This review contains spoilers. Going into BokuAi I had fairly high expectations. Having just watched its twin KimiAi I was really happy with the decision to watch this one second. At their core the movies arent too different and a large portion of the scenes in each are shared though they appear at wildly different points in each story. A lot is reused between the films and in truth by watching KimiAi first you already know most of the plot points throughout BokuAi. To be fair what the movies do with those scenes are also completely different. I wouldnt say that these movies are particularly complex but being able to watch the film knowing what the plot is already allows it to almost function as a rewatch letting the viewer pick up on all the small details they may have missed if they were worried about the narrative escaping them. But this isnt always a good thing. There are a few moments in watching this movie where I found myself a bit removed because I was watching a scene I had watched only 20 minutes prior. However the movie mostly avoids this by continually expanding on scenes previously only touched on. Where KimiAi rushed BokuAi took its time and it resulted in a lot of greatly enhanced scenes. The entire lives of Kazune and Koyomi in this world were passed by an instant in KimiAi meanwhile BokuAi fully explores their relationship and how that relationship meshes with the parallel worlds. Koyomi pondering whether he was the him who proposed if Kazune was the her who accepted is so interesting and suddenly finding ourselves in a parallel shift to watch a tragedy that didnt happen was such a great way of bringing the viewer into the world into these movies reality. BokuAi strides where KimiAi falls short. While both can certainly be strong standalone films BokuAi has a fairly large advantage in that it starts primarily focused on the science aspect and moves towards the romance as the payoff. BokuAi essentially has the payoffs for both itself and KimiAi nestled in its ending and that leads it to be a superior overall film in terms of concluding its key arcs. However I dont think BokuAi would work perfectly without being attached to KimiAi the movie goes over a lot of the science and mechanics of the setting in the first act and having to balance that with a romance plot must be a lot for a new viewer. Additionally when its revealed fairly early that Kazune was lying to Koyomi about the mechanics of the world its easy to accept that coming from a movie that previously stated all of that was true its a bit harder when we only had a brief introduction to the concept in this film at that point. None of this makes BokuAi a worse film though it definitely does lend to why it has been overwhelmingly popular to recommend KimiAi first in the watch order. In terms of the actual quality BokuAi is a strange movie hyper aware of its two central themes there is a lot of great dialogue that represent really interesting ideas about fate and love that visuals alone could never do justice. I do feel like it couldve gone further in several places Kazune 13 chasing after her lost son and resulting in Kazune 0 being split out of existence was really interesting but so brief. An entire series could be made behind this concept though I can appreciate a movie knowing its limits and not jumping the shark. To conclude the movies are definitely more than their gimmick though said gimmick certainly makes it a commitment to watch and appreciate both. BokuAi is both longer and slower paced than KimiAi which allows it time to really set its stage and for the audience to really be hooked. And the fact that KimiAi had a scene following the credits while BokuAi did not should tell you enough about which one has a more definitive feeling ending. This is by no means a declaration that one order is better than the other and I am 100 sure I wouldve stilled really like both these movies had I watched BokuAi first but given how perfect BokuAis ending is for both films I ended up loving BokuAi more than I thought would be possible.