Genuinely shocked just how much I liked this one, dare I say I even loved it? I've been following the series since it started when I was in highschool, and with how long the movie took to get made, least of all come out, part of me didn't think it would ever see the light of day...
But I'm glad it did. A ton of heart, a ton of passion from a production team who clearly cared a lot about what they were making and the source material, and a story that on its own I think stands up pretty well. The seemingly bottomless well of fanservice is just the icing on the cake
That 8 year development hell paid off, I think. Genuinely don't think it would have come out this well if it came out any earlier than it did
Not a huge improvement over the last few, but it does go a long way to make things better. Having proactive characters rather than solely reactive characters is a nice change of pace, and the new setting is interesting too - at least compared to Yet Another Rich White Family
Probably the second best movie of the series, for whatever that's worth