Highlight of the novel ending.

It really is no substitute for the original novel series. To fit within the running time of a movie, lots of events and personalities were cut, which is quite a shame. I am sure the animators realized this too, which is why there are three other memoir OAVs. The movie itself is fairly coherent and pleasant to watch -- they didn't cut out the best parts, although they did cut out lots of good parts. Worth noting is that they did not add anything new, so it's totally not an atrocity like the Air movie.

In short, this movie is definitely worth watching if you have already read the novels. If not, it's quite a spoiler. So read the novels first, then watch this movie. The total time spent doing that will likely be less than watching a 26 episode series, but worth every minute.

+ Google