This unremarkable country girl of average looks is ready for the big city! Or is she? Mitsumi, of permanently panicky eyes, dreams to attend a prestigious school and make the world a better place. But when she finally gets to the big trendy capital city of Tokyo, where everything happens and high society gathers, it turns out she isn’t exactly prepared for city life in an elite high school of the rich and famous. Luckily, she runs into Shima, a sweet, handsome, mysterious, princely classmate who, besides being the hottest guy in school, becomes her first friend! Can she make it in city capital of Japan Tokyo with Shima, who always has an empty space for her both in his heart and in his schedule?
Yup, it's a coming of age story about a couple growing closer together,
where every character has a pairing and every rival finds the path of redemption.
Having read that synopsis, I decided to save this for a quieter time.
I walked towards it like a man to certain death.
Walking into the light on the other side, I realized I'm alive.
Yes, all the patterns are here. Works like these sell an idea I hate -- that you have to be in the capital city to be someone. I always get the feeling they transpire the message that, if only you, dear viewer, were in the big city, your life would be so much more eventful. As the eternal contrarian rooting for the underdog, it goes against all my base instincts.
Yet, despite all the overdone patterns on display, the story progresses in a very unpretentious direction. It takes itself seriously enough that you quickly forget they're at the fulcrum of destiny as decreed by the social-materialist class. This is a story of young people. Though their lives might not be anything too out of the ordinary, from their perspective they are new and unique experiences.
Sound (music): Competent -- Nothing really sticks out in terms of BGM. The OP and ED are nothing to write home about when disconnected form the accompanying visuals. I still like them. They capture really well the essence of this anime and I can immediately recognize motifs that seem to be part of all romance-oriented anime with feminine sensitivities in consideration. The ED is formulaic in a good way, like seeing a good friend you haven't met in a while.
Sound (seiyuu): Competent -- everyone blends into their roles to the point that I didn't recognize anyone. Lurking anilist, I'm not at all surprised to see most of the cast consists of seasoned seiyuu, including Maaya Uchida. It is surprising to find Akinori Egoshi, who has a rather rich, if unremarkable track record (japanese wikipedia is much more complete), voicing Shima. You'd expect that would be the one character, along with Mitsumi, they'd bet their budget on. GJ!
Animation: Foundational -- Slideshows abound. Nothing impressive here outside the OP animation, which neatly encapsulates the anime.
Presentation: Exquisite -- If this point failed, the story would lose its punch and the anime would fall apart. Mellow to the point of melancholy with some symbolism that's straghtforward to the point of poignancy. The penultimate sequence in episode 9 is a great example of this. I'm reminded of Kimi to Boku, although Kimi to Boku errs on the bitter side of bitterwseet.
Art direction: Splendid -- With this anime being mostly a slide show, not having competent art direction would be a sin. It feels like a fresh watercolor painting drying in the early summer breeze. Warm, gentle colors for a heartwarming anime.
Subtitle quality: shoddy --
My exact same reaction.
It almost made me give up right at the start. The translator tries too hard to make the characters hip, but they end up reflecting a warped perception of modern youngsters. For an anime with a rather timeless presentation, this will contribute to make it feel dated. The translator proves competence at enough points to avoid the label of a fool out of his depth trying to cover tracks. The characters are nowhere close to sounding as the subtitles portray them. Solace in the fact these attempts fade out as the episodes progress. If there's no viable fan alternative, hold fast and don't let terrible styllistic choices of a mind with early stage internet poisoning stop you from watching this great anime.
Story: -- The story follows Mitsumi and the people that are drawn to her. There is a melancholy in the atmosphere and everyone seems to be acting like they're hyper aware that this is the best time of their lives. The hand of fate is gently but firmly pressed on the backs of these characters, drawing them together slowly but surely. Everyone has epiphanies and revelations, which come at the best possible moment. Mitsumi has so much alone time with Shima that it pushes the suspension of disbelief to the limits. Yet all of this is so easy to forgive in great part to how engaging the simple story can be. That's all thanks to Mitsumi.
Mitsumi is who we spend the most time with yet remains the most impregnable. Squint hard enough and you'll think you're watching Akebi-chan no sailor-fuku. Both Mitsumi and Akebi share something that draws everyone to them: they live in a state of grace. She is simple yet wise, kind yet not overbearing, meek yet brave, selfless yet ambitious. Above all, she is content with her lot in life and strives to improve the hand she was given with the resources at her disposal. Her existence puts in perspective the lives of her classmates, teenagers coasting through high school with vague ideas about the future. This makes her the main source of conflict. A wrong turn and Mitsumi would become the prime victim of some good old japanese bullying. Everyone else is painfully aware of it, wanting to protect her from the slightest breeze.
Ideal seasons to watch in:
SpringEarly summer
New feelings, new experiences. The path to take is dried by the gentle morning sun. The summit is in the distance, so let's walk at our leisure.
This anime will make you feel like taking a day off for yourself, stay indoors and bake a cake.
"Uhehe... They can ALL get it!... I mean except Chibi coz she's a kid... And Sailor Moon, coz she has a boyfriend, Tuxedo mask. I'm not gonna be a home wrecker.
Or Sailor Neptune coz she has a boyf-- wait, what?"
-- Young スレナガ, unawares of the relationship meta of the new millennium
Skip to loafer may have proved I am not Lost, but it along with certain other factors in my recent life made me finally find the answer to a riddle that has been hanging over my love life ever since I can remember caring about finding a romantic partner:
Why can't I ever find anyone like this?
Why have they no ambition outside gossip and complaining? Why is every girl around me content to wallow in their puddle of menorrhea?
I've drifted through various environments, from low income suburbs to gated communities. Low class, high class, ugly, pretty and everything in between. It doesn't matter -- the wickedness persists. Bad-mouthed, ill-natured, a penchant for deeming themselves above others. With so many different samples from so many different backgrounds in so many different circumstances, it becomes a game of figuring out the common denominator. So the answer unveils itself.
Like likes like.
Something fundamentally ill about my Soul attracts wickedness from others and I reply in kind. Perhaps these girls, chicks, women, felt compelled to act the way they did because they assumed that's how they can match my personality. Which I have never truly laid bare, as I keep my riajuu and obscure-by-riajuu-standards nerd inclinations as separate as possible. Who's really at fault? Not only am I not being honest about myself, I had -- though unwittingly -- relied on an inversion of gender roles since it was always the girls who made the first move. I never cared to be proactive in seeking out a partner outside feeling up for first impressions. Misplaced confidence is nothing more than arrogance. Arrogance projected and then replicated in an attempt at companionship, which I then rejected as my true Self could not find itself in the dim mockery of my social front. The answer to the riddle is the greatest cliché among relationship-breaker platitudes:
