This animated film is a romance at heart, and this is an element that you need to be okay with because it does very much draw on that aspect in how it plays out and where it ends up. If you are not in the mood, it does have a slightly soppy tone that might grate, but for me it worked.
This is not because I am a huge romantic (for sure I am not) but rather that the film had a very natural pair of performances and style in the two lead characters. The animation itself isn't fantastic (its limits are there), but it is the voicework that sells it. The pair are not acting it up for the sake of drama, or trying to force big moments - instead they feel like real 'people' who start with the ideals of youth, and have life rush in and take them away with it. It has a sullen realism to it for most of the running time that really hooked me; I accepted the ending being lighter but at the same time I would have been okay with a darker ending since that would have felt quite real too. It is the grounding that sells the romance though, and it mostly has a delicate touch in how it does it.
It looks like a fairly simple animation for children at first glance, but the heart, the realism, and the voice work all pull out something that goes where you expect but yet does it very well.
