to know the ending. Also, I felt the plot lacked enough conflict to actually be called a movie. It was like watching a longer episode of a slice of life ... anime at times because of that.
So, does that mean that "Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai" is bad? The answer is no, because despite of it's flaws there's a lot to love in this movie: first, despite my initial fear of making a villain-like character the MC of a romcom, Yokozawa suceeds on having a story centered around him, showing a sweeter side without having his personality changed. Second, I think that even people who hate yaoi will be able to watch this movie, because it doesn't have many "innapropriated" scenes and shows a healthy homoparental household with the main couple adorably taking care of Zen's daughter, Hiyroi. This is important considering how many people still oppose the idea of same-sex couples raising children. And don't forget that Yokozawa, despite officially being an uke, doesn't look like one, which is refreshing to see.
I recommend it for everyone who wants a light and cute movie to spend a Sunday evening. "Sekai ichi Hatsukoi: Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai" might be a pretty forgettable romance, but is above average to the regular yaoi genre.