I have been a Haruma fan after watching Bloody Monday. He always left me with the impression of a very refreshing guy and that goes the same way here in this movie. Kimi ni Todoke is one of the sought out japanase manga these days. Even my cousin (who is an adult in his own right and definitely a straight guy) enjoyed this movie. He professed on watching the anime, while I opted on reading it since the manga production is much faster than that of the anime version. As for the movie, like almost every Japanese film I’ve seen, it had a slow pacing at first until things build up to the point where you couldn’t stop watching anymore and just get totally hooked up. The story is very simple, boy likes girl, girl likes boy… we all know how teenage romance could get going. What makes this movie different? I would have to say that it’s Sawako’s character. In teenage romance stories, there are the usual girls who are the brassy type: loud, war freak or popular. There are those opposite characters as well: very quiet, aloof because she’s shy or because she has lots of family problems or was being abused in all kind of things or she’s plainly an anti-social person. In Sawako’s case, (the protagonist in this movie) has a peculiar character. She has no family problem since she’s very much loved by her parents, she has no image disturbances only that she’s being usually mistaken as a curse giver thus the SADAKO nickname came about and she’s not poor either so financially she is stable. So basically she had no flaws when it comes to her personality background. So what’s so interesting about her? The protagonist is a misunderstood person. She gets ignored but not bullied, she tries to blend in and be friends with everyone but instead is feared upon. Sawako is actually a nice person but she just don’t know how to show it properly. That’s where this bubbly Kazeha guy comes in. He alters Sawako’s tiny universe and thus the high school romance begin. I would say the manga is more detailed when it comes to projecting how these main two characters feel. What they are thinking are made in tiny thought bubbles that cannot be used in the movie because that would just be weird. Cinematography was very simple because the setting was always in the school grounds and yet the angles and perspectives gives out a bigger impact on the viewer. As for the soundtrack, it was synced in properly with all the scenes and the choice of music if very appropriate for a soft themed movie.