A strange little film that lacks focus and misses the mark in the areas where it tries to move the audience.

While it clearly places most of its thematic weight on the conflict between homogeneity and collectivity versus heterogeneity and individuality, it never seems to explore this as deeply as it should. Instead, it suddenly branches out into multiple other topics, such as trend culture, (social) media influence, political satire, teen conformism and rebellion (drawing from coming‑of‑age films), the Japanese schooling system, romance, bullying, and grief.

This creates a landscape that verges on absurdity and surrealism, supported by the cartoonish presentation of the more villainous characters (such as the school director) and their contrast with the gravity and seriousness of our main character, the young Ai.

These clashing personalities generate some darkly and moderately amusing humour, but the moments that attempt to convey horror or creepiness fall incredibly flat and feel overly theatrical, leaving the viewer unsure whether the film is meant to be funny or frightening. The cheesy and poorly executed unsettling ending leaves you rather unsatisfied.