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Norio Sakurai’s The Dangers in My Heart is a charming romantic comedy and slice-of-life manga that’s been running since 2018. The Dangers in My Heart was adapted into an anime back in 2023 and wrapped up its second season in 2024. With the release of The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie, Shin-Ei Animation’s hit adaptation is officially back with an anime film that recaps the first two seasons, while featuring a hotly anticipated moment manga fans have been dying to see animated.
For fans of the series (or newcomers who want to dig their teeth into an anime love story with a surprising amount of emotional depth), HIDIVE has brought the movie to North America for a limited screening mere days after the film’s domestic premiere in Japan. The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is only playing in theaters for one more day, so make sure to get tickets for the February 18th dub screening ASAP.
Watch The Dangers in My Heart: Season 1
The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie Recaps Seasons 1 & 2 in a Beginner-Friendly Film
Anime recap films are hard to pull off. More often than not, they feel like awkwardly stitched together montages that barely have a coherent story and cap off at awkward points. The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie certainly has some issues, but aside from one particular scene that didn’t land in the last act, I genuinely forgot I was watching a recap movie 20 minutes in. By focusing almost exclusively on its two main characters, The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is surprisingly beginner-friendly.
Fans of the anime will likely be disappointed at the omission of the anime’s slice-of-life and more comedic moments, but it does result in a movie that flows well from scene to scene without feeling too awkward. There are a couple of montages dedicated to building Kyotaro Ichikawa and Anna Yamada’s relationship, but they’re so well paced, you wouldn’t even know they were recapping episodes worth of story unless someone told you that you were watching a recap beforehand.
The art direction and soundtrack really shine. A few scenes are framed from Ichikawa’s perspective, resulting in first-person views that put you in his shoes. Characters are animated fluidly, and the movie’s color palette and fashion sense for characters really stand out in a great way. If there are any issues animation-wise, it’s the poor use of CG during the movie’s introductory and closing concert, and an over-use of bloom at certain points. The score is strong all throughout, featuring soft melodies that feel perfectly at home in the genre, but the real start musically is the music by in-universe band Primary COLOR. The main theme, Tsuzuku, is particularly fantastic and caps off the movie’s ending perfectly.
The Movie Tightens the Anime’s Pace to Make Ichikawa & Yamada’s Relationship the Heart of the Story
Condensing 25 episodes of an anime into a 102-minute film is no easy task. Naturally, anyone who’s not Ichikawa or Yamada basically has no character development in the movie. The supporting cast is very poorly defined. This is rarely a problem, as the movie does a great job simply focusing on its romance, but there’s one scene near the end where Ichikawa reflects on the fact he’s made friends and grown out of his shell that simply does not land, since as far as the movie is concerned, none of this was actually seen.
This is hardly a major issue, though, as The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie makes the right call in making Ichikawa and Yamada’s relationship the heart of the story. Anime romances have a bad habit of feeling too slow burn and dragging love stories out, but The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is wonderfully succinct, building their relationship and growing their characters with each scene. It’s a testament to the film’s strong source material that the character development still lands with the same emotional depth and charm found in the manga and anime.
Ichikawa’s growth from an insecure loner definitely hits harder in the anime and manga where you can watch his gradual development, but his romance with Yamada honestly works a little better in the movie thanks to the tight pacing. There’s less teasing and more emphasis on actively building towards the film’s ending, which sticks the landing in a way few anime romances actually do).
The Dangers in My Heart Avoids the Pitfalls of Anime Romances With an Ending That Actually Commits
Far and away the best part about The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is the fact the story is actually willing to commit to its romance. Far too often, anime romances drag things out with constant teases and relationships that ebb & flow too much to feel concrete. Confessions and kisses are often saved for the very end of the series (if they happen at all), resulting in unsatisfying arcs that simply drag the story out too much.
The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie does not have this problem whatsoever, in large part thanks to a new scene at the end of the film that adapts Karte 127 from The Dangers in My Heart manga. Ichikawa and Yamada’s relationship feels fully developed and fleshed out, making their big moment at the end of the movie land with a lot of weight. Knowing there’s more story left to come and that the manga continues fleshing out their romance makes the ending hit harder: there’s still more to see once The Dangers in My Heart Season 3 eventually airs.
The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is not perfect, but few anime recap films are. Even with its issues, The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie does justice to its main attraction: Ichikawa and Yamada’s love story. The two have a genuinely charming relationship, and watching them slowly fall for one another, and grow alongside each other, really evokes the captures the excitement, awkwardness, and fun of young love. Whether you’re a fan of the anime already who just wants a refresher, or looking for a new series to pick up, The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie is a great film with lots of heart.
