Review: The Dangers in My Heart cuts to the chase with its solid compilation film

Like I did earlier this year with Zombie Land Saga, I've spent the past few weeks catching up on The Dangers in My Heart to prepare for the release of the anime's new big-screen venture, appropriately titled The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie. I do love when I have enough time to catch up on an anime before a movie comes out, so I have firm footing going in. In this case, there were only two seasons (25 episodes total) to catch up on, so no sweat.

When I started watching the show, I was put off almost immediately. The show's protagonist, Ichikawa, is a loner at his junior high school, and a bit of a creep. He's always off on his own, reading a murder encyclopedia, and imagining how he'd like to kill his classmates. He's got major incel vibes, and the main target of his bloodthirsty fantasies is Yamada, the most mature (and popular) girl in class. She's tall, full-figured, a professional model. All the boys in class fantasize about her, sometimes out loud, often very disgustingly.

Ichikawa ends up crossing paths with Yamada in the school's library, and it's here where their unlikely connection starts to blossom. Yamada helps coax Ichikawa out of his shell, realizing that the world isn't so bad, and that his loneliness and isolation are self-imposed more than anything. Ichikawa, meanwhile, sees Yamada as a full person, unlike many of their classmates. He appreciates her sense of humor, her work ethic, her weirdness. The show ends up being a kind of two-stage slow-burn romance: first, the friendship developing, and then that turning into something deeper and more romantic. I ended up loving it.

The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie, is mostly just a compilation film that covers the entirety of the series, with a bit of new stuff bookending it. Doing a rapid-fire catch-up before a movie like this is a bit weird, because it ends up being a lot of, "Oh yeah, I just watched that." But in this case, I liked the show, and these characters, so much, that I was happy to spend another 100 minutes with them going down (recent) memory lane.

The film obviously has to trim a lot to fit 25 episodes into a feature-length runtime, and it's mostly successful. It hits a lot of the highlights of the show, like Ichikawa sending his bike flying to save Yamada from an unrelenting suitor, Christmas Eve, White Day, the graduation speech, and (of course) the school trip. Christmas Eve and White Day are handled especially nicely, done as music-video style montages that cover a lot of ground, collapsing entire episodes into a couple minutes. The film starts off letting you know that Ichikawa and Yamada (spoiler alert?) end up together, which allows newcomers to watch the movie with that in mind. I think this is a smart move, since Ichikawa is so off-putting at first blush, and it lets the rest of the proceedings have extra momentum since we know where we're heading.

And the film is very focused on the romantic element of the show, understandably so. However, that means that a lot of the humor (which I think is equally important to the show's success) takes a backseat, and a lot of the supporting cast is relegated to silent set dressing (justice for Hara and Kanzaki!!). If you've seen the show before, it doesn't really matter, since you're likely just looking to spend time in this world and see the new stuff. For newbies, though, I wonder if this movie would be a good sell to make you want to dive into the show. Obviously, I recommend doing so, but I don't know if the movie is super convincing on that front.

As far as the new frame for the story goes, it involves Ichikawa helping his sister write a new song for her band, and then the song being performed at a concert. It's pretty minimal, but the song is very good, the animation looks great, and there's a payoff that made me very happy. 

Whether you're a newcomer to The Dangers in My Heart or an established fan, the movie is a great watch that does a solid job of condensing a wonderful story into a shorter format. I don't know if there are plans to continue this series in any way, but I'll be happy either way. I would love to see more of these characters, but I'm also content leaving them with their happy ending, just the way it is.