Natsu no Arashi! - Reviews

I feel like all the drama in this one did not comix well with rest of the show. It seemed out of place and at times corny too (and therefore uninentionally humorous). The whole thing felt like two separate stories haphazardly stitched together at the last moment in an attempt to create something more profound and it turned out poorly in the end. One moment it's a slice of life and then the next it's a sappy war drama all of a sudden. Urgh no... it just doesn't flow well that way. And then it became even duller after the focus shifted to two other characters toward the end. I also found the jokes underwhelming with many repetitions that quickly became stale after the x-th time (the salt gag, the book title gag, ...)  I watched this because someone recommended it to me but I would not be coming back to this one any time soon, nor am I going to watch the second season.

Its an awesome anime.Comedy is original loved it.Opening and ending both songs where great.Artwork is really good.If u give this a time u will love it. :)

Season one of Studio Shaft’s 2009 supernatural fantasy offers us a dark and original comedy streaked with enigma. Stick with it past the first two episodes and it becomes increasingly rewarding. (Episode one confusingly jumps into the middle of the story and does the show no favours by doing so.) There is a lot going on here so take deep breath and dive in. The main character is thirteen-year-old boy Hajime Yasaka who meets the beautiful sixteen-year-old Sayoko Arashiyama (Arashi) in a local café where she works. He is smitten and when their hands meet there is a literal spark of connection. She declares them compatible and rushes him outside and jumps backwards in time. She explains that she is a ghost who died at the end of World War Two. However, she is able to time travel back to the past as long as she is able to hold the hand of a compatible living partner from whom she draws her power. Then Arashi’s equally-dead best friend Kaja Bergmann soon turns up. She quickly partners with her compatible time-travelling living partner who happens also to be Hajime’s friend Jun Kamigamo. The wide cast includes Sayaka, a con artist who owns the café where they all work. Then there is regular customer, nicknamed “shades” (Hideo Murata), who is a private detective hired by shadowy figures to bring Arashi back to them. Those shadowy figures are Kanako Yamazaki and Yayoi Fushimi – two ghosts who knew Arashi & Kaja at school. They are after her for their own reasons as is later revealed. Kanako and Yayoi feature in cryptic monochrome shorts through the first part of season one before they enter the story proper.

The story itself enjoys multiple threads and themes. Arashi uses her time-travelling powers to go back to war time Japan the warn her neighbours of the bombing raids that take their lives. Kaja goes back to the same time for more melancholic reasons – she sees the boy she was in love with who died under US bombs in 1945. Jun is struggling with her sexuality after turning up in the story disguised as a boy. Only Kaja has realised her secret whilst dim-witted Hajime seem unable to see the obvious truth about his best friend. Between the sub-plots the characters work in the café and partake in long-winded philosophical discussions about time travel and its many possible paradoxes. The story is, at times, bittersweet, thought-provoking, mysterious and always on the brink of becoming a sublime thriller. Sadly, it draws just short of greatness. It occasionally jumps backwards and forwards, repeating itself with the same motifs or has all the characters inexplicably dressed differently with no apparent explanation. There is an implication that maybe these are parallel timelines in alternative universes but the audience is left guessing as to their meaning. The visual-style is an eye-sore with male characters drawn as stereotypes whilst female characters lack sympathetic details. The outdoors is sun-bleached with the scenery demarcated by unnatural extremes of shadow and light. It is a style that is seldom easy on the eye and takes a bit of getting used to. It is based upon the manga written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi (also the writer of School Rumble). “Natsu no Arashi!” is a bit of a mystery all round but the audience gets no payback on the dark brooding elements that haunt the story. It never quite lives up to its possibilities as the writing draws short of exploring potential plot twists in its dark side. At every opportunity it reverts to a simplistic and easy story resolutions. Watchable, fun but don’t expect it to live up to its infinite possibilities. Seriously though: time travelling ghosts! Cool or what?

This is one of those titles that doesn't fit the three episode rule. The first few episodes give hints that the show has more to offer, but mostly feel juvenile and kind of generic. However, there is more going on than might be apparent at first glance. The story grows deeper and by the end I even appreciated the beginning for the set up that it was. I wouldn't normally say it's worth watching bad episodes to get to the good part, but the later episodes gave me a different perspective on the early ones. The last episode is a fan service episode, but done right. There are swimsuits, but the story is the real audience pleaser.

This is really fantastic anime.