Listen. I love Wotakoi. I love musicals. I also love shrimps and dulce de leche but I don't eat them together.

This is one of the most bizarre cinematic experiences I had this year. For all intents and purposes, it should have been absolutely my cup of tea. It has several elements that I'm into, including a property I really like, otaku subculture references, musical theater references and Saito Takumi singing and dancing which, as someone who saw the guy first in tenimyu, I appreciate.

But man, this did not work.

They pretty much took the source material for about 20% of its plot and then went in strange directions that hindered not only the possibilities of the movie as an adaptation but also the movie in itself as an experience. Because this movie goes nowhere. You could say there is a development of the main relationship if you squint but that would be generous, especially if you have any frame of reference from the manga or the anime as a comparison.

What is frustrating to me is that the cast was pretty well picked, for the most part, especially Takahata Mitsuki did a really good job. But I have honestly no idea what Fukuda Yuichi was thinking when he adapted this and why he thought Wotakoi was a good basis to built this bizarre musical experience.

There is a dissonance between the source material and why it works and the way in which movie musicals (and musical theater) is built.

Wotakoi is a comedy with a very dynamic pace, it uses multiple characters with different personalities who represent different fandom experiences to create their comedic energy. It's built around references and jokes that tie with gaming, anime, manga, cosplay and many other things, but it's also built in the clumsy yet heartfelt interactions of characters who have a lot of trouble navigating social situations and stumble over each other in a fun yet sincere way.

Musical theater uses songs to move along the plot and to delve into character motivations, feelings and relationships. Songs are used to set the story, they are necessary for us to understand the characters and their environment. We need Jean Valjean to have a soliloquy to make us understand the moment of emotional turmoil that sends him into making a decision about his life, for example.

That ruins the dynamic of Wotakoi. Their interactions and their pacing which plays off of each other and moves the plot while also providing a rhythm and a narrative identity is interrupted and put to sleep by these musical moments. Especially when you have characters like Hirotaka singing about his feelings, which is something much better shown in his attempts at figuring out his relationship with Narumi than told in a weird number while she's drawing. Or Narumi's entire dichotomy of trying to hide that she is an otaku and blending in with the normies, which feels a lot less relatable as a musical number in Shibuya with some idol outfits.

And if you are here for Hanako and Kabakura I was too and I'm so sorry to say you're gonna have to scrape to the bottom of the film to get something.

The movie wasn't an entire waste of my time, but it could have been so much better if who made it was actually interested in making a live action adaptation of Wotakoi instead of bending it with whatever musical idea they had and shoehorn it there for some reason. With this cast and this production value, the live action could have been really great. And, honestly, with some of these songs and performers, an entirely different movie musical could have also been really great.

But both together in the same thing? Nope.