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I have not read the source material for the show and the following review is for the anime adaption only, the manga, LN or other source material is not included in my review of this anime.

Ao Haru Ride is a character driven romance between the two main characters Kou and Futaba. The show kicks off when Futaba recognizes Kou at her high school and goes on from there.

Story

I pretty much already went over the basic premise but, it's also important to know that Kou and Futaba knew each other in middle school. The premise itself is kind of generic which isn't entirely bad. I liked ... how the two main characters had met in the past and, now Kou was entirely different for reasons unknown to Futaba and the viewers. It was a good way to hook people.

Art

I enjoyed the art of the show. It was colorful and, the character designs fit the settings and, the characters themselves. The art is distinguishable from other series but isn't anything unique or all that interesting.

Sound

The show had a good OP and ED. The music during the show was appropriate and, sounded nice. Also, there was some good voice acting for the characters, especially Kou.

Characters

Sadly, most of the characters in Ao Haru Ride aren't all that great. The characters I didn't like were Yuuri, Kominato, Murao and Kou.

In the case of Kominato and Murao, they didn't add anything to the story. The show would have been the same if they weren't there. So why were they in the story, I don't know? In addition to not having a point, they aren't particularly interesting and, the viewer isn't really given a reason to care for them.

Yuuri is the second member of the Kou fan club and, the third member of the show's love triangle. The problem with her is that again, she doesn't do anything for the story, it would have been the same if she was removed from the show. All she does after befriending Futaba is obsess over a CD she borrowed from Kou. The fact that she and, Futaba both love Kou is supposed to be a source of conflict for herself and Futaba but, it doesn't really cause any issues in their relationship. Her love for Kou doesn't cause any conflict for the two main characters Kou and Futaba. Why I didn't include her with the other two pointless side characters is because Yuuri is supposed to have a purpose. She is supposed to be a part of the story. She is supposed to cause conflicts between the two main characters and, have conflicts with them but, she fails at all of the points I listed.

Kou starts off as an interesting character. The viewer is after all supposed to be drawn into the show by his mysterious change from being kind and, quiet to cold and, "too cool to care". My problem with Kou isn't that he can be an annoying, angsty teenager. My problem is that he isn't a consistent character. Somewhere around episode 7 or 8 all of his progression just disappears until the final episode. It feels really unnatural and, forced for the sake of the "story" which is finding out why Kou is different then he was before.

Ao Haru Ride forces this unnatural character reset by having Yuuri and, Futaba pursue Kou before they find anything out about him. If the writers would have put the revelations about Kou's past at the start of the show and, then had Futaba and Yuuri try to get with him everything would have made more sense and, Kou wouldn't have had to have a forced character reset.

Futaba, and Kou's brother are the only other relevant characters in the show. They are both members of the Kou fan club and, I didn't have any particular problems with either of them. That being said they aren't really all that great of characters either since the only thing about them that matters is how they feel about Kou.

Enjoyment

I enjoyed the beginning of the show. It may have been a generic premise but, it was well executed. I wanted to know more about the characters and, was interested to see how the show would progress. However, the addition of the side characters, love triangle and, after Kou's character reset, Ao Haru Ride just wasn't all that interesting or, something I really cared about anymore. One scene that left a terrible impression with me was when Kou told Futaba that he could sexually assault her if he wanted to after climbing on top of her. I just felt that it was unnecessary and, in bad taste.

Overall

I gave Ao Haru Ride a 4/10. It has good art and music but neither of these elements overcome the pit falls of the show. The biggest problem of the show is that it forces character "resets" for the sake of the story. Another problem is that the side characters don't do anything to warrant their inclusion in the show. For reference the most useful side character is Kou's brother whose only job is to feed Futaba information about Kou and, his back story. Finally, I really hated the creepy sexual assault scene.

***DISCLAIMER*** I have not read the source material for the show and the review is for the anime adaption only. The manga, light novel or other source material is not included in my review of this anime.

I've sat here thinking about a good way to start this review for at least 5 minutes... and the best way I can start it off is this... it's bad, very, very bad. Why I even started watching this was because one of my friends recommended it to me, he's watched more anime than I have and we enjoy some of the same shows so I thought I would give it a chance... I should have stopped at the synopsis. If you're reading this and haven't started this show, good for you and, here is why.

Story - 3
I gave it a three. Honestly it should ... be a 1 but I didn't want to put everything I had a problem with as a 1 so I didn't. The story is very slow and features tons of exposition about the magic featured in the world. These were huge problems for me but I could overlook them. The real problem I had with the story were the themes. Discrimination is a big one in the episodes I watched but, I didn't really understand why it was a problem. The show opens by saying that even getting in to the school is extremely prestigious and gives us a scenario in which the better students or blooms treat the "bad" students or weeds pretty terribly. That doesn't make sense, if we go by the introduction in the very first episode every student there is better than the average person, even the weeds. There are other horrible messages this show puts forth and, it also tries to politically indoctrinate it's viewers by shoving meritocracy and capitalism in their faces everywhere but, I don't really want to write a book about how horrible the themes of this show are so, I'll move on.

Art - 6

This is probably the only thing that this show does well. The magic looks cool and the school uniforms are unique compared to other high school shows. How the characters looks apart from the uniforms is pretty standard though.

Sound - 4

Honestly, I don't remember the soundtrack being good or bad. I gave it a four because it seemed like the appropriate rank for neither adding or detracting from the show, which is all I can say about it.

Characters - 1

Characters are the weakest point for this show. Yes, the main characters are OP... we've all seen it before and, we even have another show from this season that featured OP characters (NGNL), why is this show's OP main characters worse than all of the rest of them? That's because Tatsuya isn't interested in having meaningful interactions with any other character in the show (besides his sister, I guess) and, Miyuki is only interested in her brother. See the problem? Why even have other characters? I don't know, because it's a school and, it would be weird if they supposedly went to a school and, were the only people there. As you can guess all other characters really aren't important and are only there to show you how much better than everyone else the two MCs are. I could stand them if they were your standard OP main characters but, they aren't. Miyuki is an annoying character whose only point in the episodes I've seen is to fawn over her brother so there isn't really much to talk about besides the fact she's annoying. Tatsuya on the other hand is a truly awful character. What really made me hate him completely was his speech about the equality "terrorists" in episode 4 (maybe 3, i don't remember). Basically, he says that equality is a farce and, the only people who wish for it are the people who didn't try hard enough to succeed. That message coming from Tatsuya, who is born with power and ability that far surpasses everyone else in the entire world completely disgusted me. Miyuki and Tatsuya explain that magician deserve their higher economic standing because of the "hard work" they put in to develop their talents which is a complete joke because you have to be born with an affinity for magic. Essentially these characters are just terrible people who justify the power given to them by their family by saying that it was their hard work that got them to where they are while dismissing everyone else by saying "You just didn't try hard enough."

Enjoyment - 1

If you couldn't tell, I detest this show and, did not enjoy it. Usually, I can see why someone might enjoy something but this... I just can't see anything redeeming about this show.

Overall - 1

A terrible story with terrible themes, standard art, a sound track that does nothing for the show, and awful characters add up to a horrible experience.