Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (Movie Review)

So the manga for Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (which literally translates to something like The Monster Beside Me, but uses the official English title My Little Monster) is a lot of fun. I liked the manga a lot, so when I heard about the live-action adaptation I was happy. But to be honest, I'm really starting to get sick of all these manga-to-film projects now, because it just doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Mizutani Shizuku is devoted entirely to studying, but when she's sent on an errand to give homework to an absent student she becomes unwillingly involved with misunderstood entity Yoshida Haru.
  The film already had a fantastic source material going for it, chock full of great comedy and some pretty engaging drama. When the film plays to its strength it's not bad, that strength being rich character interactions.
  But the movie does not know how to translate the dynamic comedy into a live action setting - it manages to be so unironically extra that its a little sad. The ending, for example, was probably supposed to be glamorous and romantic but came across royally corny and horribly out of character for Shizuku.
  Which clued me in to something I already knew in my head: these manga adaptations that are so common nowadays are just a ploy to squeeze money from their loyal fanbases.
  Masaki Suda, of course, was so perfect for Haru. As soon as he was cast I knew he would outshine everyone else - the boy is a chameleon, who puts on succinctly outstanding performances regardless of how difficult to the role may be. (I highly recommend watching the Princess Jellyfish movie for him.)
  But the moment I heard that Tsuchiya Tao had been cast, my immediate thoughts was that it is a blatant miscasting. Firstly, I'm very frustrated that the actress hasn't washed her hands of high-school roles yet, because I find her so compelling when she plays adults (Bride For Eight Years). Secondly, her image dictates that I immediately dismissed her of convincingly depicting someone like Shizuku - shrew, calculating, cold, and notably uncute in the hands of the wrong person. Although she did better than I thought, I'm still convinced she was the wrong actress for the choice.
  Something fantastic about Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is the colourful of array of supporting characters that each get their own story, personality, and development. Due to time constraints, the movie throws all that out the window. Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but with less than two hours to spare, the movie has no time to focus on fleshing out the characters we all love. As a result, Yamaken is one-dimensional, Oshima is a stereotype, Natsume is brushed over, and Sasayan is barely there.
   It's not the movie's fault that it's a movie. There just wasn't enough time to do justice to the manga. Even the romance, which was arguably the main focus, had to be summarised to the main points and rushed through. To illustrate that, most of the actual romantic moments happened in montage, and four about a fifth of the run-time Haru is missing.
  What have I taken from this experience? Mainly, that this shouldn't exist - unlike Ao Haru Ride or Orange, the story is too complex to be made into a movie. It should have been a drama. So from now on, I'm not going to support adaptations like this one, because it butchers most of what Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun stands for.
  (But the scene where Haru first goes to school is so cute, go watch that.)