*copied from my LB review*

One of my KR hot takes is that Hibiki largely gets BETTER after the staff changes (though not without its faults). The character writing is more rigorous, they start to form more of an overarching plot, something larger with the Makamou and all, and it feels a lot more involved (plus I even kinda relate to the infamous, much derided Kyosuke Kiriya, though his resolution at the end of the series leaves something to be desired).

That said, one of the weakest parts of the back half of Hibiki was the two-parter that introduced Hibiki’s final form, it’s this story about some blowhard higher up Takeshi member who drops in and tests all the Oni to see who is capable of using the special sword, and when none of them are able to do it, and one of the supporting characters tell him that he modified the sword to a level that would be pretty much impossible to wield, he just arrogantly scoffs it off saying everyone is just unworthy and “not working hard enough”, so instead of him facing any repercussions to his ego, instead they just have it so Hibiki just trains hard enough to be able to use it while the guy’s ego remains pretty much unchanged, it’s pretty dumb.

This movie is meant as a bit of lore to the Oni and Makamou centuries ago, painting the Hibiki cast as descendants of these other Oni and villagers from the past, and it plays like a bit of a riff on Seven Samurai, gathering all the Oni to fend off some major Makamou and all while facing some wariness from the villagers thinking the Oni are cursed, bring destruction with them, etc, leading to a brief clash between the Oni about whether to protect the humans who are ungrateful to them or not in spite of their actions and all, but it doesn’t end up being anything major.

Then it leads into a few modest dramatic turns with one kinda decent twist, but the final battle cut away from to get to present Hibiki’s fight with a big Makamou, getting the Armored Hibiki form, etc and then cutting back to the resolution of the past story and all.

It’s serviceable which is an improvement on the egregious part of the TV series this serves as an alternate take on, so I’d take it over that, but the direction is more in line with the first half of Hibiki which I wasn’t as into, felt blasé and dull, especially since this more isolated story here isn’t meant to significantly add to the cast’s characterization and all, just a bit of lore and an inclusive dramatic story which just well, isn’t as dramatic and captivating as it could be, so I think it’s ultimately not as good as the TV series on the whole.

A good replacement to some of Hibiki’s worst episodes, with a callback to the first half’s style that fans of that portion of Hibiki are sure to love, but something I find a bit boring, just serviceable.