I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

Genre(s): Drama

Age-Appropriateness: 13+ (Language, sexual references, violence)

Platforms: None

Episodes: One 1 hour 50 min. Movie

TheAwersome Rating: 8.3 / 10 (Nicely done)

Premise: The aloof protagonist: a bookworm who is deeply detached from the world he resides in. He has no interest in others and is firmly convinced that nobody has any interest in him either. His story begins when he stumbles across a handwritten book, titled “Living with Dying.” He soon identifies it as a secret diary belonging to his popular, bubbly classmate Sakura Yamauchi. She then confides in him about the pancreatic disease she is suffering from and that her time left is finite. Only her family knows about her terminal illness; not even her best friends are aware. Despite this revelation, he shows zero sympathy for her plight, but caught in the waves of Sakura’s persistent buoyancy, he eventually concedes to accompanying her for her remaining days, marking off items on her bucket list.

TheAwersome’s Thoughts: This is right smack dab in the good section of good movies that are made well. Like many stories of this flavor, you’re told right off the bat how it’s all going to end, but that doesn’t matter because as the Knights Radiant say: “Journey before Destination.” I really love how the relationship between Sakura and the protagonist is portrayed and develops. There’s a very real and human element to it that sucks you in to the joy of really getting to know someone. Clumsy human mistakes are made, and shots don’t get taken because humans tend to be shy and not understand themselves. Go figure.

While there is a bit of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope going on here, I felt that this movie takes the good elements of Your Lie in April and 5 Centimeters Per Second, making for a great and emotional journey.

TLDR: A beautiful and emotional movie worth seeing if you get the chance.

SPOILER SECTION

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas does something that I loved about Maquia and even A Silent Voice to an extent in that it explores a positive, loving male/female relationship outside of the context of romance. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance story, but relationships can and do develop with people outside of that context. I feel the only reason people believe “Boys and girls can’t ‘Just Be Friends’” is because the only relationship between them that we see portrayed and explored in media is romance. It’s refreshing to see human connection in all its forms.