I have watched the Anime, and the animated version created a superb setting for this story with lots of tender moments for a topic that is slightly controversial about a coming of age young girl falling in love with a much older middle aged man. If you have to compare, then it has much of a similar theme of the movie "Lost in Translation" with a teenage Scarlett Johansson admiring the much older Bill Murray who eagerly shares his life experience with her while maintaining a pure and platonic relationship.
While the first half of the movie was at times almost an exact copy of the Animated version, and that made it lacked some soul and authenticity. As it was like trying rapidly going through memorable scenes from the Anime script by script. But I liked how the director changed the second half of the movie to differ a bit from the Anime, with its own take on some scenes and making the movie stand out more on its own. But it never lost the essence of the story, especially the ending captured the emotions very well that we all so much liked about the Anime for in the first place!
While the first half of the movie was at times almost an exact copy of the Animated version, and that made it lacked some soul and authenticity. As it was like trying rapidly going through memorable scenes from the Anime script by script. But I liked how the director changed the second half of the movie to differ a bit from the Anime, with its own take on some scenes and making the movie stand out more on its own. But it never lost the essence of the story, especially the ending captured the emotions very well that we all so much liked about the Anime for in the first place!