I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. Suzuka has some humor but not as much slap-stick as most harem mangas. I definitely think there was an appropriate amount of humor, romance, ecchi, and side-stories. I was rarely overwhelmed by any one thing, and never thought "why is this even in here?". I felt each side-story was justified and that the ecchi, though not necessary, still added to the manga's more 'mature' tone. I think the idea of having these characters in high school also becomes important later but first frustrated me as to why the characters were acting so 'mature' even at the age of 16, 17, and 18. Overall I would say the pieces fit together nicely at the end, but will leave some people unsatisfied.

The story was great. The characters were well developed for the most part. The ideas were wonderful but the execution overall was somewhat poor. They had some good humor and some very memorable scenes, but the feel of it gets lost sometimes because of the pace, the timing, or the mood at which the scenes come at you. The anime is typically received with either love or disdain. There are not a lot of middle-grounders (though it could be because the middle-grounders aren't voicing as animatedly as the extremes are). So if you haven't seen the series or read the manga, I suggest trying the first disc or first volume. It is a very good indicator of how the whole series, as a whole is. Some nudity, gore, lots of language, and an overall depressing / dark theme.

The actual movie itself was a great thing for fans of the game. The movie, though, spawned an almost undeniable franchise frenzy of FFVII gear, spinoffs, and teasers. The movie was great, but I don't want to see Sqaure-Enix start to lose it's edge by trying to mimic ffvii for the rest of it's career life. But things unrelated to the movie aside, I think the use of humor, in a few circumstances, did brighten the mood and made the watcher, for those who are familiar with the FF series and FFVII game, feel almost like you were visiting a familiar land. The fights, music, voices, and details were great. I only wish it was bigger and the story was a little more complex and iintricate.