Quick Review #84: Anata no ban desu Gekijouban (movie)

Title: Anata no ban desu Gekijouban / あなたの番です　劇場版

Rating: 1 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who wish to watch the characters of "Anaban" again but in a reshuffled setting and don't mind a ludicrous storyline

SPOILERS AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION~

Liked:

- Just for the sake of indulging in "Anaban" nostalgia, it was fun to see the residents gathered together albeit with some additions, omissions and new relationship dynamics. Those who ended up dead in the drama were resurrected for this movie so that should be something that their fans would love to see. There were two big surprises for me - the identity of one of Kuroshima's ex-boyfriends who turned out to be the murderer as well as the identity of the father of Ono-chan's (Nao) unborn baby (you will only find out about it at the end though and it was so shocking).

Disliked: 

- Since the story in this movie wasn't a continuation from the drama series and started off with a key change in the setting i.e. it was Shota (Tanaka Kei) instead of Nana (Harada Tomoyo) who went to the residents' meeting that set off the chain murders, a lot of things had changed as a result. While the residents still had issues with one another that provided some murderous intent here and there, this part actually didn't feature much in the movie's storyline. Instead, it was a spider web of sorts extending from Kuroshima (Nishino Nanase) that led to what happened on the cruise ship so the other residents really felt no more like a live background with nothing much going on for them. 

I was not impressed by the scriptwriter still tapping on parts from the drama series when the movie's storyline was reportedly positioned as a new one. It felt like these elements were stuffed into the storyline for the sake of milking the popularity of the "Anaban" franchise thus this hampered the flow of the story. It would have been better if a totally unrelated story was done with the existing characters instead.

- Given the number of characters involved, a 2-hr+ movie simply isn't enough to give everyone an opportunity to do their thing. As such, some characters were too forgettable because they hardly had lines and airtime. Some like Ono-chan who was easily one of the most interesting characters in the drama, didn't even feature prominently in the murder cases on the cruise ship. And I also wondered why they had to get Kadowaki Mugi to play such an insignificant role. It felt like a huge waste of talent to gather the cast and yet not utilize them to their full potential.