An exercise in futility

// Synopsis: Reluctant love is in the air when two high school students in a group of friends become lovers. But soon after tragedy strikes when Motoko is hit by a car and left in a coma for 3 years. During that time Takayuki moves on with his life and has since hooked up with Motoko’s best friend Mizuki. Motoko eventually wakes up and because of her fragile mental state the doctor believes the best thing to do is pretend no time has passed. This puts Takayuki in a precarious position of pretending to still be in love with Motoko while being with Mizuki.

// Review: After the first five minutes I this was going to be a fun school life series. The characters seemed interesting and full of personality. Then it was like watching a drawn out funeral for the next 23 episodes. After the accident, the characters spiral down and spend the bulk of the series brooding, self-loathing and blaming themselves for things that were beyond their control. It was quite frustrating watching these characters make poor choices based on wrong thinking. Usually love triangles are intriguing if not trite. But I found myself not asking how it was going to end, but when.

/ It was fascinating though how this anime captured human nature in high stress situations; we see characters become selfish and irrational, turn to substance abuse, jump into meaningless one night stands, lose themselves in work; all as ways to not deal and to cope with difficult and trying situations. Maybe it’s why this anime is incredibly popular. Emo is the new black.

/ The episodes seemed to just plod along. I found the only times I was really interested and enjoying it was when Takayuki was at work in the restaurant teasing his co-workers. But this anime is broken from the get go with a completely ludicrous premise and how everyone thinks it’s a great idea to pretend no time has passed and Takayuki and Motoko are still lovers.

/ The music was pretty good. The character designs seemed exaggerated, even for anime, as far as the girls’ endowment and bodies. I mean they would still have a generous amount of cleavage even if they were wearing a potato sack. The ending was satisfying enough. It concluded with hope, but it wasn’t enough in my opinion to redeem the rest of the series.

// Wrap up: It was pretty impressive they were able to create an entire anime series out of a Japanese dating sim. I can totally see the appeal of this depressing drama if you are dark and angst-ridden high schooler. For my money though, I wouldn’t say this was horrible, but it’s pretty bad especially for an 8 hour investment.

Entertainment rating: 2