>But this stuff isn't actually in the movie. It's just implied that that stuff is happening behind the scenes.
Well, we do see a great deal of it. That's literally what the montage was all about.
>We see little bits and pieces and the movie puts it on us to say that "okay they're in love I guess" but really, it does nothing to prove that.
I mean, you can say that they didn't do enough development of the romance, which I'd somewhat agree with, though overall it was fine.
But saying they did nothing to prove it is silly. What, crashing the date isn't proving it? Taki's obvious disinterest throughout the date isn't proving it? It's not as if hearts need to pop out of their eyes.
>It puts it on the audiences faith that we'll by into it because, as far as the movie is concerned, 2 minutes of montage is enough.
Well, more like the budget, Shinkai even says that he felt the movie was incomplete. But the montage isn't really all that bad, they compress a lot of content and detail into those two minutes, and if you pay attention there's actually a lot of subtle storytelling. Like when Mitsuha said to be careful with skirts, and the next time we see Taki in her body he's wearing sweatpants.
>Hell, I thought the girl was fem-mc was crying because she was into the sempai from work. Those two had the most screen time and they actually took time to develop their interactions.
I'd rather say that scene actually told us more about Taki. The way Senpai forcefully stepped in and whatnot tells the audience, and Mitsuha, a lot about Taki's character, and what he'd do in that situation.
I'm not saying it was a perfect solution to use the montage and all, but it was certainly adequate. If you watched the montage and didn't get a sense that the characters were getting to know and care for one another, then that's just being impossibly dense. Especially considering the first scene out of that segment is Taki trying to be sensitive to Mitsuha's feelings.