I Want to Eat Your Pancreas – Summary, Review (with Spoilers)

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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While I Want To Eat Your Pancreas is a bit heavy-handed about its lead character’s death, at first, it’ll still find a way to leave you in tears.

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Director(s)		Shin’ichirô Ushijima
Written By		Shin’ichirô Ushijima
Date Released		2/7/2019
Genre(s)		Animation, Romance, Drama
Good If You Like		Films Which Tell You How It Ends, Roughly, From The Very Beginning Movies Where A Girl Changes A Young Man’s Life Drastically Crying
Isn’t For You If You		Dislike Someone Talking About Their Pending Death Ad Nauseum Feel Revealing The Tragedy Early On Kills The Emotional Build Of A Movie
Noted Cast
Male Protagonist	Mahiro Takasugi
Sakura	Lynn
Kyoko	Yukiyo Fujii

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Plot Summary (Ending Explained on 2nd Page)

For most of the male protagonist’s life, he hasn’t had friends, pursued friendship, or entertained anyone who approached him. However, then comes Sakura, bubbly and for some reason wanting to talk to the boy who goes out of his way to isolate himself. This comes as a shock to everyone and raises quite a few eyebrows. Yet, slowly but surely, due to her persistence, the male protagonist warms up to Sakura and arguably falls for her.

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However, there is one major issue: Sakura’s pancreas is rotting. Now, the word cancer isn’t specifically used, but it is clear Sakura’s pancreas, a part of the body which helps regulate insulin and produces enzymes to break down food, is failing. Thus, she believes she doesn’t have long to live. But, rather than worry the friends she has had since she was a child, she approaches the boy who she has seen as her opposite. Though, taking note of her philosophy, it seems all her decisions up till her 17^th year have been made so they could meet. Just because the universe knew there would come a time they’d need each other.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Where is the male protagonist’s father?

Highlights

The Last Quarter Of The Movie

As gone into more below, a noticeable part of the film will be Sakura saying, in nearly every other line, how she is going to die. Now, considering the movie ends with her funeral, you’d think you’d feel nothing by the time it happens since it has been beaten into your head this girl is going to die. Yet, as the male protagonist (a name used since it is significant to the ending) grows closer to Sakura, she grows on you.

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Maybe it is because you see her opening the male protagonist up and bringing him from stoic to invested. Perhaps the reason why you come to love Sakura, and her friendship with the male protagonist, is because neither of their personas are rooted in family trauma? While the father is MIA, the male protagonist has a good relationship with his mom, and Sakura’s people are loving, as are her friends.

Thus really making it where Sakura’s pancreas failing is the only issue and it drives you to count the days and hours, until her life is no more. A moment that, even with you know it was coming, is a bit of a shock and with all the time you’ve spent with the male protagonist, you feel connected. So when he finally cries you cry and when he decides to do what Sakura wished of him, it warms your heart in ways the beginning of the movie may have led you to think it wouldn’t.

On The Fence

Sakura Reminding You Constantly That She Is Going To Die

For a good piece of time, I was worried that I Want To Eat Your Pancreas was not going to improve. The primary reason for this worry is Sakura noted, repeatedly, how she was going to die. For the way she put it wasn’t morbid, or even funny. It was so matter of fact, plain as possible, that it was like the film didn’t want you to get emotionally invested.

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Yet, as you come upon the ending, you come to realize that maybe you were getting a taste of the male protagonist’s point of view. For hearing this girl talk about dying is what dissuades him from becoming too close. So, in a way, with how she beats into you that she is going to die, you get to feel what he feels and makes it so, when things go left, you are as shocked as he is and as emotional as well.

Overall: Positive (Worth Seeing) | Purchase, Rent, Get Tickets, or Merchandise On (Fandango/ Amazon)

While initially frustrating, by the end of the movie you understand why things played out as they did. And that rush of information, a realization on why the story handled things a certain way, it hits you like the truth hits the male protagonist. Thus aligning you with his emotions and making it so his tears are yours.

Hence the positive label. While this is a wood-burning oven kind of movie, it found a way to recover so well, after seeming like a waste of time for a notable portion, is worth applauding. For while you may not be left bawling to the point of snot, it will still amaze you how you knew this film would be tragic and yet find yourself still emotionally affected.

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I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Ending Explained (Spoilers)

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Is A Sequel Possible

Yes and no. Sakura dies, from being stabbed, so she wouldn’t be around in a sequel, epilogue, or OVA. However, considering the movie ends with Haruki trying to befriend Kyoko, there could be him making friends with her, and carrying out the rest of Sakura’s will.

How The Movie Ends

Rather than issues with her pancreas killing Sakura, it is a local serial stabber who gets her right in the chest as she was on her way to see Haruki. Someone whose name isn’t said for a handful of reasons. The first being that he isn’t used to the attention hanging with Sakura brings, so he doesn’t want to further the circulation. Second, with her name meaning cherry blossom and his meaning spring tree, it makes their meeting seem all the more like fate. However, the biggest reason is because him saying her name, or her saying his, it would make what Sakura revealed to him when they first met hurt even more.

So, while he spends his days with her, to the point of her friends and ex getting jealous, they build something which, in the end, she describes as something beyond a relationship or friendship. Leading to a reminder of why the film is named what it is. I Want To Eat Your Pancreas deals with the idea that eating a part of a person means having a bit of their soul in your forever. Yet, while they don’t do more than hug in the film, it is like that warm was getting a bit of each other’s soul. Making it so, when Sakura dies, Haruki still has a part of her.

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Hence why, when he decides to speak to Sakura’s best friend Kyoko, one could argue he isn’t just fulfilling Sakura’s long-held wish. IT could also be said that he’s drawn to Kyoko because she too has a piece of Sakura. So, naturally, pieces of her that still exist in the world of the living are drawn to each other and he’d rather they be friends than him living with the feeling that he played a part in her death. Since she was coming to see him when she got stabbed.