Waiting in the Summer - Reviews

i dont understand why directors/writers think that creating a love story like this is a good idea.i a by no means a romance junkie, but as a casual wathcer of the genre  i have a lot of gripes with this show alhtough some are nitpicky i do believe that most will agree wiht what i have to say. i dont say this very often but this porbably wouldve been a better read than watched. i would say if you are not a romance show guru or if you are tired of really obviuos romance shows then dont watch it 

first is the story itself, why did they have to do this half scifi/ men inblack crossover  half coming of age summer love story? i saw the ending coming after the 3rd episode its almost as predictable as the "love intrest has fatal disease" trope. the characters werent terrible so i beleive that if the story was more grounded or if the story went more scifi romance then i beleive that it would have been much better.

second has to be the initial push for a love triangle, seriously a majority of the love trianglesin any form of writing has to be the top 5 worst writing cliches, and this one is no different she added nothing to the story she was just there and rolled over like a dead fish. a decent example of a love triangle is "sing for me yesterday" but the problme lies wiht the main character and not the two opposing love intrests which is why "waiting in the summer's" love trianlge elicited so many eye rolls from me. 

lastly is the dialouge, some of it feels very natural and is really good. but when its bad damn is it bad. the word "senpai" was used so many times, if you made a drinking game out of the last episode alone you would get alcohol poisoning before the 10 minute mark. if the MC knew she was an alien and the fact that they loed each other why didnt he use her name? it made no sense, culture differnece isnt a good counter argument because so many other anime drop that title when the characters become close friends or get in a relationship. which is why  again i say that when the dialouge is clearly trying to push for time it comes out as verbal vomit and its clear not as much thought was put into certain scenes.

last is ichicka, she has a problem with picking and chosing her ignorance for the culture of japan and humans on earth. she had no problem fishing in the river ,staying at a strangers home, whering lingere around the MC casually and other physical actions to teh main character. yet knows that sex with a student and an adult is wrong, what clothes she wanted to where. the list becomes longer and lnger the more you watch. also she says she is not from japan and people say her japanese is great but nobody says "where are you from you dont look japanese " never really comes up. her character was a very weak excuse for the fish out of water/ my love interest will check off as many boxes as possible so that the viewers can relate/cheer/lust after her better and it comes off so lazy and cheap story telling that the plot holes come up like swiss cheese. also giant robots were flying around and no one notices? that doesnt make any sense whatsoever

i will say that id the show had been more consistent, removed the love triangle, and made the show about wanting to stay with each other instead of the will they wont they trope would have made it way more interesting. it definetly has quality in the show but the story has to be the biggest detrament

again i would say if you are not a romance show guru or if you are tired of really obviuos romance shows then dont watch it.

This review will include the 'thirteenth episode' OVA, which, although it was four minutes longer than any of the regular 12 episodes, really added nothing of substance.  And substance was one thing Waiting in Summer truly lacked.

Waiting in Summer was one clumsy romance, chock full of holes in the plot, driven not so much by plot twists, but more along the line of plot contortions.  The characters lacked depth and the whole premise limped.

The premise?  Ichika, girl from outer space, crash lands on planet Earth, nearly killing Kaito, camera nerd intent on creating a movie to celebrate his summer as a first year in high school.  Ichika heals Kaito with cosmic kisses of health and then enrolls as a third year at Kaito's high school.  And then she becomes a guest at Kaito’s home just before his sister (the parents were killed some time back) is off on a job that will take her to Bolivia.  Senpai Ichika would make the perfect housekeeper for Kaito! Just in time for summer break and Kaito's movie project.  So, with classmates Kanna, Mio, and Tetsuro (with third year Renon), Kaito invites Ichika (with her space companion Rinon, part pet, part science officer) to the shoot.

The characters were just more or less hormones activating under the summer sun.  Kanna, Tetsuro's childhood friend, has a crush on Kaito.  Mio, in turn, is drawn to Tetsuro.  Tetsuro is a girl magnet not certain who to commit to, but he gives Kaito sage advice on girls.  Bad advice!  This leads to a Kaito-Ichika-Kanna love triangle in the making, made only worse when an Okinawa shoot brings on Kaori and Chiharu.  These girls hit on Kaito and Tetsuro respectively.  Chiharu is the epitome of aggressive pursuit of love.  This pushes shy Mio to be a little more assertive about her feelings for Tetsuro.

How bland are the characters?  Mio has a deep dark secret about underwear.  Renon knows too much about things, and between getting her friends drunk or filming them as they flirt with each other (her idea of fun), Renon has this verve for being as much an alien as Ichika.  Well, not exactly an alien ... just the next worst thing.  Kaito vacillates.  Kanna steams as Kaito and Ichika get close.  Ichika tries to hide her alien ways from her newfound friends (hard to do with space Munchkin Rinon).  Good for moments of comic relief, but falling in love with aliens has its consequences.

The consequences drive the story to a ridiculous climax as the Space Authorities battle the Men in Black for custody of Ichika.  Ichika for her part wishes to remain on Earth, but she knows that the difference between their planets would forbid this.  This doesn't prevent a two-episode chase scene between Kaito's friends and superior tech containment units out to retrieve Ichika.

Inconsistencies kill off any thought of Waiting in Summer being smartly developed anime.  The topper would be the Bolivian vest Kaito's sister got for Ichika.  But by the time sister returned, Ichika's 'educational tour' had ended; she has returned ‘home.’  Yet, in the final production of Kaito's movie, Ichika is seen wearing the vest.  How?  Not even the OVA offered an explanation of a possible second extraterrestrial visit.  All the OVA does is advance the story to when Kaito and his classmates are in their third year celebrating their last summer break of their time as high schoolers.  Kaito seems to have recovered from his unrequited love for Ichika, keeping only the memories captured on film.

Sloppy writing meets adequate animation technique bolstered by so-so music and voice acting (Renon's weaselly chortle still creeps me out).  Waiting in Summer is not the worst anime I've viewed, and thinking about these real anime losers makes Waiting in Summer look good.

This anime is close to my heart not because its amazing or anything but more because of nostalgia, pretty average in terms of story, i didnt particularly like any of the character, theres love triangles left right and center, but i would reccomend to a fan of romcoms not a bad anime, not an amazing anime just average in every aspect although i thought the animation was quite nice.

Not a bad anime, but it does painfully rip off a few other anime. But ideas are finite and the more the anime industry continues to pump out new stories, the more we will see with similarities.

One thing that almost all anime has a problem with is closure. I get that they want to leave things open to entice the audience for the possibility of a season 2, but let's face it, 90% of all anime wont see a season 2. So we end up with hundreds of anime that refuse to wrap things up or put a nice little bow on the story. Many anime even leave the main story halfway done due to this. Whereas I cant stand when this happens, I can understand why it does.

This anime really made me think of the show "Stranger Things" Bear with me while I explain because my thinking may be a bit abstract. But basically the whole time I spent watching this anime, I was internally screaming "ALL THE PROBLEMS COULD BE SOLVED IF EVERYONE WOULD JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!" I understand that would make the show much shorter and less interesting, but it still makes me cringe.

The anime isnt bad, but it doesnt offer too much of what the shows it "draws inspiration" from doesnt. I mean right from episode one, I could swear I was watching "Please Teacher" If you liked that anime, then you will probably like this one. I do wish it would have went a bit further with the alien technology aspect it touches base on. It would have helped draw the audience in a bit. I mean, that's a pretty big premise of the show that really only has a handful of instances of appearance.

For a video review, check out my Youtube channel. Link on my profile page.

Winner JV Anime Award 2015: Best Romance

Positive

*The first positive point of this anime was the comedy, there are some hilarious scenes in this anime mostly delivered by one of the side characters: Lemon Yamano. Her reactions and personality make some of the most funny scenes in Ano Natsu or she makes the other characters go a bit loose let’s say.

*A second positive point is the story. Yes Ano Natsu is at its core a typical romance comedy but there are a lot other elements imbedded in this story like jealousy, guilt, secrets that no one may know. All elements that kept this name very interesting to me.

And the best thing about was it’s ending because the ending is not what it seems to be. A lot of people that saw Ano Natsu think that the ending is sad. 

Well for those people I have a tip: rewatch the last episode and pay very close attention too the last 5 seconds of the anime because they change everything. 

When I was watching the last episode I was like OK this is kind of a sad ending and the drama leading to it is very good. But then I got to these last 5 seconds and my mouth fell open. I was like What? I immediately rewinded and watched them again just to confirm what I thought I had seen. So eventually I was really pleased with the ending of this anime.

*Next positive point were the characters because each and every character has secrets for the rest. Each character goes through turmoil and feels pain. 

Like Kanna, she goes though a lot of problems in this anime because of her unanswered love. 

But the most interesting character too me was Tetsuro. According to me he’s in the most fucked up situation off al the characters because he has to choose between friendship and love and it’s all really complicated for him. I’m not going to go into more detail because than I would give away spoilers but too me he had the most interesting story

*But the thing that I liked the most in Ano Natsu was the romance. This is such a good romance anime, it’s so intriguing because we don’t get a love triangle like usual but a love circle in which a lot of characters are involved. 

But one relationship stood out too me and that was the one of Kaito and Ichika. They are such a nice couple, their love is so deep and warm that they are my favorite anime couple until now. 

Ichika isn’t immediately a girl that I would fall for but she and Kaito just fit together like a glove. 

And we actually get to see them as a couple. In most romance anime’s the two protagonists only become a couple at the last episodes but Kaito and Ichika become a couple much sooner than that. 

But I liked every relationship in this anime, the ones that eventually evolved into a love relationship and the ones that didn’t.

Negative

*Now there was one problem that I had with this anime and that was the “truth” let’s say about who Lemon actually is, that was kind of out of the blue and felt unnatural for me. She had this mysterious personality all the time but the way that it eventually turns out was less too my liking.

But that’s the only complaint that I have about this anime.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion, I had a blast with Ano Natsu. Especially the warm relationship between Kaito and Ichika really pleased me and made me watch this anime two times already. I’m going to rate Ano Natsu de Matteru at 4,5 stars, it stands in my personal top 5 and it’s one of my favorite romance anime’s.