I’m not usually the type that goes for a romantic, coming of age drama, but I couldn’t ignore a title like I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS, and had to find out exactly what it was about. The trailers made it look like the anime version of A WALK TO REMEMBER. It certainly starts out that way, but then goes way off the rails and is definitely a thing of its own.
The story follows our male protagonist who is so afraid of getting close people, he doesn’t share his name *spoiler*** until the very end ***, so I’ll just refer to him as Inceles. Pronounced like Heracles. He has no friends and doesn’t attempt to make any either. One day he discovers a diary on the ground that is titled “Living with Dying”. The owner of the diary appears to him rather quickly. It turns out to be his classmate Sakura Yamauchi. She is apparently dying of a pancreatic disease. She explains to Inceles that is the only person outside of her family to now know of her condition, because of course he read the diary. Sakura uses this to get Inceles to spend time with her.
Sakura at first appears to be the epitome of the term Manic-Pixie Dream Girl. She’s bubbly, assertive, and exists only to make Inceles’ life better. Well, she still does that last thing, because as you can imagine, having a pancreatic disease, she doesn’t survive the movie. This is not a spoiler because you learn this right within the first minute or so of the film. As the movie progresses, you may find yourself questioning more and more just how crazy is this girl. I’m still not entirely sure if she set up their “by chance” meeting. Understandably, she is a girl in high school who is dying and is to be denied many of life’s experiences. The lengths she goes to, and how she approaches them gets pretty messed up.This is not to say that Inceles is without his obvious problems as well. Also, I’m not certain if it is a normal thing in Japan to be all about eating organ meats. Sakura is all about eating pancreas (of I think chickens) to gain the nutrition from it and help her own. She jokingly tells Inceles at one point “I want to eat your pancreas” and it becomes a thing between them.
Anyways, as the Manic-Pixie Dream Girl does, Sakura brings changes out of Inceles for the better.
Aside from the protagonists roles being typical tropes, the movie itself was rather unpredictable. Oh, and I almost missed the epilogue that happened after the credits! The movie gave a feeling of finality so many times, I was certain that it was about to end or was ending several times.
So was it good or not? I honestly can’t say. There were ordinary moments, touching moments, there were some possibly relatable-in-youth-awkwardness cringe moments, also all mixed in with some serious “what the fuck” moments. If you’re a slice of life anime fan who also likes romantic dramas, this is for you or your sweetie-aboo just in time for Valentine’s Day...time..
You can pick up tickets with Fathom Events. Showing in Subs February 7th, and Dubs February 10th.
~Big Eyes aka Eva Snail
Instagram: @artbysnail
