The Tamagotchi franchise is one of the most easily recognizable fads that everybody will remember from the top of their heads when you mention the late 90's. But with every franchise that ended up being a fad, there would always be a film adaptation (Most of the time it would be animated) which intricately tries to bring back our attention to those fond thoughts of the fads or pass those trends to newer generations. Some succeed and some fail as it depends on what the formula the film is trying to achieve is and whether the formula is useful to the audience.
Then this film shows up and it got me interested once I started watching it. The film is fulfilled with simplicity, irresistibility, adorableness, and kindness with no trace of violence in sight and a lack of a true antagonist which would sound a bit taboo for some. The personalities of every character is loaded with all the colors of the wind and the effects are very acceptable. The story is well scripted, family friendly, and tenaciously emotional. The structure that really had me thinking was the moral, which is the whole purpose of the story and the lesson it gives to the audience. The one moral that catches my eye is the lesson about accepting siblings and the many responsibilities and challenges you have to face when you have one, which made me recall that the story is actually about coming of age.
Coming of age films like "To Kill A Mockingbird" generally tell a story of an experience or a series of experiences of a young character's transition in becoming an adult and is mostly a category focused towards young adults. In this film, for instance, we can generally assume that both Tanpopo, the human protagonist, and Mametchi, the Tamagotchi protagonist, are both young adults who are aware that they are going to be the older child when the new child arrives and they must be able to take care of themselves most of the time later on in their lives. This is actually something that impressed me about the film, but it did it too subtly to maintain the family friendly factor.
The only thing that keep me from giving this film a perfect rating is the absence of demographic equilibrium, not only with the film, but with the franchise in whole as well. The film suddenly has the tendency to heavily target to the female demographic than to the male demographic since the franchise was originally meant to only have a demographic of teenage females (Something we should already know is not new, but it can bother some people including myself as being something that can can greatly separate us from being all united). The film, as with every other anime films I have seen, also unintentionally target the more hipper demographic which can usually make the experience more embarrassing for me.
In all it's glory, the film is actually something definitely worth watching no matter your age. If you grew up with the franchise, the film will sure provide a remastered experience and with its unique share of being a coming of age film, it is also pretty useful if you are studying about the topic.
