Kinmoza! The Movie: Thank You!!

Kiniro Mosaic, a franchise probably best known for its AYAYA meme, ends with the movie, Thank You. So how does that pan out? While I will try to minimise spoilers from the movie and the manga equivalent, there will be some spoilers. Animation: 8/10 The animation isn't exactly masterpiece tier (For a slice of life). However, it does maintain the level set by the other parts, so not much to say here. Music: 8.5/10 The music is pretty good, with more new character songs to drive home the theme of graduation, and a great classical music bit with a montage of the previous seasons. Characters: 9/10 The characters do grow anddevelop, with Aya becoming less of a tsundere, Karen being able to part ways with Alice properly, and Shino improving her English to the point she can go to college in England. However, Kana (who has some more prominence in the manga), is unfortunately reduced to being only a side character, with little development and only a few lines.) Story: 5/10 From an anime-only perspective, the story isn't that bad. However, I've read the manga before watching the movie, and that's where the disappointment comes from (cramming 5 volumes in 82 minutes always means a lot of things gets cut out.) 1. The story's cuts have very little transition (like there being zero buildup to the Kyoto trip, and then quickly jumping to Aya and Youko). 2. A lot of good stuff was cut out (In the manga, there's the visit to Karen's summer villa, the cultural festival featuring Karen Cafe, and most annoying of them all, the graduation trip to England being cut out despite being hinted in the movie) (I would like to note that K-On, which has no connection to England, has a London trip in its movie, while Kiniro Mosaic, which has a lot of connections to England, does not.) Overall: 6.5/10 The movie isn't bad, but the problem is that it rushes through the story, cutting a lot of good parts out, making it a bit of a weak conclusion to such a good series. I would recommend reading the manga (from volume 6 onwards at least) after the movie. Personally, I feel it would have been served better if there was at least a season 3 beforehand.