As you enter Nekketsuhen the point in the story finally building upon the concepts of humanity and selflessness where we finally get to the real fight scenes of the movies its a little bit hard to shake the feeling that its constantly if subtly off. Its easy to miss the first watch and if you can brush this feeling aside and enjoy it youll totally and fully love it anyway. But it feels a bit barebones and skimping on key moments that result in a wobbly progression throughout. The mark of a good adaptation is being able to change source content or adapt it oddly to fit the medium but in a way that feels not only natural but easy to immediately love it. Even if it sticks out you still love it anyway. See the constant flash card cutins and outs. In the first movie there were moments that felt like they were handled in a noticeably different way. But because it fit in with the overall tone of the movie and its relaxed flow it felt natural to enjoy or even like. This movie does it at points but even then because of the weird and uneven flow and story beats it just feels way off. Dramaturgy is perhaps the most noticeable example. Its hard to get a clear sense of what his character is since hes noble and rational even if its not seen much. You get the sense that theres something critical missing that ties in the themes together and indeed there are some stuff missing that some may call critical. After he is defeated there is no more ruminating about him. He was merely an obstacle. This wouldnt be a problem if the story was trying to make clear parallels and conflicts for each fight. Koyomi Araragi a human turned vampire facing off against a vampire a halfvampire and a human all hunting vampires. The way it is all set up to test Araragis humanity and his conviction the Guillotinecutter fight is where all the conflicts get tested in an amazinglydone scene. It falls flat because each time we miss some context that explains the hunters goals and motivations. As great as the last battle is we only get a hint of what Guillotinecutter is capable of how much of a monster he is. The end result makes it not feel so satisfying even if the fights are good. The switchoff to scenes with Tsubasa Hanekawa before each fight doesnt make it any better. In the first ten minutes of the film Araragi tries to brutally end his friendship with Hanekawa because... he wanted to feel human. With how sudden this sequence happens everything happens too quickly and its hard for me to understand the point. Were we supposed to think Araragi is an absolute idiot and asshole? He sort of is both but not to the extent that the scene portrays him as. Luckily the next two Hanekawa scenes are not as bad in this department and it feels more natural even for the kind of movie its in. This is why I still think this film is really good. There are moments where everything just shines and feels bright and vivid Hanekawa admiring Araragi shirtless and making excuses to feel his abs. Hanekawa slowly roasting Araragi after finding the adult magazines Shinobu brought back. Hanekawa taking charge and shocking Araragi in the fields in her third scene. Even in the fights theres fantastic moments. Episodes cheesy yet hearty laughter interjecting itself visually during the first half of the fight sells him for me. The baby noises during the moments where Araragi figures out his body parts can regenerate. Guillotinecutters cold sadistic laughing when he believes hes already won. It saves whats otherwise an uneven and therefore soso film. Special mention to the soundtrack and animation here. The animation gets more adapted to portray fights well so even in the most gloomy unexciting moments like Araragi attempting to throw baseballs into Dramaturgys face or during sections of Araragi avoiding Episodes cross weapon it manages to feel fresh. Meanwhile with the soundtrack there are climaxes of songs and even brief moments of stuff like intros and bridges the action or visuals sync up to the music. Even in the calmer scenes with Hanekawa it manages to hit each mark and strengthen the bond these characters have. It can capture moments better than any monologue can. The absolute best moment musically is when Araragi succumbs to his vampire powers against Guillotinecutter the Drum and Bass music pounding away as he loses control. The visuals of him tearing up the streets sell it its as overthetop as it needs to be. This movie really did need to be longer maybe one to three minutes in each scene setting up context and explaining things the film only alludes to. But for what it is an underdog fighting to become human again in the most intense ways its a very serviceable and fine film. The way the fights get more and more serious as they go on is a perfect leadup to the final film. So if you watched the first one and youre wondering whether you want to watch a bunch of fight scenes my answer will always be the same: yes. Dont skip out on this even with its issues.