Kirara

Nicknames Mar 8, 2019

5.8

Kirara is an OVA that has caught my attention a few months ago because of its original concept (and because I’m a sucker for ovas/series from the 80s), but it turned out to not live by my expectations. Wanna know why? Then go ahead and keep reading. The show tells the story of Kirara, a 24 year old girl who dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and is sent 8 years back, when she and her future husband hasn’t started dating yet. On paper it sounds good, but the execution left a lot to be desired since they tried to cram way too much content in too little time. It’s especially noticeable in the latter half when they fast forwarded the events prior to the accident to the point it becomes a confusing mess. This also impacts on the characters. While none of them is intolerable to the point of making the show insufferable they end up being quite shallow due to the lack of any room to develop them. At least the animation is good. While a tad dated, the design of the characters and the backgrounds is nice, and there aren’t any noticeable flaw in this regard. It may not be groundbreaking, but it does its job. There’s not much to say about the OVA when it comes to the soundtrack and the voice acting. It’s not bad but it’s also very forgettable. All in all the OVA was ok at best. While it’s not bad by any means the lack of proper pacing and an inconclusive ending sours the experience quite a bit. You’ll probably enjoy the source material more tho.

thegirlontheclouds Apr 28, 2023

7.5

I put this anime on my Want to Watch list just because it was short, but after watching it I wish it was longer. The story definietly feels rushed and all over the place and if you start this OVA without reading the summary (like me) it will be a bit confusing at the start, but those short sequences of romance we got were really cute and got me wanting more. It could have certainly been more melancholic or sad like I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, but everything is imperefect and considering the time it was made I kinda like the messiness of it. The characters  are pretty nice. The ML- Tompei absolutely made me fall i love with his adorable personality and the way he expresses love, and his emotions overall. Grown-up Kirara was kinda cute too and young Kirara was just a little bit frustrating with her denial and everything, but the characters were pretty much all very decent. The minor ones are basically just background characters with like, idk 20 lines at best, so they're not worth mentioning. The animation is ok (I mean it was the 2000s so you get it), but the cat-like artstyle is sooooooo cute and I'm in love with it ughhhhhhhh- I definietly wish there were more anime nowadays with this kind of artstyle. Anyways, I will surely check out the manga for more content and come back to say if it was worth it, but even this anime was pretty wholesome in itself. In conclusion I think you should indeed give it a try and hopefully you'll find it as loveable and wholesome as I did!

SpanglishJC Mar 9, 2017

4

Kirara follows a ghost that had died on her wedding day travelling back in time to see her fiancé again. The catch is that she is sent back to before they were ever together, oh no! Story and Characters What can I say about the story really? We really just have a guy who longs after a girl whilst the ghost of that same girl, only from the future, makes a nuisance of herself. The anime just rushes through the plot, Ghost Kirara is not really fazed at having gone back in time and her younger self was not particularly surprised to see her dead, future self floating about. The anime is just rushed plot with some ghostly mischief, followed by a lacklustre conclusion. The characters themselves are not very interesting, not enough is done to make me care about them and by the time it was over I moved right on. The Technical Stuff Kirara is fairly old but as far as looks go it's quite decent. There isn't anything standout about anything here. Conclusion 40 minutes that can be better spent watching something else. There is little of substance here and what it does have is just powered through without much thought. A SpanglishJC 'Short Review' Daily Anime Marathon Club #5 Review