Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e – An Anime Film Review and Reflection
When Koyomi’s father and mother divorce, Koyomi chooses to remain with his mother. The two move into his grandfather’s place, but one birthday, after Koyomi’s grandfather confiscates a pellet gun from him and subsequently passes away, Koyomi becomes filled with regret at not being able to properly apologise to him. Over the years, Koyomi takes an interest in parallel universes as a result of visits to his father’s institute, and becomes a model student. However, he also becomes increasingly lonely. One day, after classes end, Kazune confronts him and demands to know why he turned down the valedictorian role during their opening ceremony. She reveals that in another timeline, she and Koyomi are going out, and that it’s up to him to see if he can make an effort in his timeline. When Koyomi does strike up the courage to approach Kazune, Kazune reveals she’d been the original the whole time, and while she declines to go out with him, the pair begin studying together after Koyomi reveals the source of his book smarts. The pair’s study sessions expand when curious classmates join in, and they eventually egg Koyomi on.
Despite failing to ask out Kazune every time, Koyomi is undeterred and enters post-secondary with the aim of joining his father’s institute. Kazune eventually comes around and asks Koyomi out; although their relationship is rocky, their feelings endure. The pair end up getting married and have a son. When an alternate Kazune appears following a stabbing that left her son dead, Koyomi reassures Kazune that her version of Koyomi will still be there to support her, and she agrees to be shifted back to her reality. Koyomi and Kazune’s son matures and starts his own family. As Koyomi’s life draws to a close, Kazune receives a letter from her alternate self – this alternate self explains that in one universe, Koyomi had fallen in love with Shiori and was devastated when she suffered a severe accident. Koyomi had devoted himself to sparing Shiori from this fate, and this Kazune had decided to support Koyomi in her own way.
In the end, Koyomi had found his solution, and the alternate Kazune implores her current self to help fulfil Koyomi’s original wish by heading over to the intersection, per the alternate Koyomi’s promise. In the current universe, Koyomi heads out to the intersection and finds nothing unusual. He is gripped with the onset of pain when exhaustion sets in, but an elderly lady passing by manages to retrieve his medication. Although she declines to provide her name, her remarks, that she’s nobody special, jolts an old memory. Koyomi asks if this lady is happy, to which she replies that yes, things are well. Koyomi is filled with a sense of contentment and happiness and returns home to his family, feeling that he had lived a fulfilling life. This is Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e, the other instalment to the pair of films based on Yomoji Otono’s novels that were originally published in 2016. With its premise rooted in romance and use of alternate realities as a catalyst, both Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e and its companion film, Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e, are complementary experiences that show the significance of certain decisions and how notions of free will and determinism can be reconciled, resulting in a remarkably touching tale of how, when things are meant to be, they will happen, and that no matter what one’s destiny might be, if one takes responsibility for their actions, they will find happiness no matter what path is taken to reach a given outcome.
In contrast with Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e, whose focus was on Koyomi’s single-minded determination to give Shiori a normal life, Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e‘s portrayal of Koyomi’s eventual courtship of Kazune results in a much happier and fulfilling tale. During Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e‘s run, Koyomi’s comments to Kazune are telling – he is confident that, no matter what reality he was in, he would’ve fallen in love with Kazune. Even in the reality where Koyomi had spent all of his efforts in towards saving Shiori, he crosses paths with Kazune, and while in this world, the pair never do get married, Kazune is still grateful she was able to spend time with Koyomi all the same. In the end, her own desire to help Koyomi reach his goals speaks to her devotion to him, even if no romantic relationship ever resulted.
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In this way, Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e clarifies many of the lingering questions Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e had raised, and speaks to a more uplifting, optimistic side of the message that both films convey. In Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e, all paths pointed to Shiori experiencing her accident. However, here in Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e, all paths also point to Kazune meeting Koyomi in some way. While one timeline has the pair reuniting as two researchers who spurred one another on, in another timeline, the pair marry, start a family and grow old together into old age. During the course of their lives, near-misses with tragedy suggest how, irrespective of which reality Kazune and Koyomi were in, they still would end up crossing paths in a manner of choosing, and in this way, Koyomi would always have someone by his side as he worked hard to find happiness. Taken together, Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e and Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e suggest that there is a potential answer to the age-old debate of whether or not one’s fortunes are guided by free will or determinism; this answer is formally known as compatibilism, where free will and determinism co-exist. Under the tenants of compatibilism, it is argued that while causality of long-term events are not free, entities within a system still have a degree of agency over their actions. In common terms, an outcome is preordained (or at the very least, more likely to occur in a specific way), but people have full power to influence how they reach that destination.
In the case of Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e and Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e, Koyomi and Kazune were always destined to meet one another. However, while Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e has the two meeting later as a result of Koyomi’s desire to save Shiori, Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e has the pair falling in love with one another after Koyomi’s longstanding determination to ask her out. While the path taken differs substantially, the outcomes are still similar: Kazune comes to cherish Koyomi all the same. Through Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e and Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e, then, the implications are that, regardless of whether or not something is set in stone, how one chooses to approach things matter. One has the agency to choose how things play out, and this sometimes can make all the difference in whether or not one’s life is well-lived. Putting this responsibility on the individual is therefore an encouraging thought because it suggests that, no matter one’s circumstances, there’s always things one can do, no matter how small, to better their situation in a perceptible manner.
