They're saying she's unbelievably extremely impossibly the coolest magical girl to ever do it.
Yeah this got announced a while ago and based on trailer looked sick as fuck. I have no familiarity with the original source material but this type of "inspired by/recontextualisation of" approach is something I'll always respect. Plus I mean the last straight to netflix original anime movie I know of was Cosmic Princess Kaguya and that fucking kicked ass so, yeah lock in.
And yeah it was pretty good. More than anything else it's gorgeous and extremely stylish, character designs in particular are such immediate all timers and I think particularly Sapphire's transformed appearance as well as everything to do with Velvet are so appealing and gender to me and I want to look exactly like them both and also have figures and prints and such as well. It's in service of what's mostly just a dope action movie for a lot of the runtime, with a narrative about fighting to live in the now instead of running away to the cosy land of memories. I particularly liked the church here because instead of doing evil things for the sake of it they're ultimately just scared, and attempting what they think is the most pragmatic solution, yeah they're cringe and unbased but I think that effort to seek comfort and safety instead of just power is like pretty grounded and stuff so. Not that most of them do anything but I like our colourful supporting cast as well, they're a fun bunch. Zirco funny old lady maxing. Velvet again also just has a strong arc and is a good sort of villain to ally twist. Just a nice time all around.
I will also say I was feeling a 7 for score for most of the runtime but a particular moment at the end did tempt me to give it an 8. I think I held back because before that moment the action climax being like bizarrely slapstick silly kind of distracted me a bit too much, but who knows maybe this time tomorrow I'll realise I'm not that bothered and kino movie deserves better score. We'll see. Either way good time, I recommend.
