This is coming from someone who mostly enjoyed Shinkai's other works(Kotonoha no Niwa in particular). It definitely has the beautiful art that we have come to expect from him, but it was just such a hollow experience for me outside of that.
The first thirty minutes were nice and simple, and had some charm as a result. It showed the significance of an early childhood promise; this story had some potential from this point. However, once the sci-fi element was introduced, they just completely dropped the ball.
Every single supernatural/dream element felt like a complete contrivance, and the story fails to progress naturally as a result. So the tower has a bunch of interdimensional energy which is channeled through her sleep, yet this somehow didn't matter in her earlier years? Also, it seems that we have somehow figured out a system of coexisting parallel universes, and she is trapped in one alone! And it turns out, very conveniently, that memories are restricted strictly to the single dimension that one is in, which she somehow figures out. How tragic! Plus when Hiroki walks into the room she used to sleep in and she is also there, they can communicate somehow! Let's all worry about how much sense this makes later.
Even aside from the eye-roll worthy logic, the story just doesn't stand on its own at all. Takuya's narrative is incredibly unsatisfying; at one point, we even have a super forced "conflict" where he and Hiroki hate each other for no reason for about 5 minutes, after which it is brushed off as if nothing happened. The film tells us what happened to these characters in the aftermath of Sayuri's disappearance, yet it isn't shown in any sort of interesting way. And let's not even talk about that ending.
Overall, the film is just dragged down by too much for even the best parts to stand out.
The first thirty minutes were nice and simple, and had some charm as a result. It showed the significance of an early childhood promise; this story had some potential from this point. However, once the sci-fi element was introduced, they just completely dropped the ball.
Every single supernatural/dream element felt like a complete contrivance, and the story fails to progress naturally as a result. So the tower has a bunch of interdimensional energy which is channeled through her sleep, yet this somehow didn't matter in her earlier years? Also, it seems that we have somehow figured out a system of coexisting parallel universes, and she is trapped in one alone! And it turns out, very conveniently, that memories are restricted strictly to the single dimension that one is in, which she somehow figures out. How tragic! Plus when Hiroki walks into the room she used to sleep in and she is also there, they can communicate somehow! Let's all worry about how much sense this makes later.
Even aside from the eye-roll worthy logic, the story just doesn't stand on its own at all. Takuya's narrative is incredibly unsatisfying; at one point, we even have a super forced "conflict" where he and Hiroki hate each other for no reason for about 5 minutes, after which it is brushed off as if nothing happened. The film tells us what happened to these characters in the aftermath of Sayuri's disappearance, yet it isn't shown in any sort of interesting way. And let's not even talk about that ending.
Overall, the film is just dragged down by too much for even the best parts to stand out.