The Ano Hana movie is about what the friends did after the series to deal with their feelings for Menma and also their feelings stirred up by her return.
The movie mostly feels like a recap of the show. Too many scenes that appear to have just been lifted from the show. That is frustrating since this is a movie. It could have just been a recap episode at this rate. If the writers were going to go over things that happened in the show it should have at least shown some new aspects to the scenes instead of showing them exactly the way they were in the show.
At least there was still a good portion of the Ano Hana movie dealing with the problems of the group. A lot of these feelings were shown in the show, but the letters and viewing more of their childhood gave it more depth.
The group has finally found a way to say everything they need off their chests to Menma. They are writing her letters and burning them. Most of the group has no problems with this because they are pretty honest about their feelings about Menma. Anaru is the one with the most trouble because she has always been torn about her feelings for Menma. She does not want her to interfere with Jintan, but she still thinks of her as a friend. She finally comes around at the end. Hopefully now with these letters the group will finally be at peace.
In the end, it does not feel like the movie needed to be made. All of the movie minus the large amount of recap could have been put into one episode. The writers were just capitalizing off of the reaction of the original series to make a quick buck. Even with most of it just being recap the original series was so good I got choked up again. It is a shame that more work was not put into a movie for a series like Ano Hana.
