Diary (2025/8/11): I went to the Osaka screening of 'Final Re:Quest The Movie'

1. Review from the previous online preview

2. The screening held in Osaka

On Sunday, August 10, 2025, a screening of the JRPG-motif pixel art film "Final Re:Quest" was held at Theater Seven in Juso, Osaka. The film was created by game creator Ichiro Kusaka, also known as Tetsu Okano, whom I have personally supported for a very long time and who is famous for his highly distinctive style in both gag and serious works.

The content is mostly as I wrote in the YouTube preview above, but this is a review written in the high-tension, pumped-up state I felt after watching it for the second time in a theater.

3. Feeling the upheaval of the electronic world firsthand

The setting of this anime is a JRPG world. Here, we were able to experience:

• The vastness of an electronic world that makes you feel 'it certainly exists here'

• The breathing of electronic beings that makes you feel their life

• The horror of an electronic world that should be as it is, slowly becoming distorted

• The dread of seeing a meticulously crafted electronic world being mercilessly destroyed and lost with terrifying force and impact

• The ghastliness of the final boss with its extremely ominous appearance, an 'electronic entity with malice that wants to mercilessly destroy and erase the electronic world'

• The tumultuous exodus of the electronic masses

• The breathtaking resistance and battle by the seven companions, the Avengers of the electronic world

• The divinity of the interface between the electronic world and the real world, which feels otherworldly and beyond understanding

We were convinced by the synergistic effect of the beautiful graphics and the realistic performances of the voice actors that
this electronic world can be said to 'exist.' That is the level of persuasiveness we were hit with.

4. The seriousness of electronic beings

In this work, we see the behavior of various characters that makes us feel,
'Ah, of course, they are serious. That goes without saying. Who are we to say otherwise?'

4.1. Fakes can 'work' on the real thing. If it works, it can be called 'something certain'

I will include a few spoilers.

There is an existence of an electron.
That person is one of the seven companions, well, an impostor.
The real one has given up and is rotting away, and since nothing could be done unless something was done about this, it was a hopeless situation.
Here, the impostor makes a once-in-a-lifetime gamble and puts on a performance, successfully breaking the deadlock and moving the real one.
A once-in-a-lifetime bluff that, despite being from an impostor, reached the real one and was effective.
And,Since it 'certainly worked,' whether it was an impostor's bluff or whatever else, it is equivalent to the real thing, and if anything, it is on par with the real thing.
I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that the person who accomplished that was, in that moment, truly a person of great leadership.

4.2. You don't want to be saved by someone who says, 'I don't care about your world'

Also, after that, the seven companions are faced with the question:

• Will you struggle to save this world?

• Or will you escape from this dying world by yourselves?

They are forced to choose. They decide to struggle to save this world.
From the perspective of the existence that wants to help them escape, one would want to say,
'No, who cares about an electronic world that's about to perish? Why not just go to an electronic world that isn't perishing?'

***

Now, let's think about this for a moment.

Suppose a girl falls from the sky, and you hide her in your closet, and one day she says something like this:
'Your world, the things you hold dear, are trash.'
'The higher existence and I, its agent, will help you.'
Or something to that effect.

To put it very bluntly,

'That may be so, but I don't like what you're saying, and I like your condescending attitude even less. Get over here. Sit down properly.'

That's about the level of emotion one would feel.

***

I understand that the agent who is trying to help them escape is taking their role seriously.

However, the presence or absence of 'condescension' greatly affects persuasion.Condescension is not much different from saying,
'Ultimately, it doesn't matter what happens to you. If you get torn to pieces and die, that's fine. I don't care, I don't care.'
'Ultimately, it doesn't matter what happens to your world or the things you hold dear. If they get torn to pieces and perish, that's fine. I don't care, I don't care.'
Since the agent said the latter, well, you know.

Moreover, on top of that,the agent is later forced to make a major decision regarding their own role.
This broke the deadlock, but... well, the agent did a great job. And it was very difficult, wasn't it...

4.3. The final boss's motive. It was supposed to be impossible, but

In the second half, the final boss's surprising true identity is revealed, and their surprising motive is told.

I want to keep spoilers here to a minimum, as they are the core of the story.

Actually, there were two real players at this point. One entrusted this game software to the other as a kind of message board. And the final boss was given the role of the 'key' to the message.

What does this mean?
I won't explain, but if that message were conveyed correctly, it was of a nature that would blow away the happy ending the final boss was originally supposed to receive due to their role.

I don't think the sender player was at fault. There was no way they could have known that things would turn out like that.
However, the final boss was absolutely, completely furious.
With an intensity like,
'Are you seriously kidding me?'

***

In short, if one player's goal is achieved, the final boss loses all face.
This looks like a binary choice. If so, it cannot be solved. It's checkmate.
Normally, anyway.

However...
an unexpected resolution, brought about by something the final boss rejected, was waiting.
When I first saw this, I trembled, thinking,
'I can't believe they thought of such an acrobatic landing.'
Though I am not well-versed, this is a pattern I haveseen for the first time.And it is certainlyexecuted perfectly.

5. The balance of selection and omission between the lines

There are several non-verbal performances, or those that work by not explaining, and you do need to properly fill those in within your own mind.
When having people watch the work, it's quite difficult to steer this, as it's problematic if they say,
'Before whether it's amazing or not, I have no idea what's going on,'
or conversely,
'There's too much explanation, so I understand the content, but the tediousness ruins the taste.'
Especially since
it's usually difficult to think deeply while watching a movie and also maintain immersion, so you can't set up overly deep mysteries.

However, in this work,
'Come to think of it, the way they are addressed is actually consistently unnatural. Is why this is the case one of the keys?'
'Ah, they realized deeply that they should leave "all of this itself" behind.'
'No wonder everyone waves their hands to the heavens so that it reaches "that guy"'.
'This is a hint about who the final "this guy" is.'
and so on,well, you can understand it, so that part is probably fine.

6. Showing the movie version in a theater

This time, we screened the movie version at a mini-theater, but unlike YouTube,

• there were multiple theaters in the mini-theater, and sound was resonating from the walls, so it became necessary to lower the volume slightly to avoid interfering with other places

• in the case of a mini-theater, high-pitched sounds resonate more strongly

and other suchdifferences mainly in acousticsexisted, and I enjoyed it while thinking,
'As expected, theaters have a theater-like taste.'
.

7. And then, the next development awaits

After this, crowdfunding supporters are set to receive 'Final Request: The Game - Osaka Edition' as a truly playable JRPG.
I'm already incredibly happy at this point. This movie is themed around JRPGs. The actual thing can finally be played as a JRPG!

Also, if we do it next time, it seems a Nagoya edition is planned.
I hope we do it. And I hope it goes well.

***

Director Ichiro Kusaka, all the staff of Final Request: The Movie, everyone at Theater Seven, and everyone else, thank you very much!
I'm really glad I went!