A friend recommended this anime movie to me and I had no idea what to expect. I have never seen the series so I just went into this blind and it blew me away! Although there were many references to the series I don't understand, I got the gist of it. It just means that my perspective is like the denizens of the alternate world and Kyon does sound like he's crazy when he's rambling about time travel and aliens. The premise of the film is simple enough - a teenager from a bizarre universe is suddenly thrust into an alternate world where everything is normal. His classmates are just humans, not aliens, time travelers or "espers" (whatever they are). They don't have an SOS Brigade that deals with otherworldly threats. The usual teenage hero story is thrown upside down. I loved his initial shock at the universe's change and his detective work at figuring out what's going on by methodically inspecting every person and place he knows (although he did overreact at times). What's great is that when he figures out the answer, the movie is barely halfway over and there are so many more plot twists to really drive home the emotional core of the story that lurks underneath the wacky premise. It's far more than I expected and I'm so glad about it.
