It takes a little over 10 minutes for you to get a good impression of how you're going to feel about Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Yuichi Fukuda's live-action adaptation of Fujita's webcomic (previously adapted into an anime) which made its North American premiere at Canada's Fantasia Festival. At first, this appears to be a rather standard issue romcom manga adaptation. Hyper-expressive fujoshi Narumi (Mitsuki Takahata) and stone-faced gamer Hirotaka (Kento Yamazaki) are childhood friends turned co-workers trying to hide both their otaku interests and their attraction to each other. So far, cute but nothing special, with cheesy sound effects that feel more cartoony than the actual anime did.

Then at the 10 minute mark, the movie reveals its big game: this is a full-blown musical. In front of the Tokyo Big Sight convention center, Hirotaki and Narumi sing and dance at the front of a full-blown flash mob of Haruhis, Kiritos and Rems. The lyrics discuss "seme-uke fantasies" and standing out from "normies" amongst other references that will make any anime fan either delight, cringe or both at the same time. At this point, you're either noping out of the movie immediately or you're in it for the long haul.

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Wotakoi doesn't skimp on the musical numbers at all, with a new one at least every ten minutes in the film's two hour runtime. The quality of these numbers is a mixed bag. At their best, these are simultaneously funny and character-driven songs that wouldn't be out of place in a J-Pop version of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (the "Anti-Otaku Date," where Narumi and Hirotaka try to have an anime-free date in Shibuya, is a particular stand-out).

Less consistent are the more serious musical numbers, though the vocal performances remain strong throughout (the dance performances less so). At their worst, Damien Chazelle might have a case for a copyright enfringement claim given just how much some numbers just copy La La Land without enough of a comic twist to push the imitation into full-blown parody.

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Fukuda keeps the anime and game references coming fast and furious while loading up the proceedings with fun visual gags. Sometimes he runs the risk of overdoing things (a gag in which Niconico-style internet commentary floods the screen is hilarious the first time around but slightly less funny each time it happens), but overall gives this lighthearted love story a real sense of fun. This is true even outside of the musical numbers, but it can't be overstated just how much making this a musical makes the general level of camp much more easily digestible.

Even if you've already read the manga or seen the anime, the Wotakoi movie offers a fresh twist on a familiar story. A studio like FUNimation or ElevenArts would be wise to pick this up for distribution in the United States. At the very least, this would be an amazing experience to screen at anime conventions once conventions are safe to open again.

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