So after finding this thread a couple of weeks ago I thought this was a movie that both my gf and I could enjoy and finally today we watched it. Boy did I get that right, we both really loved it and were fighting back the tears by the end :lol
It was funny because we also watched Monsters University today, and we thought Ame and Yuki was clearly the superior experience (I get they were going for two different things, but I definitely got my heartstrings tugged at here like I usually would expect from a Pixar movie, so I couldn't avoid comparing them). I loved the setting, the characters (although we never did get an explanation for why that old man was grumpy as hell. I thought he'd reveal he was a wolf himself or something. Guess he was just kinda weird.), the kids were ridiculously adorable, and the visuals were outstanding.
I also particularly liked the cleverness and emotion of some scenes - the way the movie illustrates the passage of time while moving through the school's corridor for example was pretty clever. The way the curtain was used during the end of Yuki's plot was also good, and I liked how the movie wasn't particularly afraid of letting scenes play out without much dialogue.
It did seem to me like the movie took too long at the beginning (it definitely seemed much longer than 2 hours), but the second half got rid of most of the pacing issues. Anyway, after the slight disappointment that was Summer Wars for me, Hosuda's more than won me back.
Maybe I keep coming back to the Pixar comparison because I also watched MU today, but this definitely reminded me of how all good Pixar movies, while fantasy or sci-fi or whatever-themed, are also about humans and their struggles and this one definitely nailed that balance as well.
Thanks GAF, great recommendation.