Timing Matters: Thoughts On “The Moment You Fall In Love” – Confess Your Love Committee

“The Moment You Fall In Love” — Confess Your Love Committee (Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo: Kokuhaku Jikkō Iinkai, 好きになるその瞬間を。～告白実行委員会～)

(Anime 2017)

Directed By Tetsuya Yanagisawa

Warning Spoilers! 

“The Moment You Fall In Love” is the second movie in the HoneyWorks film series, Confess Your Love Committee. I wrote a post about the first film, “I’ve Always Liked You,” before and so I had to follow up with the second movie that came out last month.

Hina Setoguchi—the younger sister of Yu Setoguchi—has a crush on an upperclassman, Koyuki Ayase, in middle school. When Koyuki graduated from middle school, Hina vows to attend the same high school as him so that she can get closer to him. When Hina enters high school, she tries her best to confess her feelings towards Koyuki despite him having unrequited feelings for Natsuki.

In my previous post, someone told me that you don’t necessarily have to watch the first film to understand the second one. It can stand alone. I agree with that statement to some extent because the plot is pretty straightforward. However, if you want to see more fruitful characters, I suggest watching the first film because the second film doesn’t really create a background for some of the characters since they were previously introduced in the first one. Thus, it is implied that the viewer already knows what is going on because it is assumed that you have watched the first movie. For example, the second film doesn’t dive into Koyuki’s feelings for Natsuki who happens to be in love with her childhood friend, Yu because the first film focuses on that love triangle. In the second film, you may see Koyuki as a static character because not much is known about him and he doesn’t appear often in this film as opposed to the first one. Therefore, at the end of the second film, you may not feel as sympathetic towards him when he gets his heart broken because you will just only focus on Hina’s feelings since she is the central character. However, if you watched the first film, I believe you would feel sad for both characters as both of them are suffering from unrequited love.  That being said, I do think it’s important to watch all the films consecutively as this entire film series is character driven. Every scene and dialogue in all the films contribute to the overall persona development for each character, so it’s important to watch all the films in order to get a more fruitful understanding as to why the characters act the way they do.

© Qualia Animation

© Qualia Animation

One thing I like about this film is how timing is portrayed. The animators provided a backstory to how Hina started having a crush on Koyuki. So we are able to see how her feelings developed over time and how her feelings affect those around her like Kotaro Enomoto who happens to be in love with her since they were little. Furthermore, the timing collides with the first film which focused on Yu Setoguchi and Natsuki Enomoto’s relationship. I thought that was pretty clever (so if you haven’t seen the first film, you may be lost with the timing). Also, timing plays a vital role in the end when Hina is about to confess her feelings to Koyuki.

While watching this film, I contemplated on the title, “The Moment When You Fall In Love.” Is there a specific and exact moment? Moments can happen in the beginning before a romantic relationship even develops or even when a relationship ends, a moment of realization that you love that person can occur.  Rather than defining it in one concrete perspective, moments of falling in love depend on the person and moments happen sporadically.  For Hina, she recalls all the moments with Koyuki, sad and happy, and writes it in a love letter. I think “the moment” is an accumulation of all the time you spent with someone and that contributes to your overall feelings for that special person.

If you watched the first movie, I hope you watch the second one as well and will continue the series. I personally can relate to this one because I am like Hina, the girl with an unrequited love. I can’t wait for the next installment though because there are more couples introduced in this film and I want to know if they end up together or not.

You can watch the film on Crunchyroll.

5/5