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A Few Moments of Cheers is a slightly cheesy but endearing “making of” MV movie. Despite the cheesiness, it's definitely worth watching, with a great message for anyone who has ever created something. I'm not particularly creative, but even I could feel the full spectrum of emotions in the MV that our protagonist created. The main song, "未明 (Mimei)," is excellent, and the ending song by Frederic fits in perfectly. (I've included links to the MV and ED song at the end of the review, but be aware that they contain spoilers.)

The 3D CG cel-shaded animation is on par with the music, if not ... better—especially the shots of the sky, which I found amazing.

In short, if you ever get a chance to watch A Few Moments of Cheers, give it a try. It's a concise and straightforward story about creators, motivation, aspirations, and life choices.

未明（MV):　 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKuuD3VwV2k
ED song:　 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j67Kkgi3_hg

I was incredible lucky to watch it in cinemas in Tokyo on the 7th of November, 5 days before the roadshow.
The below “review” has some spoilers, and it will also make much more sense after you watch the movie.

So the story is quite simple - a (horny) 17 years old girl falls in love from the first sight with a hot stranger travelling through her small town in rural Kyushu. And her love (read "hornyness") is so strong she runs away from her home and follows him all the way to his place in Tokyo. I mean he is really hot because she goes ... through sleeping at random places like an overnight boat and a snack bar, carrying the guy around sometimes, dealing with his bad sleeping habits. Ah, also satisfying some of his fetishes like being stepped on. Pure power of love if you ask me. But then after finally arriving to Tokyo the guy gets cold “legs” and just vanishes. At least his best friend is there to help her look for him since the guy owns him money (what a bastard!). The friend is also pretty hot and drives a convertible but our heroine’s heart is set. So they jump into his car and go on a road trip to find our hot runaway.
Pretty cool story, isn’t it? Ah yeah, also, the hot guy is a children chair with a missing leg.

Okay, on a serious note, it is the friendliest and light Makoto Shinkai movie with a lot of comical moments that are actually really well executed. All the side characters were great and felt pretty real. It is basically one long road trip through Japan with a bit of Japanese mythology added into the mix. But the movie also touches some serious themes like dealing with death and natural disasters which is always a painful topic for Japan. Notably, it has been 11 years since Tohoku earthquake that happened on 2011/3/11 and the movie is being release on the 2022/11/11, well done Shinkai. Although, according to his interview it was decided to make it about 3/11 last minute.

Visuals are as always amazing. I think it is the most beautiful movie Makoto Shinkai made so far. We also got to see a lot of different parts of Japan this time, including Miyazaki, Ehime, Kobe, Tokyo and Tohoku. All the haikyo (abandoned places) are real (except maybe the Tokyo one, not sure about it) btw and looked stunning.
I do not really have much to say about soundtrack, it is good, new Radwimps main song is nice and I really liked the main theme.

Overall, I really liked it, it kept me invested for 2 hours and I really like all the characters. It is easily the best Makoto Shinkai movie for me so far so 10/10.

Saw it at the cinema in Tokyo on July 3rd. Have not read the manga. Also got volume 13.5 that is being given away at the viewings, grab yours if you are in Japan currently

The review below obviously contains spoilers.


The movie is simply great in terms of telling a slice-of-life story: it is well-paced/layered with no unnecessary drama and has completely believable life situations for all of our protagonists. The only exception would be probably a taxi ride from Nagoya to Yamanashi on Friday night - it is more than 250 kilometers journey that will take approximately 4 hours and cost you a fortune ... (I think taxi meter was shown to be at like 90,000 yen which is around $700 with current exchange rate, no thank you haha).

The movie starts with a gorgeous view on Fuji and the girls', presumably, last camp as high schoolers. Flash forward (around 5+ years) - and everyone is having a full-on adult life, different living situation in different places of Japan and, of course, different jobs. Have I ever thought I would need an office lady Shimarin in my life? Nope. Did I enjoy it? Definitely yes. She is working at some magazine publishing company in Nagoya (considering how often we saw her with a book - totally understandable choice). We also see Nadeshiko working at an outdoor gear shop in Tokyo, Ena - at a pet beauty salon in Yokohama and Inuko being an elementary school teacher in Yamanashi.

Where is Oogaki you ask? Oh, she will be the main plot moving power of this movie and is working at Yamanashi Prefectural Office! I wonder who scouted her there lol

The plot revolves around our girls building a completely new camping site at some abandoned place at Yamanashi prefecture to promote tourism. I do not want to go into details about it but it is a nice story about doing what you actually like in life and following your dreams while also being an adult and obviously having a lot of different obstacles along the way. I found it inspiring and really liked it.

All the characters from the main series get their screen time. Pinecone-kun and Rin's moped will show up one more time as well!

To sum up, it was an enjoyable experience, exactly what I would expect from Yuru Camp movie (or any other slice-of-life movie to be honest) with nothing I can really complain about. An easy 10/10 for me and a great example of how to finish off slice-of-life series that starts at middle/high school.

MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS!

Watched it two days ago at TOHO Cinema in Tokyo.

I remember that I was reading manga, but at that time it wasn't coming out frequently and scanlating wasn't going good either, that's why I read about 9 chapters, so I barely remember any events expect the beginning of the story and main characters. But I was waiting for anime adaptation since that time. Even though kinda hoped for series, not just a movie.

I must say that I was a little worried about it airing at the same time with Kimi no Na wa, but it still seems alright, box office going good, ... even though it is three times less than Kimi no Na wa (but don't compare original movie made by Makoto Shinkai with manga adaptation, even from KyoAni).

But for the first half an hour (or maybe more) I was sitting quietly, being afraid to move even, cause it grasped me completely. I was feeling anger, pity, shame, a whole parade of emotions. Story felt good and dramatic, as Japanese like to do. Never ending and always sharp problems of bullying in school, attitude to people with disabilities who are trying to fit in the society.

Animation was great. This is what you should expect from Kyoto Animation. And don't try to compare it to Kimi no Na wa, it is really just on different level from the very beginning. And camera work! It was really incredible, I loved tons of shots, how they tried to accent on legs and lower parts of the body (I mean shots excluding characters' heads :D).

But as for characters and their development, movie had some problems. Both two main characters were shown great. But such a large amount of, probably, interesting supporting characters weren't developed good enough, even though the movie is more than 2 hours. Like Mashiba (red-haired guy in anime), for instance, he said just few phrases and felt really left out. And two ex-friends of Ishida from elementary school seem to have been forgotten at all, even though there were at least two scenes with them. And there were some shots that I didn't quite understand, like, for example, why Shouya's mom was bleeding and looked really beaten up, after she gave money to Shouko's mom? She beat her, really?

In general, I enjoyed it a lot, and can say that it's the second best movie by KyoAni (after Haruhi, obviously) and it is definitely worth watching. And I probably should finally read manga completely.