Back to Random45's Profile Random45's Profile

This is an odd show to review, since the story sounds so run of the mill and bland that I would usually write it off if not for the interesting premise. Basically, it would do a continuity reset every four episodes, which were aptly named after the girl they were based around. After one of these resets, the story arc would then shift to the new girl and we'd watch as our main character interacts with her and witness as they begin to fall in love with one another. Rinse and repeat.

Thankfully, each of the girls is different from one another in their own distinct ... way, so it's never bland, even if the story keeps reusing the same Christmas festival as the ending point, which got pretty old by the third reset. For most of the arcs, the characters themselves were usually able to keep it afloat, even when it was reaching a slump.

Each arc opens with an explanation about our hero: Junichi, and how he has been brooding for the past two years, ever since he was stood up on a date that he planned with a girl he liked in middle school. Since then, he has been reluctant to love anyone, and instead, digs into porno magazines with his best friend, Umehara.

I'll review each arc individually, since you could pretty much watch them in any order you so please.

Arc 1 - Haruka Morishima:
This was easily my favorite arc of the bunch, which is unfortunate because it was also the first one of the bunch. Haruka is a fun character to watch, since she's both eccentric, and very damn weird. She's playful, and has a soft side for the adorable (Most notably puppies). Oddly enough, despite her oddity, she's the most popular girl in the school (And in my opinion, she easily has the best drawn eyes of the entire cast). Our protagonist has heard the constant rumors of her, and by mere chance he meets her during lunch one day. Like any other boy in the school, he's immediately smitten by her, and he decides to try and pursue her romantically from there on.

Saying much more would be going too deeply into spoiler territory, but suffice to say, the two of them complement each other well, and the conclusion to the arc is very fulfilling. I'd give it a 10/10 relative to the rest of the show.

Arc 2 - Kaoru Tanamachi:
Kaoru has been Junichi's friend for three years now, ever since she invited him to her house on the fateful day when he was stood up. Due to that, his personality in this arc is different than the previous. Where in the first arc he was a brooding kid, this time he doesn't waste any time brooding thanks to his dear friend. Unfortunately, this arc is just ok for me. I don't particularly care for it, and the writing isn't well done, since I got confused about what exactly some of the later conflicts of the arc were about. Kaoru herself though is a pretty cool character, pretty much a female version of a bro for Junichi, doing whatever she can to make him feel better whenever.

The arc isn't necessarily bad, but the conflict felt forced, and honestly kind of stupid. Perhaps it was because they didn't have enough time in the four episode frame they put themselves into, and couldn't go deeper into her reasons. However, despite that, this one also had a fairly good ending. Relative to the rest of the show, I'd give this arc a 6/10.

Arc 3 - Sae Nakata:
Sae is a textbook definition of Moe. She is painfully shy, she has big breasts (Which is constantly lampshaded), she's only a first year, she calls Junichi 'sempai' all the time, and she can't speak above a whisper. What isn't there to love about this character? This arc takes a more refreshing direction than the last ones, focusing much more heavily on comedy, and breaking the fourth wall more than once to do so. It's also the only arc of the bunch to feature a narrator, oddly enough. The two of them definitely make a cute couple, and their sensei- student relationship is a LOT of fun to watch, and it all adds up to a fun ending, that might possibly kill you on pure Moe alone. This arc gets a 7/10 from me.

Arc 4 - Ai Nanasaki
This arc returns back to basics set by the first two arcs, however, it focuses on another first year student this time around - Ai. Unlike Sae, they cut out all the Moe, and instead make her out to be a calm, determined, hardheaded, and dry-humored girl. I actually really liked Ai, she was the first girl to be 'normal' relative to the rest of the cast, and while that sounds like it's a bad thing, it actually works very well. The only problem I have with this arc is that it felt as if the romance occurred too quickly, and Ai warms up to Junichi way too quickly. Again, this is probably an issue involving only having 4 episodes to show it in, but other than that minor complaint, I really liked this one. Ai is also freaking adorable, so bonus points for that. 8/10 is what I rate it.

Arc 5 - Rihoko Sakurai
Rihoko is Junichi's childhood friend, whom she has known since she was in elementary school, with that premise alone, you'd just expect it to be like any other romance anime. Unfortunately I did not care for this arc at all. Out of all six arcs, this is the only one I would actually recommend skipping. It goes absolutely nowhere in the four episodes given, and I read online that it's because the people who made it absolutely butchered her storyline. I'd just recommend reading up her best ending from the game online, because that is MUCH more satisfying than watching this. I will give this arc some credit though, since it focuses on the girl instead of Junichi this time around, and it also has a heavier emphasis on the side characters than any of the previous arcs did. Despite that though, the ending, if you hadn't have guessed, absolutely sucked. It's so poorly done that I can't think of a single memorable moment from it other than how it ended, and I just finished this show a day ago. This arc gets a 3/10 from me.

Arc 6 - Tsukasa Ayatsuji
Right when the show starts to get stale, we get into this arc, which seems to just be another 'boy meets a nice girl and falls in love' routine. However, unlike any of the other arcs, this one has a twist I absolutely love (It's actually foreshadowed in Rihoko's arc a little bit, but I still recommend staying away from Rihoko's arc). Tsukasa is a very interesting character, and seeing her different layers of her personality is a whole lot of fun to watch. In this arc, surprisingly the romance starts early, and then takes a backseat for a little while as it focuses more on Tsukasa and her problems setting up the festival and other issues she has to deal with. Out of every arc, this one deserved the most at least another two episodes to fully flesh out, because by the end there were a few unanswered questions that I was left asking. Oddly enough, this arc is also the one that fleshes out Umehara the most, and you can see here why he and Junichi are such bros with one another.

It ultimately came down to preference with me - while I highly enjoyed this arc, I just preferred Haruka from arc 1 more than I did Tsukasa. However, even saying that, if I had to choose which ending to be canon for this show, I would go with Tsukasa. A quick note: If you do intend to watch this show, while you can watch every arc in any order, this is the only one in which I would highly recommend saving for last, you'll know exactly why I mean that when you do watch the arc. This was easily the second best arc in the show, earning from me a 10/10.

With the plots and characters out of the way, there are just a few more things I feel like mentioning:

The art: I LOVED the art style in this show. It goes with more realistic proportions, but it still has the undeniable anime charm, furthermore, I LOVED Haruka's eyes - too bad so few other characters were drawn with those kind of eyes. However, there were a handful of weird shots from oddly placed camera angles that made the characters proportions look off model, and a few more times when their heads looked awfully weird. More often than not though, the art was consistently good. Also worth noting, is that despite the more realistic art style, every character looks different from one another. Each of the six main girls look way different from one another, and every side character also looked much different. It's pretty impressive that a cast of about 15~ or so characters don't look even slightly the same (Except for Miya - Junichi's sister - and Ai, I had a hard time distinguishing them apart for a little while).

The animation: Well, it's not an action show, so animation isn't quite that important, but for the most part, it was nicely done. They don't go out of their way with the animation like Kyoto-animation does in their own shows (ex: Eyes don't move when they are reading books, they repeat a few basic movements while they are talking), but it never looked choppy at all. Also, I noticed that in almost every arcs ending the animation quality went up. This is most noticeable in Ai's ending (Look at her lip movement when she talks, it's really smooth and a pleasure to watch).

The Music: Mostly forgettable. The only two pieces of music in the show I liked were the openings, the rest didn't leave much of an impression on me at all. Each girl also gets to sing their own ending song, but like I said, none of them stuck with me and for the life of me I couldn't hum a single one even though I have watched all of them at least half a dozen times. Basically, the tracks are good for what they set out to accomplish, but it's not anything I will be going out of my way to download (Unlike the Clannad soundtrack).

Opening/closing credits evolution: Heh, this one probably doesn't need its own category, but I would just like to point out that in each arc the opening is slightly different depending on the girl the arc is based on. I love things like that, and while it's nowhere near noticeable like how it was in say, Angel Beats, it's still a very nice touch. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier the credits change depending on which girl the arc is about. It's kind of funny to listen to some of these, because in one case, I remember thinking that it didn't sound like the girl at all.

Overall, it's a fun show to watch. I recommend it to people wanting a short and sweet romance, but don't expect anything very deep. With a good cast of characters, good art and animation, and a strong enough story to carry them all, this show averages out to an 8/10 from me.