Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road
This ended up being a rather enjoyable TV movie with no real expectations attached. Kinema Citrus and Orange definitely did a good job with the animation and direction, so it's a pretty well animated and fun action adventure film set in a post-apocalyptic Japan with mechs, swordsmen, monsters, a ninja boy, and a terrible protagonist.
Storywise it's a pretty generic fallen princess meets strange superpower boy story, with lots of predictable tropes and not a lot of originality. Ame is a pretty awful protagonist who has self-confidence issues and her motivations mostly act as a plot device, while the villain is a totally underdeveloped annoying ass dude who tries to talk the audience to death every time he appears.
In a way the writing reminds me of Gargantia (also featuring lots of Nitroplus writing!) but worse, because it tries to condense a lot of world building into a 90 minute experience and the writers clearly aren't experienced in doing that at all. Thankfully the dialogue heavy portions mostly only impact the tail end of the movie, and the direction is strong enough to carry scenes without much dialogue so it feels brisk for 2/3s of the movie.
Solid character animation, amazing background art, some pretty good action, and really nice effects in the climax. The world setting is pretty fun too, even though it doesn't get fully utilized. I really liked the male lead too, and he made it possible to put up with Ame in every scene they're together in. Just don't go in expecting much from the story, and I think it's a pretty enjoyable holiday TV movie for anime fans.
