Jun 5 2012 08:41 PM Ano Natsu de Matteru, a show that is brought to us by the original character designer of Onegai Teacher from 2002. Furthermore, Toradora and Ano Hana staff members Tatsuyuki Nagai and Masayoshi Tanaka returned for this show. So how did this show do?
Well to start the story started off typical sudden girlfriend appearance but what made it much more interesting is how she ended up being an extension of a longer love polygon. The love polygon was very big in this series and likely the biggest eye catcher when you actually dont have much mutual feelings going on between any two parties (obviously except between Kaito and Ichika). The drama that poured out in the middle of the series (starting around 4) and all the way through episode 10 was what really defined the series. Everything after that was primarily rubbish. In those six episodes, we received strong character development and a strong sense of emotion equivalent to that seen in the recent Ano Hana. So what went wrong? The ending
Im not too strict about Ichika returning, which was definitely expected, but I was very disappointed with the way they handled how everyone made it out of the conflicts
i.e. the whole MIB business. Yes
as big of a troll Lemon is, I was quite disappointed that the show went from what could have been a relative slice-of-life title into a completely supernatural one. While the show was supernatural to begin with given the alien premise, it could have easily been overlooked had it not been for all the wacky stuff at the end. I will say, however, the Mizuho-sensei reference at the end was very nicely done and basically revealed that this series is indeed an indirect sequel of Onegai Teacher. While that was hinted at since episode 1, Im actually kind of glad that they threw in the easter egg anyways. Art was very nostalgic that made the series feel more retro than present day. This is likely due to Taraku Uon as the original character designer, which certainly was not a bad thing. J.C. Staff as animators wasnt too bad for this show. Certainly better than some of the stuff theyve recently done though. Not much to say here.
OP/ED were both very nice and the background music was quite fair too. Seiyuus were the big highlights for this show. A nice mix of long-time veterans, such as Haruka Tomatsu as Ichika, Hideki Ogihara as Tetsurou, Kana Asumi as Mio, and Yukari Tamura as Lemon, and new seiyuus such as Nobunaga Shimazaki as Kaito and Kaori Ishihara as Kanna. For a drama show with much emotion the casting was nicely done and the seiyuus all did a great job in their respective roles. Very nice to also see Yukari Tamura as Lemon given her strong resemblance both physically and behaviorally as Ichigo Morino in Onegai Teacher. Furthermore, recasting Kikuko Inoue as Mizuho in the final few moments of the series was a big plus.
Enjoyment? Well I cant say I looked forward to this every week after a certain point given how long it took me to finish this after keeping up with it early on.
Overall, the Ano Hana staff got too greedy is what I think what happened. They tried to make another heart-wrenching series like Ano Hana yet decided they had to throw in another supernatural phenomenon. In the case of Ano Hana it was a ghost girl and here its an alien. Supernatural is nice and all, but there are times when slice-of-life drama does not mix with it and its a very thorny path when you start going down it. The series didnt fail per say and if anything Id say it was much more emotional than Ano Hana in various aspects. I cant help but reiterate the ending killed it for this show though and its definitely going to haunt this series.
Preliminary Score: 8/10
Final Score: 7/10 