[First Impression] Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren/Ano Natsu de Matteru

As I'm sure it was for everybody, best part of season 1. 

That title takes a long time to say huh? Anyway, it's been a run of OK to mediocre anime for me recently, Jormungand was fun action without much substance, and while A Certain Scientific Railgun was good while it lasted, it was never going the next big anything. So this week, among all the airing anime(and yes, I will talk about Unlimited Blade Works at some point), I decided it was time to treat myself to a couple of shows that might actually impress me. On one hand, Chuunibyou Ren, the sequel to the original romance/slice-of-life/school anime by Kyoto Animation, and on the other, Ano Natsu de Matteru, the "sister" series to Anohana, directed by the same guy: Tatsuyuki Nagai. And what I find after watching the first two episodes of both 12-episode series, is that one could perhaps fulfill the expectation I have had for it, and the other might end up disappointing me in more ways than one. First, let's start with the former: Chuunibyou Ren.

As previously mentioned, Ren was animated by those moe-gods over at Kyoto Animation, who are known for things such as Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and of course, who could forgot K-On! (though I would like to.) Now, the first season of Chuunibyou was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I think my biggest problem with it was the same for other people, it was that the anime was way too bi-polar. What started as a slice-of-life show with quirky characters changed in the blink of an eye into a drama, and while that isn't exactly a bad thing, the switch was clumsily handled at best. Putting even that aside, I don't know, while I could tell Chuunibyou was somewhat better than other anime of its genre, something never quite clicked for me, I'm not sure if it was the characters or the story, but I never really had too much fun with it. Luckily, so far, Ren hasn't been giving me the same things to complain about.
     For what it's worth, while I technically can't talk about the premise of this second season without spoiling the ending of the first season, I can say I'm really enjoying it right now. What's odd is that nothing really about the anime has particularly changed, the plot is still as directionless as any other slice-of-life anime, and the characters haven't exactly developed since the first season, but for some reason, it has finally clicked for me. If I had to give a possibly reason though, I would say while the characters haven't changed, their relationships have been defined, and all the pieces are in place per say, as if the first season was setting us up to get to this point. I'm especially absolutely loving the relationship right now between the two main characters of the show: Yuuta and Rika, who now have the perceptional limbo of the purpose of the first season behind them, and can now interact in fun and even kind of sweet ways. It's nice to see a show get to this point in a romance anime, and I actually want to see what KyoAni do with it. Of course, the quality could always fall down a cliff in later episodes never to return, but I'll try to stay positive with this one going into episode 3. What I will say is that with the plot thread introduced at the end of episode 2, the anime is really in a very unstable form right now. Depending on how they handle this certain thread, the show could either turn out really damn good, or deteriorate into a exasperating melodrama. I'll cross my fingers.

The characters of  "Ano Natsu" from left to right: Kitahara, Ishigaki, Tanigawa,  Kaito, Ichika & Lemon 

Now to move onto something a little less hopeful. The only reason I watched Ano Natsu is because of its many parallels with Anohana, they're are both directed by Nagai, are both slice-of-life with a supernatural twist, and are both supposedly extremely emotional shows with a pair of finales that are certain to melt even the most icy heart. And let me get this out of the way first, I really liked Anohana. Was it a little emotionally sadistic, resulting to any means necessary to make you cry like a baby? Sure, but what it also was was a extremely well put together show, with good characters and awesome animation provided by A-1 Pictures. I guess I went into Ano Natsu expecting much of the same thing, but so far... let's just say that I'm maybe not expecting that anymore.
     The story begins with our main character Kaito, while testing his new camera late at night on a bridge, getting killed. We don't how exactly he was killed, all we see is a big flash of light, but the next day, we wakes up as though nothing has happened, and he doesn't really seem to remember anything himself. However, he finds when he returns to highschool(oh, right, this takes place in highschool because everything must take place in highschool) that a beautiful girl has transferred into his school, her name being Ichika Takatsuki. At the same time the school year is coming to an end, and Kaito and his friends come up with an idea to film a movie over the summer, and due to unforeseen circumstances, Ichika ends up joining the cast list, as well as living with Kaito at his house, even though it has been only been one day since they met. A wrinkle appears however, when it turns out Ichika is an alien who crash landed on earth, probably the same crash that killed Kaito earlier. She hasn't technically told anybody yet, though I'm kind of amazed nobody has seen through her clearly fake back-story yet. But those have basically been the first two episodes, and really I find them really mediocre.
     The characters ranged from either unlikable to boring, starting with our protagonist Kaito, who feels like really an-insert-main character, and so far has done absolutely nothing to distinguish himself from other characters like him. Ichika herself is bit boring as well, and hasn't really done anything besides provide fan-service for the anime. which you know is going to completely ruin any emotional scenes they could have in the anime later if they don't tone it down soon. As for any of the others, you still don't have a lot to go on. You have Tanigawa: the secondary-love-interest-who-doesn't-stand-a-chance character you've seen in a thousand other anime, the creepy girl, the moe-girl, and the good-looking guy with long hair. And at this point, I don't see a reason to care about any of them. Look, I went into into this anime wanting to like it, but so far, it has given me nothing in return. And when an anime gives me nothing in return, I usually tend to stop trying as well. And that's all from me.

Goodbye for now guys.


My First Impressions on Hyouka is here, as well as Eureka Seven/Toradora! here.

Want a review? My review of Angel Beats is here.

The Top Five Wishlist Anime countdown is located here. 

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