Most animated films are created with the intention of fulfilling the fantasies and inspiring the minds of children. They are designed to be colorful and magical, with characters that are able to surpass the limitations of our world. As time goes on, animated films slowly evolve to not just be exclusively children's or family movies. Many of the recently released films have so much depth that often go unnoticed. These animated films play with various elements of the medium, such as time, space, and perspective.

"To Me, The One Who Loved You" (TMTOWLY) and "To Every You I've Loved Before" (TEYILB) are two romantic sci-fi anime movies released in 2022. What's interesting about these films is that the order in which you watch them doesn't really matter, but it does affect how you will feel about the entire story of both films. We follow the story of Koyomi in both movies, which takes place in two different parallel worlds. Both parallel worlds originated from the same world, but they diverge when Koyomi chooses whom to be with as his parents are getting divorced. TMTOWLY is where he went with his dad, while TEYILB is where he went with his mom. That decision caused a domino effect that significantly changed Koyomi's life.

From both films, I can say that the entirety of the story does not have a single plot. It may have a single story, but the way it is presented differs depending on which film you watch first. I became really intrigued and puzzled by this idea upon learning that the watch order is up to the viewers. This is maybe reminiscent of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which is an interactive film where the audience can choose a path for the movie to take. Bandersnatch and the two anime films are both non-linear in their narratives, but in contrast, the anime films only offer one significant decision. In my analysis, the decision made by the audience basically alters how you perceive the second film you watch. The first film that you watch will set the foundation for what the audience knows about the entire story. Considering that prior knowledge, this will set the tone for the second film.

For example, in my case, I first watched TMTOWLY, which essentially tells how Koyomi spends his entire life trying to save Shiori, Koyomi's love interest in this world. Shiori will only be saved if her consciousness is sent to a parallel world where both Shiori and Koyomi will never meet, preventing the accident from happening to Shiori. This is the link to TEYILB, where it tells the love story of Koyomi and Kazune, his classmate turned colleague turned research partner turned wife in this world, and their struggles in their relationship. TEYILB ends with a message from Koyomi to his parallel selves, thanking them for loving someone who wasn't Kazune because in this world, he gets to love his Kazune, and this connects back to TMTOWLY. It is just amazing how both films fit together. But even though there are technically two different plots in this film, I feel like you only get to experience one. I am almost certain that even if you watched it the other way around the second time, the experience would never be the same. The film is really good at presenting which information should be kept and what the audience should know when choosing different watch orders. It keeps a good back-and-forth of parallel shifting between the films, where the consciousness of Koyomi gets transferred to the opposite parallel world of the other film, keeping the viewers engaged and giving them information about the other world but not too much.

In conclusion, the story of each film is very simple, yet the filmmakers have made the storytelling exceptional. "To Me, The One Who Loved You" and "To Every You I've Loved Before" use the order of viewing to limit the audience's knowledge, and it works because both films are independent yet supplementary of each other at the same time.