Orange - Reviews

A few people dislike the anime because "nothing happens in it". But they fail to realize that that's exactly the point. This anime doesn't have flashy beach scenes or fan service episodes. There's no action or overly dramatic fake romance. It doesn't have magic or panty shots. It's highschool in it's purest most innocent form, with the good and bad. 

The plot itself not only focuses on the struggles and guilt of a highschooler, but also how to deal with one's emotions, how to help someone who's struggling, how to understand and confront others, etc. It shows real life problems and interactions. It touches on mental illnesses and really emphasizes the connection/relationship between the characters.

The characters themselves are all stock and basic but unique in their own way within the story. You have your sweet mom of the group who's shy and thoughtful of others, the sporty dad of the group aka the chick magnet, the scary violent girl who becomes defensive for the sake of her friends, the bright cheery girl that always laughs/flirts, the main male who's edgy and has personal issues, and the smart idiot with glasses (my personal favorite). Even though their personalities are predictable, they do bring out the best in one another. 

Sound and animation were eh... it had its moments but the bad ones really ruined it for me. The animators really butchered their face structure/expressions sometimes just because it was from a different angle or zoomed out.....

Overall, it's a great down to earth anime (despite the whole time travelling idea...). It focuses on important aspects of life and touches on sensitive subjects in today's world.

I would 100% watch it if you're into innocent romance, highschool life, and are looking for a lesson on life/a good cry. I learned more about myself, the people around me, and the importance of life just from watching this.

Beware ! English review made by french guy !

So, Orange is a good anime and a shitty one at the same time. Let me explain briefly : Orange is what we could call a "feel train". The only purpose of it, it's to make you feeeeeeeel some emotions and make you feeeeeeel the characters. Nothing less, nothing more. It's just this. So, for one who enjoy as hell these types of animes, go for it...I suppose ?

Story:

The premise is simple : a new guy come to school and makes new friend. But, the main heroine, Naho, receive a letter from her futur self that explain that she has to save the new guy, Kakeru.

First : It's talking about suicide. Second : Wtf time traveling ? Third : The moralisation of this anime is really strange.

So, during these 13 episodes, Naho and her friend try to be friend with Kakeru, making him happy so that he don't take his life. It's simple, touching and could be really intersting in the character development. But, oh well...

Animation :

Really good design, drawing and animation. But, some episodes, like 9, seem to have a low budget and there are many many many wrongs things, like derp face. The anime is beautiful, but have many errors.

Sound:

Good voice acting like all anime, normal sound design, and really good music. Nothing to say here.

Characters :

Here's the fun. They are all cliché, but, the catharsis is awesome ! The interactions between them is really well done and maybe is over the normal in the world of anime. So, these cliché becomes instantly forgettable. The problem is in the development and the complexity of the characters... The anime just try to make Kakeru alive and forget about the emotion of every other of his friends. So everyone is normal and are able to fully help to 100% Kakeru. In real life, good luck to take 100% of your time for someone who need help. And the anime forget that. Everybody has their own problem and so, everybody has difficulty to understand each other. The anime don't show this. It show friends who are able to forget about themselves to try understanding an other friend with important problems (Kakeru). For Kakeru, this show how hard it's to take someone out of his negative thinking once he is on that, but fail to show how hard and incomprehnsible other people can be about this. Everything is fine, everyone is able to understand each other, what a beautiful and naive utopia.

Oh, yeah, don't mind the 8 out of a 10. I think 4 would be more true. I put 8 just, and only just, for Hagita, who is the best four eyed waifu ever !|

Verdict :

So, is Orange a good anime ? In term of feel, yes, but nothing incredible. Some overdramatical anime like Clannad are able to show some intersting development with a good level of feeeeeeling. In term of deepness, no. And that only fact is because of the time travel shitty thing (seriously A-1, stop with time travel anime like Erased....it's not good for mental health). Well, yeah. Basicly, what Orange is trying to show is how important it is to be close and talk to our friends. How it is important to be loved and how someone who disgust himself can hurt the ones he loves and be stubbord in his self-confident. The problem is, the time travel here is showing a little breeze of dream about everyone who would want to save an ancient friend or wathever by going back in time. Well, it could have been, farely, the same thing without time travel, so in every way, Orange is to simple and try to be good by touching hard subject that everyone want to talk about, but are unable to, and that's ugly. The anime is showing how hard it is to help someone, but here, Naho KNOW what will happen. Basically, the anime say : "if you don't know how someone feel, well, you can do nothing for this someone". And it add : "It's impossible to know how someone feel, unless you have access to some unbeliveble knowledge". In other word, the anime don't show how hard it is to understand someone in need, because Naho know what will happen. The anime is just here to feed the utopia everyone want : be able to understand and help eachothers, without having to make reals efforts... And that's really sad, because all the message of the anime, all the reason of the anime, is because of time travel and transform what could have been an intersting dilemma of how to help someone (in fact, it would have been the same....), in some feel train drama that have no other purpose that to make poeple believe they can make a difference without to much trouble... Orange is an insult to people in need.

𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖  >>>  First thing first this anime is too Overrated, I feel this type of anime is doomed. Always the same, half made plots, weak women, now I have to add on this one weak men too.

Let’s start with the obvious, the anime revolves around Kakeru about saving Kakeru and we barely know a thing about him right until the end. The only thing that made this watchable was the relationship the 5 friends have and the way they interact with each other and yet again, we know absolutely nothing about any of them.

Half the show is about Naho been shy and Naho fighting with herself and Naho reading the same thing on the letter, I’m truly bored of this kind of Characters completely done with them, the only Character like this I was able to stand was Sawako in "Kimi ni todoke", she was funny, her reactions were amazing, anyways. the rest is just more of the same. and to make it worst, the theory to make the letter time travel! Never have seen such a lame way to explain it, never! The ending was even emptier than the time travel theory if you can top that.

Personally, I really loved this anime with all my heart. It's very relatable in a way. We all have regrets and wish we could change them. Honestly, I kind of had low expectations for this but I was proved wrong. I love it so much, it made me sob my eyes out. First anime to do that in a fat minute. I suggest it! And don't hate it before you give it a shot!!

Story - Well roundup story with good premise about frienship and relationships

Animation - Nice

Sound - Could be beter in certain situations

Characters - In whole anime there is only few character development, but for this story thats more than enough

Overall -  Dont take people you care about for granted. Even if they dont understand you, or dont know how to show you, they love you just the way you are.