Isshuukan Friends.

Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else.

Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori's cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her.

Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: "Would you like to be friends?" Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fujimiya, Kaori Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Hase, Yuuki Main

Yamaya, Yoshitaka Japanese

Yamagishi, Saki Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Kiryuu, Shougo Supporting

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Fujimiya, Shiho Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Kujou, Hajime Supporting

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Inoue, Jun Supporting

Majima, Junji Japanese

Serizawa, Maiko Supporting

Kakumoto, Asuka Japanese

Nishimura, Ai Supporting

Tanabe, Rui Japanese

Kujou, Mother Supporting

Kanda, Mika Japanese

Yoshizawa, Takashi Producer

Satou, Yumi Producer

Yazaki, Fumi Assistant Producer

Iwasaki, Tarou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Jun 22, 2014

jawnmewn

Recommended

While there are some people who prefer solitude and independence, most people are social by nature, and they desire friends to laugh and struggle with in both the good times and the bad. Good company is invaluable, and thus it is important to distinguish who your true friends are. Genuine friendship should not rely on a relationship that is give and take, but rather a relationship based on mutual respect, trust in one another, and unconditional support. A good friendship takes time to mature and develop into an unbreakable bond, and oftentimes requires that friendship to undergo trials and tribulations. One Week Friends explores this ... concept and follows the growing relationship between Hase Yuuki and Fujimiya Kaori and the struggles they encounter as they begin to understand the meaning of true friendship.

Set in an ordinary high school, One Week Friends tells the story of Fujimiya Kaori, a girl who mysteriously loses her memories at the end of every week. What makes this situation even more complex is the fact that she only loses those memories that involve people she befriends. For this reason, she distances herself from everyone else and appears to have a cold demeanor. Hase Yuuki, a boy in her class, notices that she is always alone and resolves to become friends with her and summons the courage to talk to her.

For a typical high school boy meets girl slice of life show, the story is nothing special; in fact, the whole memory loss of only friends concept is quite farfetched and unrealistic, even for an anime show. However, looking past that fact, the show is quite adorable and heartwarming. From watching Hase slowly help Fujimiya overcome her condition to laughing as Shougo scolds a hopeless Hase, One Week Friends does a good job of making you smile and induces a rather wide range of emotions. It is slow paced and mellow, but that adds to its charm and the relaxed environment of the show. The small amounts of drama are handled well without getting out of hand or being needless. Disregarding the unrealistic aspect of the show, the characters themselves are quite realistic and are characters that are relatable and likable.

Hase represents our typical awkward high school boy. While slightly airheaded and bad at studying, he does have a kind heart and has the patience and persistance needed to befriend someone like Fujimiya. However, he is human, and this is made apparent when he struggles with the problems that arise due to the complexity of Fujimiya's situation. He is quite selfish, becomes easily jealous, and can be immature at times, yet gives it his all and has a genuine desire to befriend Fujimiya and wishes for her happiness. Hase is appealing as a male MC for this reason; his personality is realistic and basic.

Fujimiya is our innocent and earnest girl whose biggest dreams include doing fun things with her friends. It is hard to imagine how incredibly lonely and depressed it would be having to purposefully ignore everyone while in reality you want nothing more to befriend them. She decides to shoulder her problem by herself, and doesn't want anyone else to get hurt because of her illness. While she appears mean and unfriendly, she's actually a cheery girl who has an affinity for math and cooking. Hase helps her slowly open up and become more confident in herself, and to not be afraid to make more friends.

Surprisingly, the supporting characters are fairly well developed and come into their own as the show progresses. Shougo is Hase's voice of reason and a guy who never seems to care much for anything. Extremely blunt and logical, he isn't afraid to speak his mind. He's constantly helping and advising Hase, and while he treats it as a bothersome task, he always seems to come through with solid counsel. For someone that seems unmovable and aloof, he is unusually helpful as he also helps Yamagishi Saki, an old elementary school classmate of his. A forgetful girl who is clumsy and often teased because of it, she sees Shougo as a reliable person who could take care of her, and her relationship with Shougo is unconventional but interesting and adorable to watch as they deal with their feelings for one another.

While there are hints of it, romance is not the central theme of the show. It can be easily seen that Hase doesn't consider Fujimiya as a simple friend, but the show doesn't emphasize it. Shougo and Saki's relationship is also clearly not just being casual friends, and while you get the feeling that there is something more between the two, the show is quite subtle and indirect about it. I'm sure that many people want to see Hase and Fujimiya together, or Shougo and Saki together, but dating and romantical relationships is a much more minor aspect of the show. Whether you don't mind or consider it frustrating, there are still many more enjoyable aspects of the show.

The show, being an adaptation of a 4-panel manga, has a quaint and delicate art style. Everything seems relaxed and the art reflects that feeling. The character designs are simple and fit their personalities quite well. The opening and ending theme songs are vibrant and mellow, and are nice to listen to. Being a typical slice of life set at a high school, the music and art both follow the standard conventions of the genre. No complaints about either art or sound, but nothing that deserves a commendation.

One Week Friends takes a delicate subject and an unusual setting and turns it into a nice slice of life high school story that may just make you laugh and smile. While the premise of the show is a bit too convenient and unrealistic, the charm of the show lies in its character development and tender moments. The show addresses a basic yet essential aspect of life that is present in most of us and presents it in a nice and heartwarming way.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 15, 2014

Avs

Mixed Feelings

This is not a romantic comedy or a romance. Instead, you get a groundhog day adaption on young relationships in high school with a small amount of generic slice of life. We can sum up this anime as heartwarming but uneventful. This anime is adapted from a manga (partial 4 koma) by the same name and covers 4 of 6 volumes. Also, the manga is better than the adaption as much of the interesting dialogue that gives characters personality is absent in the anime.

Watch this if you like sickeningly yet bland sweet slice of life that moves at a snail's pace and enjoy fictional relationships. ... Do not watch this if you enjoy dramas, are looking for romance in your anime, or want to punch weak characters in the face.

Story/Plot/Summary

The anime about a young boy (Yuuki Hase) who tries to befriend (and romance) a young girl (Kaori Fujimiya). The twist here is that Kaori's memory of anyone she's friends with disappears at the start of every Monday. The twist makes for a interesting anime but the plot, dialogue, and writing fails realize the full potential of the twist. Any semblance of friendship or romance is weak, and the interaction between characters is simplistic, fragile, and boring.

The plot twist should have provided many unique events that could lead to interesting developments but it fails to do so. Instead, the author decided to insert random events (deus ex machina) and provide forgettable drama between Hase and Kaori. Also, you get immersion breaking actions either when characters break character or the author uses deus ex machina to revert any progress making you wonder why anything happened at all. These also seem to be decisions the production studio made over the author's original work. Anyone who steps back and thinks about their own relationships will be frustrated at the simplistic nature of how the characters interact with the plot.

In the latter half of the anime spirals into the slice of life category until the end. There is even an episodic half episode mixed in which was questionable. Some of the episodes are also entirely devoted to developing Kaori's character just a tiny bit. A new character is introduced to help bring closure to Kaori's non-medical related amnesia twist. In fact, the last 3 episodes can be watched as a summary of everything this anime has to offer. Sadly there is no major resolution at the end of the anime.

Characters

Kids are as complex as adults and should not dumbed down as it only hurts the potential of this anime. The pacing of the anime could kill a corgi and the characters and anime studio are partly to blame.

There are four characters. Hase and Kaori who are the protagonists. Kiryuu and Yamagishi's who are supporting characters. All the characters are weak in this anime because the supporting characters are the author's portrayal of the "better half" of Hase and Kaori due to how shallow Hase and Kaori are as characters by themselves. Perhaps if the author spent much more time fleshing out Hase and Kaori, this anime would be great with just two characters. Instead its clear that you need supporting characters so that you get the "whole" Hase and Kaori experience.

Kaori in the first half of the anime flip flops between different personalities much to the viewers chagrin. Then halfway through she abruptly starts to develop her character and become more human which is a positive change. Yet prior to that her interactions with her classmates (who were trash talking her) she comes off as meek and unwilling to confront or defend herself. It is difficult to understand who she really is which makes it hard to care. The result is a unwieldy heroine who's difficult to take seriously but unfortunately she's a better character than Hase. Why is this? She shows the most depth and development out of all the characters which is the most important aspect of an anime that revolves solely around people. Due to her amnesia trait and plot, she was bound to develop the most anyways. Despite all this, in the latter half you keep thinking she's going to say something of interest but it always ends up as fluff.

Hase is a forgettable and weak male lead. He has a standard male sheepish personality who jumps to conclusions and makes assumptions rather than approaching an issue with reason. While this is an attribute many people may have and is seen as normal, the author forces his character to behave in a way which drags the plot down instead of adding to it. Worse, every time he starts getting weepy on the audience he seeks out Kiryuu who then, like clockwork, offers him the most simplest of rational advice. This really speaks volumes about Hase as a character. Kiryuu ultimately manifests as Hase' other half. If Kiryuu was removed and Hase was given character development to seek understanding of his own emotions and follow the exact same rational advice, he would have the potential to outshine Kaori in the anime by far. As a side note, it seems the author cast Hase in a extremely naive and idealistic nature which isn't a bad thing except she (the author) combines this with unlikely events leading to breaks in immersion which again, is not good for an anime trying to deliver a strong story based on relationships. Also, author seems to be channeling her ex-boyfriend's jealously into this character because daaaaaamn, hes green, if you know what I mean.

The supporting characters are what make this anime even bearable.

Kiryuu basically acts as the more mature, more laid back, less excitable, more logical, better half of Hase and Kaori. If Hase ever showed a bit of self consciousness or intelligence, it is manifested in Kiryuu. Or Kiryuu will play the third wheel and provide advice to Kaori if there's a problem with Hase. People like Kiryuu in this anime because hes grounded, not because he's a good character though. Also due to the weakness of characters/plot, even he gets shipped with Yamagishi rather subtly in an effort to add development. This development is tacked on towards the end, probably because the author is attempting to salvage readership.

Yamagishi, the female counterpart to Kiryuu, is one of those light headed possibly lesbian (to attract more viewers) girls who wears her heart on her sleeve (unlike crazy Kaori's split personality). Yamagishi also has a "forgetful" problem but unlike the twist that Kaori has, its closer to absentmindedness, a standard anime character trait. Her role in this anime is to act as a counterpart to Kaori, and fill in the void that Kaori's character fails to do (provide comic relief). She also enters the anime halfway through, at a time when the anime is starting to suffer from a lack of "things happening". In other words, this character's value is unable to stand alone and who's purpose is to prop up the plot itself at the same time while providing contrast to Kaori. Again, if Yamagishi was merged into Kaori, I think this anime would have had much stronger protagonists and a much more creative outcome rather than relying on happenstance. Then again, if they merged, their laugh would be "Teehee ehehehue", creepy.

Art: Pastel colors and fits the anime well, perhaps to complement how bland it is.

Sound: Not bad but not memorable. Fits the anime well however.

Want something that has relationships, romance, and a great deal more done better? Nodame Cantabile. Or a number of other anime I could easily recommend over One Week Friends for the relationship category.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 15, 2015

Hemeth

Not Recommended

Funny

(My english is HORRIBLE, so I'm really sorry if reading my review will give you a cancer. Really.)

Maybe as so much people, I watched Isshuukan Friends because everybody said that's a really really REALLY good anime. But... NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO, no, please, NO.

I wasted my time and I hope you'll not make the same mistake.

The chara-design is HORRIBLE (all in this anime is horrible, in fact) and I think I don't need to explain why : the faces are the same and not really developed (any details), the mouth is small, the nose... Jesus, but just : where's the nose? e-e

About the story itself, I don't know ... what to say because there's NOT story. You can watch the first episode and just after, watch the last without screaming to spoil yourself. It's literally boring.

In fact, the 80 % from the anime is around (is it right to say that?) a romance, but the romance... No. I can't. It's too simple-minded (I'm not sure it's the good word, sry) : the characters are about 17yo and they worry about who much grams of sugar they need to get in their omelets. Seriously? And OF COURSE, the relationship doesn't progress.


So I can't understand why so much peoples seems loooove this anime (ah and if you asked yourself if the end is at least sad, etc., no. I'm girl and I'm on periods and I don't feel any sadness. Don't waste your time.)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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