Tora sans Love Call 1971 I appreciated some ways in which this felt a little different than some of the ones that came before the nearly 2 hour runtime, for one It had some funny scenes, legendary Japanese actor Takeshi Shimura was a welcome presence, and any scene between Tora and Sakura was pretty great Lampshadingpoking fun at some of the series conventions also proved amusing and subtle enough to not feel eye rolling And yes, the conventions are still largely there, but with the longer running time comes the ability to focus on a few new characters and show Tora making an effort at genuinely changing his bond with a young child was nice, too The willingness to push the formula a little and make gentle fun of said formula means that Im optimistic going forward and further into this franchise, after a not quite amazing but still fairly enjoyable and pleasant 8th instalment