Japan: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style)

This article contains mature content. This article may contain content that may not be suitable for viewers under 18 years of age.‎ Reader discretion is advised.

This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.

This article was imported from another wiki.

This piece of media is rated X: No one under 18 admitted. Contains explicit content that is strictly for adults, such as graphic violence, strong language, and adult situations. Genuinely rated by YARS.

Japan: The Movie is a 2024 Japanese anime-comedy-drama-romance-shoujo-ecchi-hentai-magical girl-slice of life movie that involves characters and things that are from, or are based in Japan. It was made by Toho (who are also well-known for making the Godzilla movies) and is directed by Takashi Nishiyama, Shigeru Miyamoto and Yuko Shimizu. It features characters from various Japanese properties etc. The film had it's worldwide premiere on November 1st, 2024.

Plot

Ryu goes on a journey with Mario, Luigi, and Hello Kitty to destroy Akuma (here, he is called Gouki) who, just like in the original Street Fighter franchise, murdered his master Gouken, and he is joined by a bunch of other characters who are from, or are based in Japan. There is also a subplot with some other Japanese characters (including Jaden Yuki, Hiro Hamada, Hatsune Miku, and Chiro) where they need to stop M. Bison and Bowser from kidnapping innocent civilians from Tokyo.

Why It's Not Kawaii

1. It suffers most of the same problems that United Kingdom: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style) and The United States Movie: Patriotic Palooza!(Reception Wiki-style) had, despite being in development hell for 15 years, with the movie being 5 hours long which is an unnecessarily long runtime for an anime film. A lot of executive meddling behind the scenes happened, due to the directors apparently not having any clear enough ideas on how they wanted to present this film, which resulted in the plot having a messy execution. To make matters worse, the writers for the film barely knew anything about the original source materials for the characters and therefore, most of the characters have either been flanderized from their original counterparts or have unnecessary additions to their personalities:
   • Ryu, although still a likable character as the main protagonist, is always depressed and rarely feels happy until the end of the movie, and he always throws a Hadoken at anyone if they annoy him just a little bit.
   • Mario and Luigi are now overly obsessed with pasta and only care about wanting to go back to Brooklyn instead of helping everyone that is in need. As a matter of fact, in some scenes, they actually abandon the people they save just because they see pasta a few miles from where they are.
   • Peach is now controversial for being a poorly portrayed feminist who gets triggered by almost anything. She even has a massive hate boner towards people who don't agree with her political stances and hates men, including Mario.
   • Yoshi is now a hyperactive freak who screams all the time and also has a recurring joke where he pees himself whenever he gets scared by something, which is juvenile and gross. He screams so much in the film that he could be comparable to Fred Figglehorn in Fred: The Movie albeit not as unlikeable.
   • Wario doesn't contribute to the movie at all and only exists for toilet humor.
   • Waluigi is now a completely useless sidekick to Wario and he became a massive coward.
   • Daisy becomes this overly optimistic and immature loudmouth princess to the point that it becomes annoying. She's so annoying that it can be compared to SpongeBob's flanderization in seasons 6-8 albeit more mature.
   • Toad is now a punching bag who has a really mean-spirited gag of getting hurt, though he is still likable.
   • Link is now a psychopath who only kills people for his mild enjoyment and has no empathy for the feelings towards others.
   • Hello Kitty is now a bossy and spoiled jerk who throws tantrums whenever someone ignores her or they disagree with her actions, she is also a massive butt-monkey too since every other cat in the movie always tries to make a hit on her, despite being underage.
   • Dear Daniel is now a horny, creepy boy who masturbates all the time and is only interested in hooking up with Hello Kitty, despite being underaged.
   • My Melody is now a punching bag who keeps hurting herself with almost anything, and she cries a lot.
   • Purin is now an offensive stereotype of french people and obsesses over painting naked portraits of women for no reason at all.
   • Badtz-Maru is now a stereotype of "hip and trendy" kids, one who only uses his phone nearly all the time and won't stop bragging about how he is "the most famous person on Tik Tok".
   • Cinnamoroll is now a glutton who eats junk from garbage bins and has a disgusting recurring joke where he vomits out his food if he eats too much.
   • Retsuko is now a massive hot-head who gets angry over the most minor things possible, while it is true that her original counterpart had the tendency of losing her temper in tough situations, most of the time, you would be able to understand why. In this movie, however, her anger is often unacceptable and unjustifiable, sometimes her anger is exaggerated to the point where even goes as far as to threaten to stab people with a knife.
   • Fenneko has a very bland personality compared to her original counterpart, most of the time, she barely contributes anything interesting to the movie, and the writers themselves admitted in an interview that they only kept her in for fanservice.
   • Haida is flat-out abusive towards Retsuko, often engaging in domestic violence when he gets mad at her.
   • While it was interesting to see Resasuke again after a long absence, his character was unfortunately completely wasted here; instead of being a shy person with a lack of vocal skills, he is instead a very talkative person who always complains about how he never gets a girlfriend. This sounds really off because in the first season of Aggretsuko, he never explicitly made it clear that he wanted a girlfriend, and it was sort of implied that he didn't really consider Retsuko as nothing more than a friend. But here, it's all thrown away and is pretended like it never happened.
   • Isabelle from Animal Crossing is now a depressed edge-lord who only ever finds comfort in taking her own life away, she can also be treated as a very negative portrayal of how people suffer from depression.
   • Tom Nook is now greedy AF and will threaten to kill people if they don't give him their bells, he is basically like a raccoon version of Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants but with none of the same charm.
   • Even though all of the Animal Crossing villagers have had more unique personalities compared to the ones in the game, their personalities in this movie do not match their characters in the slightest:
     • Rosie is just an annoying Mary Sue who thinks that everything in the world is perfect and that nothing can wrong.
     • Bob is now a lazy slob who has very bad flatulence and by near the end of the movie, he gets obese and has a heart attack. Luckily, he does survive it though.
     • Derwin is nothing more than a weak nerd who gets bullied 24/7 by the Cranky and Snooty villagers from Animal Crossing and is basically the cat version of Milhouse from The Simpsons without any of the charm of the said character.
     • Marshall is nothing more than a stereotype of British people, even though Marshall was never confirmed to be British by Nintendo, his love for tea and crackers is so exaggerated that he basically becomes an unfunny version of Wallace from Wallace & Gromit.
     • Raymond is now a posh, arrogant maid who acts like a complete snob and an asshole who always thinks he is smarter and better than everyone else when he clearly isn't. A lot of the time, he insults other villagers for no reason other than to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouths and to look "badass".
     • Ankha is now a porn star who is overly sexualized and is always encouraging people to make more Rule 34 art of her, likely done to pander to her horny fans and as a reference to the Ankha Zone meme, even though the meme was already irrelevant by the time the movie released. As a matter of fact, it came out 13 years after it was popular.
     • Sherb is now a spoiled brat who hates "girly things" and only cares about "boy things", even going as far as to insult Hello Kitty all because her brand is marketed towards girls.
     • Apple basically cares for nothing more than just eating apples and she likes collecting the "ripest apples in the world", hence her name.
     • Stinky is just a disgusting knucklehead who only likes rummaging through garbage bins for no reason and has a massive hatred for taking baths and showers.
     • Biskit now supports right-wing political parties and became a huge nationalist.
   • The Sailor Senshis from Sailor Moon have been flanderized:
     • Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon has gone from being an immature, yet brave magical girl to a generic Gen Z stereotype that always does cringe-worthy TikTok dances and Internet challenges.
     • Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury, although likable, is now a butt-monkey constantly abused by Popuko and Pipimi.
     • Rei Hino/Sailor Mars became a rude tomboy who hates anything girly.
     • Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter now supports political correctness and condemns everyone who disagrees with her.
     • Minako Aino/Sailor Venus became a Mary Sue.
     • Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus is very one-dimensional and flat.
     • Setsuna Meiou/Sailor Pluto has been flanderized into a prostitute.
     • Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn is just like Isabelle.
   • Kirby is now a glutton who eats almost anything he sees, though he is still a likable and adorable character.
   • Tiff and Tuff have been reduced to being absolutely useless and they seemingly do not want to help anyone in battle, not even Kirby.
   • Jibanyan is nothing more than an annoying loudmouth who always tries to make sure that every battle goes completely the way that he plans it, and resorts to throwing tantrums when it doesn't. He is also now a pervert who loves looking at porn of everyone and will brutally murder anyone who doesn't like porn.
   • Komasan doesn't serve that much to the movie other than only being there to boast at the other main characters about how "cute he looks". Obviously, this gets very annoying after a while, and even the movie's writing seems to acknowledge the fact that everyone is irritated by it.
   • Vegeta is now obsessed with the number 9000.
   • Jin Kazama is a generic edgelord who hardly feels happy.
   • Even some (if not all) of the main characters in the Fire Emblem series feel out of character.
     • Marth is a goody-two-shoes stereotype who is bland, Alm for some reason has as hate boner for women (even Celica!)
     • Celica is reduced to a dumbo who can't even read
     • Hector acts like Cyborg from TTG and gives bad morals which constantly annoys Lyn and Eliwood.
     • Eirika and Ephraim are now this brother and sister rivals (but they forgive each other at the end)
     • Chrom does questionable moments that goes against his status as a hero.
   • Luffy loves to steal treasure from anyone he sees.
   • Hiro the Train is a xenophobe who refuses to work with those with different cultures. He's also a hypocrite since he's befriended Thomas as well as the other people from Sodor.
   • Sakura Kusagano only exists for fanservice and panty shots.
   • Bandanna Waddle Dee is boring, grumpy guy who always complains constantly about how he didn't make it into Smash.
   • Fox McCloud is now an incompetent pilot for keeps forgetting on how to use the arwing and always crashes in them, he is so stupid that he makes Slippy Toad look smart in comparison.
   • Falco Lombardi is now an aggressive, foul-mouthed jerk who beats up people for no reason.
   • Pikachu is now a sociopath who constantly shoots electricity at anyone, even Trainer Red.
   • Jigglypuff is now an offensive stereotype of people with ADHD, as she has mental breakdowns nearly all the time, gets overly excited over things and is so crazy that she makes Dizzy from Bob the Builder look tame in comparison. Not only that, she is Kirby's enemy in this movie for obvious reasons.
   • Eevee is now a crybaby who whines all the time about not getting to eat what she wants to eat.
   • Sonic is now a bumbling buffoon who always runs fast, and refuses to slow down. He even caused a category 10 hurricane.
   • AiAi is now crazy obsessed with bananas and will go as far as to kill people if someone even attempts at trying to take them.
   • MeeMee is now a perfectionist who tries to find "the ripest bananas in the world" and hates bananas that are not fresh.
   • Minoru Mineta and Katsuki Bakugo are even worse compared to their characterizations in My Hero Academia, they don't even have redeeming qualities in the movie as Mineta is only here for filler.
   • The Dancers of Koi from Just Dance 2022 (despite being created by Ubisoft) don't act anything like their original incarnations:
     • P2 is anti-Korean, and wants to bomb South Korea just because they created K-Pop, making him a xenophobe.
     • P1, now has a crazy obsession with bootleg games, and worships them like they're gifts from god.
     • P3 is mostly portrayed as an Texan stereotype, that is obsessed with AKB48, and has a massive hatred for The Pussycat Dolls. She also wants to cancel Level Up P2, Felicia, and Nicole Watterson on Twitter for no reason at all.
   • Peni Parker is an anime worshiper who goes after those that like cartoons.
   • Ami is a hyperactive idiot who can't sit still.
   • PaRappa is a rap elitist who dislikes modern rap music, although, he still comes across as a likable character.
   • Arle Nadja and Rulue are now reduced into Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck wannabe rivals despite the fact that Arle is more neutral towards Rulue and Rulue doesn't really despise her. Even Arle goes after Amitie and Ringo for being main characters as well which proves that she's a selfish girl.
   • Amitie is still friendly, but she becomes so friendly that she becomes a big hippie simp.
   • Pac-Man is a glutton who steals food from others and relies on gross jokes, he also never gets punished for stealing food.
   • Ringo is reduced to a generic know-it-all who thinks she is smarter than anyone else.
   • Athena Asamiya is now portrayed as a J-pop fanatic who chooses J-pop over important things. She even crossed the line by wishing death on those who are K-pop stars. How rude.
   • Miko (despite being created by Nickelodeon) is now a weeaboo who rejects the fact that she's Japanese-American.
   • Even most of the Phantom Thieves (except Joker) are flanderized as well:
     • Ryuji becomes a numb-nut, and not a likeable one, as he always tries seek attention to everyone around him.
     • Ann doesn't do much but tries too hard to raise gender issues only to fail all the time.
     • Yusuke is an elitist hipster, but compared to the thieves, he is more likeable.
     • Makoto is reduced into a bigger bossy asshole who think she has the authority to shut everyone up, when she doesn't. She always uses Godwin's Law on Ryuji as well.
     • Futaba is a couch potato that is worse than Beast Boy from Teen Titans Go!.
     • Goro is obsessed with eating delicious pancakes that it's like he can't function without them for one day.
     • Haru is a massive spoiled brat who acts like Angelica Pickles from Rugrats, in which she bullies people that have done nothing to her other than for her own mild enjoyment.
     • Sumire is just a mary-sue who has absolutely no personality or character development whatsoever, and she contributes nothing noteworthy or important to the story, you could take her out and nothing would happen!
     • Out of all the thieves, Morgana has the biggest flanderization of all whereas he has no redeeming qualities, always goes after those who call him a cat, is a massive punching bag, commits despicable and unforgivable crimes, tries to way too hard to hit up on Hello Kitty, is a Karma Houdini, and wishes death on Teddie and Koromaru. His incarnation in this movie is so bad that it made his entire character as whole to be hated, in similar manner to how Dizzy from Bob the Builder became a hated character due to her awful incarnation in United Kingdom: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style).
   • Momoka Akatsutsumi (Hyper Blossom) is even more obsessed with sweets than she was in Powerpuff Girls Z.
   • Nobita Nobi became a huge punching bag who constantly gets bullied by everyone for no good reason at all, although he's still likable.
   • Shizuka became even more of a Mary Sue than she already was and overpraises Nobita to death.
   • Gian and Suneo seems to abuse Nobita way too much, and mostly out of spite.
   • The two Japanese engines from Thomas & Friends have no purpose to be in this film other than to provide comedy. In fact, they can be compared to Logging Locos.
   • Tsubasa Aiba (Lovepat Pink) became full-on manic and psychotic.
   • Lovepyoco is now reduced into a brain-damaged vegetable who says "pyoco".
   • Popuko and Pipimi are arguably the worst characters in this film, as they enjoy torturing people for no reason at all, rape too many people, throw lots of tantrums, commit genocide, and are racist to anyone that isn’t Japanese. To make matters worse, they never got comeuppance for their actions, making them Karma Houdinis.
2. Some pointless guest appearances from random celebrities are here too, they're thankfully not as frequent as the previous two movies, but they're still forced in nonetheless:
   • Avril Lavigne has a pretty pointless cameo just so she could sing her song, "Hello Kitty".
   • The BTS cameo is forced in too, and when the band is on-screen, they look like they don't want to be there.
3. This film panders heavily to weeaboos, because the film outright insults American culture by portraying Americans as manly people who swear a lot, yet this film is also disrespecting Japanese culture too, as the film only praises Japan for pop culture and nothing else.
   • This film also seems to be Korean culture too since there was one scene where Kirby swallows Pororo and Crong by accident and Mario praises him for it.
   • There is even one scene where Mario straight up says that "Family Guy and The Simpsons were both never funny and never will be, and anyone who likes those shows are idiots", that line is not only offensive towards people who are fans of those shows, but also implies that the writers have a bias towards those shows in particular.
4. Many wasted potential and concepts are thrown into the movie to make seem more interesting than it is, but due to the fact that they are never really building up to something, it leaves the viewers very unsatisfied:
   • It tries to bring back the whole Retsuko and Resasuke relationship ark from season 1 of Aggretsuko, but it never goes anywhere, and by the end of the movie, it's never made clear whether they are in love or not.
5. The film can't decide its target audience as it features characters from video games made for children, yet there is tons of sexual content and violence in this movie, and 99.9% of them are way too inappropriate for a PG-13 movie, including one infamous scene that promotes hentai and Rule 34 art of family-friendly characters to children.
   • • Many of these scenes actually spawned so many controversies that most of them were cut during future releases on Blu-Ray, DVD, digital distribution, and streaming services.
6. The jokes are dumb and fall flat, they usually consist of awfully timed puns that make zero sense whatsoever, or they are usually based around anime memes, or just internet memes in general.
   • In one scene, Mario and Sonic have an argument about if the Super Famicom or Mega Drive is better, and Omochao comes out of nowhere and says "This is one of the top 10 anime battles of all time!"
   • Before the infamous scene where Morgana makes sexual advantages towards Hello Kitty, he says "I'm going to do a Careless Whisker!", which is an embarrassingly awful line and only serves as nothing but a reference to the George Michael song, "Careless Whisper".
   • While in McDonald's, Mario makes a desperate reference to Hotel Mario, by saying "You know what they say? All deep dryers, fry fries!", which is a reference to the "All toasters, toast toast!" scene.
   • Also while in McDonald's, Jaden makes a sexual reference to the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures episode "Is Zit You or Is Zit Me?" by saying "Oh boy, I'm so hot!", which is a reference to the "Aw man, I'm a meme" scene.
   • On the way to the television station, Peni sees Jaden on the TV screen by saying "Oh no, he's absolutely sexy!", which is a combination of references to the "Oh no, he's hot!" and "My name's Jaden Yuki, and I'm absolutely flawless" scenes.
7. There are tons of shameless product placements in the form of Nintendo, Sega, Namco, Capcom, SNK, Bandai, Toshiba, Pocky, Sony, Maruchan, Lotte, Panasonic, McDonald's, Sanrio, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Temco, NHK, TV Tokyo, Tamogatchi, Famitsu, TV Asahi, Aniplex, Pioneer, Vocaloid, etc.
8. There are so many useless filler scenes in this movie that it could surpass the number of filler episodes that Naruto has.
   • Mario and Luigi trying to back to Brooklyn.
   • The characters eating typical Japanese foods, such as ramen noodles, katsu (breaded pork cutlets), rice balls, sushi, mochi ice cream, chicken teriyaki, calamari, tempura, miso soup, etc.
   • Sonic challenging Mega Man to a drift race.
   • Doraemon eating Dorayaki for 2 minutes.
   • Nico Yazawa shouting a really loud "NICO NICO NII!!!" from the top of Mt. Fuji.
   • Momoko Akatsutsumi eating too many sweets and getting a stomach ache.
   • Beat vandalizing Tokyo Tower, despite Hiro Hamada telling him not to do it.
   • Ankha, Raymond and Rosie searching up Google pictures of themselves, in which nothing really happens and it is literally just a still shot of all three of them looking at the computer screen while you can hear sounds of mouse clicking. To make matter's worse, it goes on for five whole minutes.
   • Miko going on a quest to go catch some glitches as she would do in Glitch Techs. However, she fails.
   • King Dedede and Meta Knight arguing whether to go to a maid cafe or to the Kirby Cafe.
   • Trainer Red trying to catch a Mewtwo.
   • Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Eevee competing in the "Pokémon Olympics" despite it not having any impact or importance on the story, neither is it mentioned who won in the race until the last few scenes of the film.
   • Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel saying extremely dirty and sexual chat-up lines.
   • Kuki Sanban starting a cult revolving around rainbow monkeys.
   • An extremely cringe-worthy scene of Avril Lavigne singing her song, "Hello Kitty", for some reason, her singing sounds worse than how it did in the original song. It's so bad that all the character booed at her when she was singing, even Hello Kitty herself hated it and threw a tantrum in the scene where it happened.
   • A disgusting scene involving Morgana and Pikachu committing horrific crimes, including robbing shops, abusing animals, shooting up schools, etc. It also gave the song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship a horrible name since the song played during the scene.
   • In the Japanese version of the film, we see Nakoruru reading The Lorax in Engrish which is offensive.
   • Link and Mario trying to kill Ganondorf who isn't even trying to do anything evil.
   • All of the characters doing an awful cover of "Snow Halation" from Love Live, "Jump Up Super Star" from Super Mario Odyssey, and "Last Surprise" from Persona 5.
   • The characters attending a summer festival, which lasts for 30 minutes.
   • Isabelle contemplating suicide and she even has an imagination scene where she hangs herself with a rope.
   • Koi P3 trying to cancel Level Up P2, Felicia, and Nicole Watterson on Twitter, but fails. There is also a scene of her visiting the AKB48 theater in Tokyo.
   • AiAi and MeeMee trying to fly to an island full of bananas with their gliders, but they keep failing miserably.
   • The female characters going to the beach, which is about as long as your typical anime swimsuit episode and contributes nothing to the main plot.
   • Jaden Yuki challenging Chiro to a duel, complete with Western tropes such as dramatic close-ups, music, and a tumbleweed before one of them makes their move.
   • Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist showing up and singing "Hamood Habibi" midway through the film, possibly to wake the audience up after seeing all of the previous scenes for some reason.
9. Sometimes, the movie tries too hard at throwing in pop-culture references to movies, TV shows, video games, and even random internet memes that have nothing to do with Japan, some scenes include:
   • The scene which parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey by having Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, AiAi, and MeeMee beat King K. Rool with bones because he stole AiAi's bananas while "Also Sprach Zarathustra" plays, although the scene is actually pretty funny.
   • Ankha doing a krumping dance accompanied by the song "Show Me Love" by Robin S.
   • Doraemon, Rosie from Animal Crossing and Hello Kitty singing "Nyan Cat".
   • Mario and Sonic having a Jedi-styled battle as a reference to Star Wars.
   • Wario and Waluigi singing "We Are Number One" from LazyTown.
   • Toad singing "Get Up Offa That Thing" by James Brown complete with Keegan Micahel-Key being Toad's singing voice, as an obvious Robots refrence.
   • Jibanyan singing R.E.S.P.E.C.T by Aretha Franklin.
   • Jaden looking hot up close on the screen of the TV station building as a reference to the January 2012 TV Xuxa intro.
   • Chiro screaming loudly as a reference to the scene from the Phineas & Ferb episode "Cheer Up Candace".
   • Popuko and Pipimi interrupting the battle scene, and singing, “Squidward Nose” by Cupcakke for no reason at all.
10. False advertising:
    • The film's trailer hinted that M. Bison, Bowser, Bowser Junior, Shadow Queen, Dimentio, Fawful, Ganon, Dark Matter, Magalor, Daroach, N.M.E., Marx, Sepiroth, Giovanni, Cyrus, Dr. Willy, Dr. Eggman, Heihachi Mishima, Ancient Ogre, Ridley, Andross, Skeleton King, King Piccolo, Queen Beryl, Zeref, Heathcliff (Sword Art Online), Dio Brando, All For One, Monokuma, Black Shadow, Giygas, Kyubey, and Sigma would be the main villains when it's actually Gouki that is the main villain. Everyone else is only there for filler and serves no purpose to the story.
      • The main poster even has M. Bison, Bowser, and Bowser Junior in them despite the fact that they are clearly not the main villains and are actually the villains of the subplot.
    • One of the posters misleadingly depicts Ash Ketchum as Pikachu's trainer, yet he is nowhere to be seen in the movie and is replaced by Trainer Red.
11. The voice acting is a mixed bag, some performances are pretty solid, and then others are not so great, the beatnik catgirl, for example, sounds like she's drunk and horribly depressed when she speaks.
12. Bland soundtrack that mostly consists of J-Pop, music from video games, and music that has nothing to do with Japan, though it does try to be vibrant.
13. The movie rehashes elements from United Kingdom: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style) and The United States Movie: Patriotic Palooza!(Reception Wiki-style), with it using the same concept and formula as those ones, despite the story being different.
    • As a matter of fact, it even reuses some songs that played in those movies.
14. Despite the movie being made in Japan, Japanese stereotypes are somehow present in the film.
15. The cat bus is just terrifying.
16. There are some awful pieces of dialogue in the movie, with some of them being "so bad, they're great", or just straight-up awful, some include:
    • "I'm going to do a Careless Whisker!" - Morgana
    • "Life is worse than dying…" - Isabelle
    • "YOU TOOK MY BANANAS, YOU PENIS FACE!" - AiAi
    • "I like touching you, Kitty" - Dear Daniel
    • "You know what they say? All deep fryers, fry fries!" - Super Mario
    • "Baths and showers stink!" - Stinky
    • "I am now going to attempt suicide" - Jibanyan
    • "Oh no, he's absolutely sexy!" - Peni Parker
    • "No, not my… belly button!" - Jaden Yuki
    • “Hey, Pipimi! Wanna see my vagina?” - Popuko
17. The twist villain of the film is Harvey Weinstein of all people and he has been flanderized to a demon in human form and turns into a demon in the end.
    • Not just that there is a scene when he works with the Nazis which sure Weinstein is infamous but he is not a Nazi for Pete's sake. Not just that but there is a scene when Gouki who somehow changed side later on in the film said "You're worst than Hitler!".
      • This shows that someone who writes this is using Godwin's law.
    • Also, Harvey Weinstein has absolutely nothing to do with Japan, so why is he in this film to begin with?
18. Executive Meddling: The film was originally made to be a tribute to Japan. However, the five major studios in America starts to join in the making of the film who are far-leftists and want to make a movie about the MeToo movement. This leads to the problem shown above.
    • Not just that but there also hired Kid Trunks and Goten writing the film who are only kids.
19. There is a very pointless and unnecessary subplot that involves M. Bison, Bowser and Bowser Junior wanting to kidnap every single person in Tokyo, but they (you guessed it) completely fail in the end.
    • What makes it even more pointless is that it has no impact on the main story at all.
20. Despite not being a musical, there is an entire scene before the ending credits where all the characters in the movie sing a musical number named "What Happened Today", it is ridiculously long and the singing is off-key and the characters sound like they were making up the lyrics as they went along.
    • To add salt to the wound, the entire movie ends with everyone dancing to the remaining music after singing the song.
21. Overuse of stock sound effects, particularly anime and Hanna-Barbera sound effects.

Redeeming Qualities

1. There are a few characters that are either improved from their original counterparts or were fortunate enough to not get flanderized, such as Gouki, E. Honda, Toadsworth, Tippi, Goombella, Paper Mario, Zelda, Bowser, Bowser Junior, Doraemon, Rosalina, GonGon, Mimmy White, Kuromi, Gudetama, Resasuke, Timmy and Tommy, Meta Knight, Peppy Hare, Trainer Red, Madoka Kaname, Kimi Finster, Son Goku, Ponyo, Hiro Hamada, Hatsune Miku, Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury, Michiru Kaiou/Sailor Neptune, Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Chiro, Sarai Shihara, Kohana Aose, Sora Nanairo, Honoka Akahoshi, Koyuki Aoba, Yuzuki Shimori, Kirari Momose, Rouon Aro, Sukashine Ariku, Rishe Weitzner and many others.
   • While Resasuke's relationship ark with Retsuko was leaved a lot to be desired for most viewers, it was nice seeing him again after a long absence.
   • Kuromi is an enjoyable character, and a fun rival to My Melody, while she does still does hold a grudge against her, she is actually much nicer to her than she was in the anime.
   • Zelda is very heroic and is shown to be more than just a damsel in distress.
   • Timmy and Tommy are one of the most likeable and adorable characters in the movie despite not getting enough screen time.
   • Doraemon is a very likeable character and often has some very heartfelt moments.
   • Meta Knight is probably the most enjoyable character in the movie and is often considered to be the highlight of the movie.
   • Bowser and Bowser Junior both have a heartfelt relationship with each other.
   • Akuma/Gouki is awesome as the main villain.
   • Son Goku is likable and is less of a manchild.
   • Jaden Yuki is a very relatable and handsome duelist and has heartwarming moments. He's also the highlight of the movie due to his hot-blooded personality and punk design. Much better than Ankha, right?
     • Also, he and Alexis Rhodes have a heartwarming relationship with each other, just like Yusei Fudo and Akiza Izinski have.
   • Hiro Hamada is a very heroic genius, as he doesn't vandalize Tokyo Tower as Beat does.
   • Chiro is very smart and a heroic leader of the Hyperforce, as he doesn't eat too many sweets as Momoko does.
   • Hatsune Miku is a nice singer, as she doesn't wish K-Pop idols dead as Athena does.
   • Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury is very sympathetic here, due to Popuko and Pipimi treating her like crap.
   • Oz Vessalius, despite only appearing a few times in this movie, is just as likable as he was in PandoraHearts (his home series).
2. Despite some bad performances, the voice acting is mostly solid, as many of the voice actors reprise their roles. In addition to this, some of the new voice actors for some characters are very good, most notably Vanessa M. Pareja's (also known as Vannamelon on YouTube) role as Isabelle.
3. The fight scenes are amazing, especially the final battle with Ryu and Akuma.
4. PaRappa's line: YOU ENTITLED PIECE OF CRAP!!! is so funny, it managed to become an internet meme.
5. The scene where Bowser and Bowser Junior are talking to each other about their time together is one of the most heartwarming moments in the movie.
6. Some of the soundtracks are good to listen to:
   • An orchestral remix of the Famicom Disk startup was a good music choice for the prologue.
   • Some of the remixes to random themes from Japanese media are nice to listen to.
   • The erotic bossa nova/funk-style porn music in the party scene sounds amazing.
   • Despite the song itself having nothing to do with Japan, the Japanese parody version of "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel, which is sung by Mario, Doraemon, Hello Kitty, Pac-Man, and Isabelle, is really good.
   • Jaden singing "Night Trip" is a huge improvement to the said song from Initial D Fourth Stage, as it's way better and different than the previous version by an unknown male vocalist (SylverR). On that subject, his singing voice in both English and Japanese versions is amazing.
     • Also, Jaden gets to sing "KARATE" by BABYMETAL, which fits his hot-blooded personality!
7. Even though the pop-culture references are annoying and have nothing to do with Japan, some of them can be quite funny, such as the scene where Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, AiAi, and MeeMee attack King K. Rool with bones while "Also Sprach Zarathustra" plays, as a hilarious parody to the Dawn of Man scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
8. Some of the jokes can be quite funny, such as the jury scene which is a funny parody of Dick Bruna (the creator of Miffy) giving Sanrio a lawsuit against their character Cathy.
9. The animation is PHENOMENAL, thanks to several big names in the animation industry (TMS, Bones, Ufotable, Kyoto Animation, MovieToons, MAPPA, Production I.G., David Production, Sunrise, Toei Animation, OLM, Studio Pierrot, CoMix Wave Films, Shuka, and Shaft) collaborating.

Reception

Critical Reception

Japan: The Movie was widely panned by critics and audiences alike, it is widely considered to be one of (if not) the worst movies ever made, it was mainly criticized for the severe flanderization of several characters, the unusual story, filler-worthy scenes, and the insane amount of sexual content. The film currently holds a 1.8/10 rating on IMDb, a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a weighted score of 9 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "overwhelmingly negative reviews". Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus states: "Aside from the faithful character designs, fantastic variety of characters, great animation, and sublime voice acting, Japan: The Movie has ultimately nothing redeeming about it, it's the complete opposite of kawaii".

Box Office

Unlike United Kingdom: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style), which was a box office hit, this movie did very poorly when it was released in theaters, even worse compared to The United States Movie: Patriotic Palooza!(Reception Wiki-style), which was a box office disappointment and only a moderate success. Japan: The Movie only made $240.1 million at the box office worldwide compared to a $240 million budget, making it a box office bomb.

Controversy

There is a scene in this film where Popuko and Pipimi rape Ami Mizuno and then leak her nudes on social media. When the film was released in theaters, that scene angered so many people, and there have been many news reports about this. Due to this scene being deemed so controversial, the entire movie has been banned in at least 56 countries worldwide. That scene even nearly got the film banned in the United States as well.

Soundtrack for the film

1. Famicom Disk Startup Remix
2. Happy Together - The Turtles
3. Jump Up, Superstar - Super Mario Odyssey
4. Pokémon Theme Song Remix
5. Kirby Kirby Kirby! (Kirby's Theme) - Kirby and the Battle for Dream Land
6. Not Just a Mere Waddle Dee, More Than Just a Mere Waddle Dee (Bandana Dee's Theme) - Kirby and the Battle for Dream Land
7. Hello Kitty and Friends Theme Song Remix
8. Doraemon Theme Song Remix
9. Snow Halation - Love Live
10. Say Yes - Chage and Aska
11. Kanden - Kenshi Yonezu
12. Silhouette - Kana-Boon
13. Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme Remix
14. The Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme Remix
15. Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper (Trolls version)
16. KARATE - BABYMETAL (Jaden's cover)
17. Nyan Cat Theme
18. Night Trip (I Wanna Take You High) - KENN
19. Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown (Toad cover)
20. Also Sprach Zarathustra - Richard Strauss
21. FAKE LOVE - BTS
22. Show Me Love - Robin S.
23. Hello Kitty - Avril Lavigne
24. Friend - Various Sanrio Characters
25. Kiss Kiss Kiss - Yoko Ono
26. Don't You Wonder Sometimes - Michiko Kusiki
27. Memories - Gackt
28. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
29. We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel (Japanese parody)
30. Live & Learn - Sonic Adventure 2
31. Candy - FAKY
32. Make you happy - NiziU
33. Perfect World - Twice
34. Nee - Perfume
35. Lonely Tropical Fish - Wink
36. Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Boys Town Gang
37. Fur Elise - Ludwig van Beethoven
38. Last Surprise - Persona 5
39. Tonight Is the Night - Studs
40. Break Free - Super Mario Odyssey
41. Squidward Nose - Cupcakke (Popuko and Pipimi’s cover)
42. The Final Countdown - Europe
43. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler (piano version)
44. What Happened Today - Japan Gang
45. Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye (Hatsune Miku's cover)
46. The World - Nightmare
47. Renai Circulation - Kana Hanazawa
48. Untitled Credits Medley - Megumi Hayashibara, Hekiru Shiina, Maaya Sakamoto, Yui Horie, Nana Mizuki, Yukari Tamura, Aya Hirano, Haruko Momoi, and many more voice actresses well-known for singing (exclusive to the home video versions)

Cast

English

• Kyle Hebert as Ryu
• Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi
• Zebedee "Chunk" Grover as Yoshi
• Samantha Kelly as Princess Peach, Toad, and Toadette
• Keegan Michael-Key as Toad (singing voice)
• Deanna Mustard as Princess Daisy
• Kenny James as Bowser
• Caety Sagoian as Bowser Junior
• Sarah Anne Williams as Hello Kitty
• Laura Summer as Mimmy White
• Claudia S. Thompson as Dear Daniel
• Michelle Marie as My Melody and Chococat
• Jenny Yokobori as Kuromi and Cinnamoroll
• Evette Wulk as Badtz-Maru
• Georgie Kidder as Keroppi
• Erica Mendez as Aggretsuko
• Benjamin Diskin as Haida
• Ikue Ōtani as Pikachu
• Michele Knotz as Bulbasaur and Squirtle
• Michael Haigney as Charmander
• Rachael Lillis as Jigglypuff
• Erica Schroeder as Eevee
• Morgan Berry as Kirby and Ness
• Alexis Tipton as Tiff
• Laura Stahl as Tuff
• Ted Lewis as King Dedede and Escargoon
• Eric Stuart as Meta Knight
• Vanessa M. Pareja as Isabelle
• Mona Marshall as Doraemon
• Johnny Yong Bosch as Nobita Nobi
• Brian Beacock as Suneo Honekawa
• Kaiji Tang as Takeshi Gouda
• Cassandra Lee Morris as Shizuka Minamoto and Morgana
• Xander Mobus as Joker
• Max Mittelman as Ryuji Sakamoto
• Erika Harlacher as Ann Takamaki
• Matthew Mercer as Yusuke Kitagawa
• Cherami Leigh as Makoto Niijima
• Erica Lindbeck as Futaba Sakura
• Xanthe Huynh as Haru Okumura
• Robbie Daymond as Goro Akechi and Jaden Yuki
• Laura Post as Sumire Yoshizawa
• Tara Strong as AiAi
• Grey DeLisle as MeeMee
• Yura Sugiura as Sora Nanairo
• Jesse "Nowacking" Nowack as Oz Vessalius

Trivia

• The movie was released on November 1st, 2024 to celebrate Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary.
• As mentioned above, this film is banned in 56 countries due to the aforementioned scene of Popuko and Pipimi raping Ami Mizuno and then leaking her nudes on social media.
• Tara Strong was originally going to play the role of Hello Kitty, but she was replaced by Sarah Anne Williams because the test audiences thought that her role as Hello Kitty was better than Tara Strong's, however, her unused voice lines were leaked in 2026.
• The movie takes place right after the events of United Kingdom: The Movie (Reception Wiki-style) and The United States Movie: Patriotic Palooza!(Reception Wiki-style), with some moments in this film mentioning the events of those movies.
• Several characters make blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos throughout the film. They are:
  • Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, and Orihime Inoue (Bleach)
  • Kirito (Sword Art Online)
  • Shirou Emiya, Saber, Rin Tohsaka, Archer, Sakura Matou, Rider, Mordred, and Astolfo (Fate)
  • Shiki Tohno, Arcueid Brunestud, and Neco-Arc (Tsukihime)
  • Beatrice (Umineko When They Cry)
  • Rena Ryugū and Rika Furude (Higurashi When They Cry)
  • Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)

Comments (3)

Loading comments...