Natsu-iro Kiseki

I don't understand the low score for this one, so I'll write a review based on my special feelings for this series.
There are so many mixing of genres these days that pretty much anything is possible. However, very few actually succeeded in my opinion. I'm someone who goes for the plain bread when there are too many deserts in front of me. Anyone who can make bread taste better among the mountain of deserts deserves a lot of respect.
Natsuiro Kiseki is that piece of bread I've been looking for.
Upon first impression, there is really nothing special about it. It's just about a group ... of friends spending time together doing things that everyone in the world would do. But there is something unique in the plot that elevated the story without transforming the basic storyline. I like how subtle it is, and yet how effective it is at bringing out the layers to the story that would normally lie hidden. By layers, I don't mean the amount of mysteries or the amount of plot twists. An ordinary life has many more layers than a life spent in a maze. The maze is a trap that simply confuses the mind, and people think they can sort it out by thinking it out. The ordinary life sorts it out by living it out, and this is exactly what natsuiro kiseki does.

I am probably most attracted to the characters. They can't be more normal, but I find them extremely interesting. There isn't a character "design" feeling to the characters anymore. I don't think I encountered this kind of feeling in the past.
Another thing is the story. The story is clever in that the usual "main events" are down played while the "trivial" in-betweens end up taking the stage. It's more than simply showing the means to an end. It turns the backdrop to the actions into the main events. That to me is both clever and effective.

I think some people are afraid to like it and rate it high because the subject of this series is too ordinary. I rather think it is both special and very well made.

Hopefully this review can convince you to give this anime a chance, despite its low rating.

Natsuiro Kiseki is a combination of my favorite genres: slice of life and supernatural. It deals with a story of friendship, and this circle of four girls experiences a tremendous amount of growth and maturation throughout their summer adventures.

The story is amazing. I would even dare to say that it parallels that of Anohana. These four girls all start their journey as a circle of friends, but really not more than that. They have fun together, but they also argue and disagree on many things. Throughout the course of their ... last summer vacation together, they experience a wide variety of supernatural occurrences that causes them to become even closer friends. They grow up from acting like children and transition into adulthood, with a mindset of understanding and acceptance.

Some may argue that the story isn't well written, due to the second half of episode two (you'll know it when you get there), and several other awkward developments. However, I believe that the values of friendship that this anime teaches far overrides those scenes. I am judging the anime holistically, so I can only speak for the overall effect of the story, which was amazing. These scenes were not bad either; they added weight to the importance of friendship, and increased the connection between the watcher and these four girls. As a whole, this anime taught a profound lesson about friendship and selflessness that is far greater than a few weird scenes.

The art for this anime is absolutely stunning. I mean, completely brilliant. Every little detail in the art is picked up and magnified even further. The dancing scenes, the flowing hair, the magic-- it all just works beautifully and harmoniously. Everything is smooth, and the art style is great; everyone and everything is properly proportioned, and looks normal.

The sound is just as incredible as the art. Just search up the OP or ED! The soundtracks are all beautiful, and the amount of background music in this anime is appropriate. It always matches the mood, and serves to intensify the situation, and not distract from it. I am especially obsessed with the OP because it is just amazing. The ED is just as breathtaking, if not more.

The character development is definitely where this anime shines. Each girl is unique, so much so that they don't really fit into a category at all. They each have their own special quirks and personalities. It just goes to show that best friends don't have to all be the same. As the story progresses, they all become closer, but at the same time, their characters become more and more different. They mature in their own directions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this anime. It dealt with issues in friendship that I'm sure a majority of us can relate to. From a few naive girls in the beginning to a close-knit group of best friends in the end, the characters completely transform.

This anime truly was a Summer-Colored Miracle.

Friendship and miracles. Most have them, some treasure them, though four tell a story of them.

Natsuiro Kiseki shocked me in all honestly. People have told me this series was average, weak characters, could get corny. Well, a miracle happened everyone. After finishing this series, I could feel chills around my body that was once experienced by having the pleasure of watching Aria the Origination. Natsuiro Kiseki is a gem, a gem that will be forgotten by the majority if not already, but for me it will be a long lasting memory, a memory much like the four girls in Our Summer Color Miracle had ... through hardships and bonds. This is Natsuiro Kiseki, a Summer Colored Miracle:

Right away, Natsuiro Kiseki drew me in. It has an opening that I'd say is one of my favorites of all time and it had a feeling of greatness. The story of friendship is honestly not a new theme, but it is also very relatable. Through our lives, we make friends and sadly we lose friends. No, you haven't clicked on the Anohana page by mistake because this is exactly what the story of Natsuiro Kiseki is, a story of friendship. Meet Natsumi, Yuka, Rinko Saki. Natsumi is best friends and next door neighbors with Saki and is also gifted in Tennis. Yuki is an enthusiastic girl who loves idols and is best friends with Rinko. Rinko is the reserved type who has a recipe for a great future when you look at her. Saki also is great at Tennis, though is forced to move away from her friends once the Summer comes to an end. Though, it develops into one crazy summer when the four friends are forced to say goodbye and even crazier when they stumble across a stone that contains the power to grant miracles to those and touch and wish for them. Saying goodbye is painful, but saying goodbye is needed for that moment to become a memory. Memories themselves are miracles, miracles of life.

The art in Natsuiro Kiseki was really good, not jaw-dropping or stunning, but it surely was appealing. With appealing art luckily comes an appealing soundtrack. The Opening itself is fantastic, though the soundtrack itself delivers. If you like good art or a fine soundtrack, this anime is for you.

Now, the characters in Natsuiro Kiseki might be hit or miss. Some may find them generic, while others might be drawn to them and the miracles they have. I happen to be the latter with my favorite character being Rinko, though all of them were worthy of being called good. I feel they represent real girls with real hardships and real dreams, so girls or even guys with friends may relate.

Did I enjoy Natsuiro Kiseki? Certainly. While you could argue it isn't groundbreaking, though it was still very enjoyable and had me interested from start to teary finish.

Overall, watch Natsuiro Kiseki if you adore slice of life or sad while happy stories. Who knows? Maybe you'll create a memory? Maybe this anime will create, a miracle.

Another Slice of Life, another gimmick. But is a miracle granting rock enough to set Natsuiro Kiseki (Summer-Colored Miracle) apart?

As always my reviews are spoiler free.

Stop me if you've seen this one before: four high/middle school girls are just going about their lives. There are no sinister plots or world-saving hero required. The viewer is asked to sit back and enjoy as nothing of particular note goes on. There is always some theme that sort of keeps the anime moving along, whether it be music, photography, gondola rowing, or in Natsuiro Kiseki's case, a miracle granting rock. It's a slightly ... different take on a familiar idea. It had a lot of potential, but did it live up to expectations?

Story - 6/10

Four middle school girls come together at a boulder near a shrine. When it is touched, it is able to grant wishes. With Saki, one of the four girls moving away at the end of the summer, they use the rock to make the best of the time they have left together.

I really thought this could be a cool premise. With the ability of having your every wish granted, you could do anything. Herein lies the problem with Natsuiro Kiseki: it totally wastes potential.

Let me talk about some of the other issues with the magic rock. First, its wish granting ability is somewhat vague. While it leads to some undesired (albeit wished for) outcomes, that's fine. However, this rock seems to have some consistency issues to make up for plot conveniences. At first, it is implied that it can grant any wish, as long as the four people touching it wish for the same thing. However, throughout the series, many new "rules" are introduced at just the right time so that the plot takes a certain direction. Some may not be bothered by this, but I feel like the rules were being made up as the game was being played. And don't worry, if the girls can't get to the original rock, one of its "cousins" will always be close by.

The biggest issue in my opinion is how the girls utterly squander the opportunity the rock could give them. How many amazing things could you do in a summer if you had no limits? Not much for them; it is spent on singing, swimming, a short vacation, and a visit to a haunted house from their youth. The majority of the series was the exploration of how vague wishes go wrong and how the girls respond to the following incidents. So much more could have been done.

Animation - 6/10

Animation is very average for the time. There were never any outstanding problems, but nothing worth positively noting either, aside from some nice character designs for the leads.

Sound - 6/10

The soundtrack was nothing special. There are a few insert songs sung by the characters that were okay, but again not very noteworthy. On the other hand, the characters had a good voice cast who fit the personalities perfectly.

Characters - 6/10

Another selling point of a SOL series is the characters, and the studio does a solid job here. They are likable, but as with so many SOL characters, they are cookie cut archetypes with no development.

We have the lead, Natsumi, who is the athletic and capable girl of the group. Saki is quiet and cool, but passionate about her friends (as the series often says directly, but I'm not so convinced). Then we have the over-the-top energy ball Yuka, who has big dreams but low motivation. Finally, the quiet, silent type Rinko with obscure interests rounds out the group for the full 4-girl SOL cast.

To me, they cause a lot of easily preventable problems for themselves, are oblivious to solutions, and are an all around pretty unintelligent lot. I understand they are just in middle school, but it still is a little troublesome. Otherwise, they are likable enough, but you've seen them all before if you've watched more than a few series.

Enjoyment - 6/10

This was the type of show where you want to scream at the characters not to be stupid. It had its charming moments, but by the "touching" end I had unplugged all emotional investment and was ready for it to stop. It is somewhat saved by the couple of episodes in which situations arise that show the (somewhat lacking) character of each girl, and how they think among themselves to achieve the best outcome.

Other Thoughts

With sixes across the board, I recommend looking for another similar series to spend your time on. Natusiro Kiseki is by no means bad, but it just isn't that good either.

This is my first anime review so I hope I'm doing it right.

Natsuiro Kiseki features four best friends doing normal daily stuff and having fun together. Knowing one of them is leaving soon, they tried their best to spend their last summer vacation to the fullest and forge an unforgettable memory. Sounds simple? IMO, although it does sound simple but I find this anime meaningful and interesting.

This anime is mainly focusing on friendship mixing all kinds of emotions together. It started with four of them found a large rock in a shrine that grant wishes. This rock seems to lift up my interest for ... watching this anime and towards the end, it really didn't let me down. Weird wishes are being granted, for example in episode 1, they wish to fly and their wish came true, they did flew up the sky. This truly enhances the story of this seemingly plain anime. Some might find it illogical and nonsensical but if an anime is being made 100% logical, it might be hard for the director to fulfill your expectations and enjoyment.

I'm not a true artist but for me, the art is above average. Its not perfect but i found some of the scenery attracting. Considering the character design, I give it a thumb up. My expectation might not be high but the art seems a good job to me.

As for the sound part, I really love the OP and ED. Addition, the voice of the characters are quite fitting if you ask me I can't really see a problem with that. The voices are fit for their own characteristics.

This anime is not for everyone. There's no action, lack of romance, only a few funny scenes. Some might drop this because of those reasons. However, the main message, friendship, seems to deliver quite well. I am really satisfy with it. If you are expecting a decent slice of life anime, Natsuiro Kiseki might be your cup of tea.

This anime involves a good amount of slice of life with a slight feel of the supernatural genre. If you aren't interested in sol or supernatural, then you should step back and not try this at all.

The show does seem appealing to a certain target audience especially the youths but there is no stopping the adults from watching either. Now, this anime has a very unusual way of showing its storyline. The anime expressed the sensation of joy, comedy, schoolgirls, supernatural sources and combined it with "their daily life" into what known as Natsu-iro Kiseki. Every episode has depicted a form of uniquely. Further, a ... fine growth of character development is built between the girls.

When I first picked up this, I was still new to the industry and wasn't expecting much but truly this show does give beyond expectation. However, it does has its shortcomings. Its potentiality is hindered by its indistinct variety of content and plain animation. There may have other flaws that differ according to individuals.

Conclusion:
You can pick this up when you are up for something light and decent for simple entertainment.

I have no idea why I love this show. It’s not my first Slice of life anime, and I don’t even have any special favourite character from it. Yet it continues to stay on my top-10-list month after month. Maybe I love it because of its simple and yet realistic storyline?
The soundtrack is very good, and all of the songs sung by Sphere is great. There are also a couple of great songs on the soundtrack that doesn’t seem to appear in the anime. The OP “Non Stop Road” in its full version is addictive and hard not to sing along to when alone ... in driving a car: “Are you ready? Dakara ima wo shi-n-jite!!” The ED “Ashita he no Kaerimichi” (“On the road back to tomorrow”) is just wonderful and the translated lyrics are beautiful, especially in its full 4½ minutes version.

In the Easter 2015 I went to Japan, and one stop on the trip was the city Itō on the Izu peninsula. On the train there I saw these four girls on posters, but didn’t think much about it then. When I came home to Europe, I bought a book about anime locations, and in it I recognised the girls again. So I looked them up, and found the anime. Am I now curious about their home town Shimoda, further south on the Izu peninsula? Sure! Do I want to travel there on my next Japan vacation? Absolutely! I want to see that Lawson konbini, their school-yard, that hamburger restaurant and that shrine. Because they all exist! And I want to check if the great rock also exists. After that I want to tourist around in the town normally.
I later found out that one of my younger brothers loves the group Sphere and that he saw every episode of this anime when it was aired in 2012. But I still found it myself, without communication with him!

An anime about middle school girls playing the game of life as they make wishes that becomes true.

It's a very good Slice of Life if you're just in for the friendship and drama. There's also a little bit of Yuri bait but other than that the anime is just focused towards a group of girls doing their everyday life activities.

It's good. Very, very good. Terrifyingly realistic in a sense as well. This is highly recommended to people who are looking for a girls-only Slice of Life anime about friendship with a little bit of drama and a little bit of Yuri ( bait ... ).

10/10

Some people felt disappointed and said that Natsu-iro Kiseki wasted the potential from its premise: like, you have a wishes-granting rock but you don't use it to do 'amazing things', and the rock itself does not always work exactly like you have expected, either.

- Okay, so anime viewers, you haven't been bored by the trope "an interesting plot with an easy-to-use wishes-granting power", have you?

When I was a kid, I spent much time watching Doraemon (you know? it's one of the legendary manga/anime, The longest-beloved kid M/A) and I've got enough with that trope.

So I'm glad that Natsu-iro Kiseki didn't follow that old trope, instead ... the wishes-granting rock here seems more like a mature friend who provides the necessary helps for our four middle school girls to realize some precious things in life, and grow up themselves.

Another hightlight is that it doesn't feel like a surreal anime, the characters are extremely realistic. They don't need to show off their cuteness to make me love them.

Now you see the point. No wonder many reviewers give this show high scores with praises. You should read their reviews if you're still hesitating.

I am Vietnamese and not excellent at English so I couldn't write a long and detailed review. Sorry for that. =))

Natsuiro Kiseki follows the footsteps of four school girls during their last summer together - one of them is transferring to another city. It is basically a slice of life anime with a surprise of The Big Rock that can grant random wishes to the girls.

At first it looks like any other generic slice of life anime, which are all predictable and lacking any thrills. Yet as the show progresses, I found the story very entertaining and emotional. The show is executed almost perfectly. I can never understand the poor rating it gets.

* Art - I love Natsuiro Kiseki's art, from character design to gorgeous ... backgrounds to the smooth animations.

* Voice acting - Incredible. I especially like Yuka's energetic voice.

* Sound - OP by Sphere and ED by Four Season are very catchy song and fits the show's settings. Some great background tracks are used subtly appropriately throughout the show.

* Character - True the show lacks some character development. But well, it's a slice of life one, and who says character development is a must? I found the cast interesting enough, even from the very beginning of the show. And they do change - just a little bit - over the course of 12 episodes.

* Story - Not very happy with a normal slice of life plot, the creators decided to throw in some supernatural element. Despite being a bit random at first, this new element is then used cleverly during the show, causing some hilarious circumstances and touching friendship lessons.

* Overall - There are many slice of life anime out there, and being a successful one is tough. Most of the time, I watch, laugh and forget. Natsuiro Kiseki is one of those masterpieces (in this genre) that will leave a much longer impression.

Seriously, guys, you need to watch this.

Right, so this is my first written review, and I will try to keep it short..., and simple.

Before that, allow me to clarify that upon writing this review, I have watched only the first two episodes so changes may occur in the future.

Natsuiro Kiseki, or Summer-Colored Miracle in english, is an anime about daily lives of four middle schoolgirls : Natsuki, Saki, Yuka, and Rin. The setting of the anime took in summertime (just like the anime title). They are best friends living in a rural town, and mostly this anime is about their daily lives. But the unique aspect that make Natsuiro Kiseki a ... little bit different from another slice of life was the additional 'spice' of Supernatural element.

When first watching Natsuiro Kiseki, I was skeptical of blending a supernatural element to slice of life genre. But it turns out that Natsuiro Kiseki was able to blend those two elements well and create a better plot. The first two episodes begins well and told the viewers about the unique personalities of each character, and also give a fair introduction to the setting. Music was also pretty well done and supports the atmosphere.

Story : 7
In my opinion, slice of life doesn't need a story of masterpiece lever. It has to be interesting, with many small conflicts, character developments, and some humors. Natsuiro Kiseki offers a decent story of slice of life combined with supernatural element. Even though it's slice of life and I found many boring ones, Natsuiro Kiseki definitely is not the one. It's the kind of story that takes you in, and make you wanted to watch it more.

Art : 8
What can I say? Art is well done, especially the character designs. Rinko's hair reminded me a bit about Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha. The art style is similar to Hanasaku Iroha and if you watched it before, you will get a feeling of de ja vu (well, for me at least).

Character : 9
In slice of life, characters play a vital part of the story. Mediocre character development, and the anime won't be good. In Natsuiro Kiseki, we have a clear distiction between the four main protagonists :
- Natsuki is a leader-type, she's adamant and hot-headed,
- Saki is a little bit tsundere, she's stubborn but sometimes can be a little cute,
- Yuka is the cheerful and energetic type which could net the group into trouble,
- Rinko is quiet, calm, and timid type which completes the group of four.
Each of the personalities blend well and four of them make good friends.

Enjoyment : 8
It's a little bit boring at the beginning, but as I watched the show, it takes me into the setting and makes me want to watch more and more. The atmosphere is similar to Hanasaku Iroha, and I really liked it. As I have finished watching, I wanted to watch the next episode asap and it rarely happened to me when watching slice of life animes.

OVERALL : 8
For slice of life viewers, this is one of the series that you don't want to miss. Try watching the first episode and see if you got hooked.

I hope you enjoyed my review.

The cute-girls-doing-cute-things type shows seem to have become a staple of anime. Often shallow and juiced up with pandering content, those shows are widely derided for good reason. It's ironic though, that while moeblobs like "K-On!" continues to score reasonably well across anime databases on the internet, a genuinely good anime like "Natsuiro Kiseki" comes along and is instantly dismissed as just another piece of cute-girls-doing-cute-things (abbrieviated as CGDCT from here on in) trash.

The premises of "Natsuiro Kiseki" is about four school friends Natsumi, Saki, Yuka and Rinka and their whacky adventures during their summer holidays. This particular summer is special not only because ... it's their last summer together, but also because they found that this rock from a local shrine is capable of granting wishes.

The first episode captured my attention because of how natural the dialogue and the character interactions flowed. Choosing to start the story with a fall out between Natsumi and Saki, "Natsuiro Kiseki" ran the risk of becoming bad melodrama like AnoHana. Unlike AnoHana though, it treads the fine line between good drama and melodrama very well (though in retrospect the root cause of the conflict is a little contrived). Because I did not read the synopsis, the supernatural element at the end of the episode 1 caught me by surprise. I like my slice of life shows to be down to earth, and I was initially worried that the supernatural element would play a big part in the show and end up ruining the potential for a good slice of life.

I needn't have worried. The supernatural did play a big part, but "Natsuiro Kiseki" managed to incorporate it in such a way that it made things interesting while still keeping the show feeling down to earth.

The episodes take on a mostly wish-of-the-week structure. Earlier episodes use the wishes as a crutch for characterisation, throwing the characters into circumstances that, more often than not, reveals or refines a facet of the one of the characters' personalities. As we begin to know the characters better though, the later episodes were often able to carry itself without resorting to the supernatural (and in fact arguably the best episode in the series did not involve wishes).

And this is what sets "Natsuiro Kiseki" apart from the other CGDCT shows - it feels sincere. The show isn't being dictated by how best to pander to viewers and filling its content with silly, ditzy moeblobs that eat "kei-kee" all day. Instead, it's more about the characters and their friendship, and making them feel believable. Rarely does an episode goes by when I don't feel like I've learnt a bit more about the characters, or one that doesn't colour the proceedings with the melancholy of a group of friends trying to make the most of their remaining time together. It may not be completely free of moe, but at least those elements are an aside rather the drive behind the show, and even the potentially abusable yuri undertones are kept (mostly) low key and subtle. The art style reflects the restrained style, with all the girls sporting a normal kind of look, free from the kind of distortions that usually comes with the territory.

Accusations of characters being one dimensional are wide of the mark - I suspect people see four girls with different hair colours and immmediately attach them with the "architypes" tag without giving them a chance to shine. A closer look reveals that there are more to these characters than just being "loud" or "ditzy". Rinka is the only character who is a bit flat; she fits in the quiet girl architype a bit too comfortably. Yuka seems more one dimensional than she actually is; her loud and annoying personality is a bit over-emphasised, overshadowing her other characteristics such as being the glue of the group. Natsumi and Saki though, are the most well realised characters. They don't have any over-dominant characteristics, and their personalities are so nuanced that it's hard to summarise them in a short sentence.

Coming back to the supernatural element, I think it's more than just a tool for characterisation; it's also used to add some fun factor into a show that might otherwise have felt too dry. Seeing the characters trying to deal with the unpredictable outcomes of the wishes is often highly amusing. The variety of situations helped keep things fresh, and it's no coincidence that the episode during which they reused a previous idea ended up as one of the most boring. The early ideas generally felt fresher than the later ones, which were clutching at straws a bit. Also, the later episodes had a tendency to use gimmicky ideas involving time that have already been done in other shows, two attributes that make a poor combination. The last episode is a good example of this, although they did turn it around into a solid episode eventually through the strength of character interactions.

The sound department of "Natsuiro Kiseki" is notable for featuring Sphere, a J-pop idol group made up of voice actresses. The members voiced one of the main characters each, and also performed the opening/ending/instert songs (which were nice but nothing remarkable; the singing is competent in the very least). I'm not really familiar with any of the Sphere members other than Haruka Tomatsu (Aoba from "Cross Game", Anal from AnoHana) who voiced the hyperactive Yuka. She managed to impress me for sounding completely different to the other roles she had played.

To summarise, "Natsuiro Kiseki" is a CGDCT anime that manages the epic feat of actually being good. It's good because it doesn't subscribe to what make these shows so annoying - making the characters as artificially cute as possible, and focuses instead on having believable character interactions. I haven't seen any other shows from this season yet, but "Natsuiro Kiseki" certainly looks to be the underappreciated show of the season. But hey, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that it's good. After all, this is made by good old Sunrise, and not Kyoto "Pandas 'R' Us" Animation.

Ah, the idol industry. People sing, dance, and basically get famous. For some reason, the anime industry seems to be making more and more anime on singers, idols, and the music industry. I don't think this is bad. In fact, I think a change is what anime needs since all the ecchi anime NEED TO GO. On a surprisingly related note, have you noticed that a lot of singers are getting movies or TV shows based on them? Like, oh, I dunno: Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, Soulja Boy, and most recently Katy Perry? Not only that, they aren't really even movies! Just a bunch of ... concerts thrown into 2-hour movie format made just for the sake of publicity! Well, the anime industry just recently made a 12-episode anime that supposedly promotes the new all-girl idol group Sphere, and all of it's members are cast as the main characters in this anime. You'd think this would just be a bunch of rehashed concert material meant to promote it's music group just to increase their popularity or a really bad fanservice anime with the characters in sexual situations. Though, oddly enough...this isn't the case with Natsuiro Kiseki.

Upon first glance, people thought that Natsuiro Kiseki was about a group of idols, since the producers hardly ever gave out any solid information. Instead, we're given the story of a group of childhood friends who are forced to cope with the fact that one of them is moving away. They discover a rock in a shrine that can grant wishes, and they experiment with it a little...though the results aren't exactly pleasant, and they get a little more than they bargained for. To be honest, I went into this with no expectations, but as I watched more episodes, the show turned out to be way better than I had expected! More times than I expected! This isn't a bunch of concerts in animated form, nor is this an ecchi fest, nor is it moe moe kyun fodder. Natsuiro Kiseki is actually a very touching, somewhat realistic, and heartwarming tale of friends who don't want their friendship to end.

If any of you are thinking this anime was produced by companies like Xebec or Silver Link, then you guessed wrong. Ironically, Sunrise was responsible for the animation, and considering they usually work on a lot of mecha anime, you'd think they'd be the last company to ever produce a supernatural slice of life anime of this tier, or at all for that matter. While their animation is very good, I have to admit, some parts did look rather weird at points. Not only that, while the songs are good, they're still rather generic. The soundtrack is kinda blah as well. I don't remember much of it.

The characters are what make this anime really great, and I mean it. For one, the anime actually cares about characterization and giving them meaningful development rather than just making them into cutesy moe archetypes. It helps that their chemistry is just amazing. The way they interact, the situations they face, and the things that happened around them. Everything about them is just wonderful when they're together. Sooner or later, you'll find yourself saying, "Hey! She's going through exactly what I'm going through!" I know I certainly felt that way with Saki at one point in my life. It helps that because of the premise, a sentient rock granting the characters' wishes in ways that cause them a lot of grief, like turning them invisible or having them literally be stuck together, the girls are forced to grow closer, face issues they've been avoiding, and grow as people.

Unfortunately, the anime DOES have it's hiccups, and they're pretty blatant. It's not a fanservice series, but there are occasional fanservice-y jokes, though they never get dragged out. But the anime's biggest flaw is that it can border on being a little too overacted and dramatic at times. It doesn't always happen, as the show usually has a lot more restraint than other shows, but on occasions when it does want to create drama, the writers wind up having the characters try too hard, leading to quite a bit of unnecessary angst that could have been avoided had the characters talked to each other about their problems. But I've seen series that have done this much worse, so I'm actually willing to give Natsuiro Kiseki a pass on this one.

One anime that a lot of people like in terms of their favorite comedies is Azumanga Daioh. To them it's the kind of series where overtime you really do feel like they're real friends and get moved to tears by graduation and by the normal situations they face. I didn't watch Azumanga Daioh so I never got that reaction. But for me, that reaction belongs to Natsuiro Kiseki here. It may not look like much from the promotional art alone, but trust me. If you really give this show a chance, you'll be surprised at how wonderful it really is, especially if you analyze the problems they face. You'll find that they're surprisingly true to life despite the supernatural elements of this show. I certainly know I related to it on a personal level. If this anime showed up last year, I wouldn't have related to it so much as I do now, but nope! It just had to hit me in the heart, and boy did it ever!

Don't judge it by it's looks. Natsuiro Kiseki is a sweet, touching show with well-rounded characters that manages to succeed in standing out from a very oversaturated genre.

Some things have to end. That's why they're memories. Because they happened, and that briefest or most fleeting second of happiness was shared, and it won't last. That's what makes it precious.
This is not the most popular anime. I know that. But to me, it will always be special, in a way.

I'll admit that when I first read the synopsis, I thought this was going to be some anime about four friends becoming idols. I was mistaken. Although it does, partly, concern their wish to become idols, this is a story about friends. And miracles, in its own crazy way.

Never mistake that it is ... a story about one of a group of friends- Saki- leaving to go to Tokyo. Somehow, this sets the underlying tone of the series, adding the right amount of humour, but every now and then, it would surprise you with the depth of their friendship and bits of melancholy. It has some pretty crazy, and hilarious moments. Do I think it’s the best anime I’ve ever watched?
Nope.

But it’s light-hearted and warm. It’s funny. Its pacing was just right, and shows their journey with their crazy summer 'wishes'. The dramatic moments made me tear up a little, made my heart clench, while the funny ones made me laugh.
Its characters are its heart. Yuka and Rin bring out the best in the series. There were times that I wanted to hug them all because they're such an awesome bunch that balance each other out. It's so funnily cheesy and light. And it has no romance whatsoever, aside from Yuka's small crush.

I've grown attached to Rin, Yuka, Saki and Natsumi. I gave this anime a chance, and it grabbed hold of me. I'm hoping whoever you are, you'll give this anime a shot.

I loved this anime. Like, seriously, it's the best thing I've ever watched. True, I'm a beginner when it comes to anime, but I LOVED IT. It made me smile like an idiot because it was so heartwarming and sweet but not crazy-cute or overly unrealistic - I mean, ok there was a magic rock but it just fits perfectly into the story. If you want a lovely anime about four very different girls just doing their everyday life (and making wishes on a magical rock) then this is perfect for you. I can't say anything bad about this series except it was too short, ... I could watch it forever - but its short length of only 12 episodes made sure there was no boring filler episodes. It's kind of a nothing-much-happens kind of story but I promise you, it's worth it if you want something relaxing and easy to watch :D

Natsuiro kiseki is a simple story that is executed beautifully. It has a pretty low rating somehow and I dont understand it. Therefore, I hope this review will dissuade you from turning away from this show because of the low rating it was given.

Story:8
Natsuiro kiseki is a story about a group of four close childhood friends when one of the members has to move to a faraway place. She is essentially being forced to leave her friends she cherished so much. Upon encountering a certain big rock that can grant wishes, the four live out their last summer together as a group, choosing to fill ... the countdown with beautiful and enjoyable memories.

Characters: 9
The relationships between the girls does not feel superficial, it feels real. Each girl's worries and concerns feel real and understandable. Also, since most people would've felt what it is like to have someone close going further away or disappear from one's life, this anime feels quite relatable.

*Special section*
The story and characters aside, what made this anime a good one is its subtlety. It is what that is beyond the surface of all the weird occurrences that makes this anime a good one. Every event caused by the rock has a deeper meaning. Even how the opening and ending song was done has a subtle relation to the group's dreams.

Sound: 10
Speaking of which, the music in Natsuiro Kiseki is really good. The op and ed actually does a lot of work. Other than subtly being related to the group's dreams, they help set the atmosphere of the show. You can also feel how close they are. And in the case of the ed, you can feel the sadness for the inevitable departure of Saki. The seiyuus did their roles pretty well, expressing their respective characters effectively.

Art: 8
The art is decent. Its not amazing like bakemonogatari or kyousou giga but it is pretty nice. The art is not bad and not lacklustre. It is not slacked but it is just just enough to look pretty nice.

Downsides
The only downsides there are to this anime is the inconsistency of the rock and the okay ending. The rock feels like a plot driver and is inconsistent in making the wishes come true. And the inconsistency is not explained. However, the inconsistency of the rock is far from what is important in the anime and what the message or impact the anime is trying to bring across. In fact, the issue of inconsistency is not really felt. What is important is the relationships and emotions of the four girls. As for the final conclusion to the show, it is an okay one. Just that. Its not special or good or bad but just okay.

Enjoyment: 10
It is always sad when a close one has to leave and Natsuiro Kiseki captures that feeling pretty well. The show has sad undertones and from halfway through the show, each episodes will probe your heart at least once. I admit that from the halfway mark, I teared in each episode. The sadness in this show isn't like anohana where it the sadness increases dramatically and cause you to ehem *dust in your eyes* ehem but is more of each episode brings some amount of sadness. I love the ending song. It captures the feels perfectly and my heart pained everytime I listened to it as an episode finished. Tears too :'(

I hope you wont be turned off by the low rating it has as it is a nice show to watch. Yuka is best girl. Yuka is love. Yuka is life :):) And so my first review is done~

Natsuiro Kiseki is the first slice-of-life anime that I've watched that attacks the questions of life from a magical perspective. Most of slice-of-life deals with highly realistic scenarios, but this one toys on magic to give unique insight into the workings of the genre. More realistic anime of the genre usually have to deal with the limitations of real life, but Natsuiro rids of some of these limitations to deliver a unique story. The magic of the literary device employed here also has another charm: conflicts become easier to solve, so every episode will always have something new to the table. The story did not ... feel dragging.

Art and sound receive less spectacular appraisals. Not bad, but not outstanding enough to give much thought on. I did enjoy the songs, and there is a chance that you may.

Admittedly, the characters felt a bit cliched, but that doesn't really go against them. Cliches are still okay if executed well, and they did it well this time. Coupled with the premise of the story, the characters felt fresh to look at, thanks to the magic realism employed here. Tropes of tomboys, fangirls, silent thinkers and mature girls made a little more sense here. And these are growing middle-schoolers, so their youth being part of the story makes it more enjoyable.

The ratings, I feel, do not give this series justice. Yes, I have seen better shows, but as someone who holds the slice-of-life genre to high regard, I would recommend that anyone curious with the genre watch this. It's unique and a good reminder that sometimes, there are better stories to be told with a little magic.

Well first of all, this anime is a slice of life. This anime is quite typical in this genre but still have these twist in the story.

When I first look at this anime, i though it would be a generic slice of life. But when i watch the first episode, it was a little something more. The story relates four best friends, whose been together for all their lives, having their greatest summer before Saki, one of the four, move out of town. The twist of it is a big rock with magical powers.

Each episode has different event which all is relate by the big ... rock. Their magical journey is somewhat interesting.

Story: 8
The story of this anime is quite generic to most slice of life anime, but it sort of stood out from them all. The magic powers from the rock brings twists to the story line making it different from most other slice of life anime. It is quite entertaining and interesting. But if you're not a slice of life fan, you might not enjoy this anime.

Character: 7
The character is generic to most others. Not very different. It relates to four teenage girls, whose been friends since they were young.

Art: 8
I quite like the art of this anime. It fits with the nowadays anime. The detail of it isn't that much, so it doesn't look crowded and the color contrast is just great.

Sound: 8
The OP and ED songs are sang by the voice actress, and it has a catchy tone. Their songs are quite enjoyable and it fits with the anime as well. The audio inside anime is just ok, nothing really special about it.

Enjoyment: 9
I quite enjoy this anime, with their interesting twist in it. The time spending watching and waiting for this anime is worth it. I do not regret any second of it.

Overall: 9
Overall, this is a good anime to watch. The story line is interesting, the art is great, and its enjoyable. I recommend this anime for those who are fans of slice of life anime.

This is my review, my perspective over this anime. All of the above might not fit with your taste. If you really want to know what is this anime is all about, just watch it. :)

Cute girls doing cute things.

Characters:
There are four main characters, middle school girls: first - genki, second - calm, even a little haughty and stubborn, third - expressive girl that wants to make an idol group, fourth - mysterious girl.

Story:
Girls are childhood friends and they are spending their last summer together because one of them is going to move to the other town. The main feature of this title is the miracle granting rock. Girls are making wishes and it leads to funny situations. All episodes are full of events.

Art and sound:
Art is perfect - detailed and bright, it gives an inexpressible ambience of precious ... summer youth days. Opening, ending, background music and voice actresses work are also good.

If you like that type of slice of life with cute girls, you'll certainly enjoy it. Probably, it's one of the best ones.

**This a repost of my old review with small changes since I've finished watching the series now** (For some reason when I was just trying to edit my review it wasn't working so I had to delete it and repost =/)

When it comes to anime, their are going to be a lot of times when things are going to be considered cliched or something that has been done before. Their is no doubt that many shows nowadays are using similar ideas to shows that have been done before. It's not exactly considered bad to do this because it's basically reusing what works. Their are many ... many shows out their about a group friends in school. In fact, I would say almost all slice of life animes are done this way. I wouldn't say it's the only way to make a slice of life show, but it really does seem like an effective and easy way to create a fun and entertaining slice of life show. The fact of the matter is, Natsuiro Kiseki uses this format and creates what I found to be a pretty entertaining show with it's own little twist to it.

Natsuiro Kiseki is the story of four friends Natsumi, Saki, Yuka and Rinko. All four are in their second year of middle school and have been friends with each other their whole lives (Pretty typical). The only problem is Saki is going to be moving to tokyo and transferring schools after the summer (Normal problem that can be used to make a great impact if done correctly). With this in mind, the four friends decided that they were going to create a lot of memories over the last summer they are going to have with their friend Saki. One of the places they tend to hang out at a lot is the shrine that Rinko lives next to (This is where the story begins to become unique). At this shrine their is a rock and it is said that if four close friends gather around the rock and all wish for the same thing, that wish will come true. Now this rock is a very important part of the series and influences the story a lot from start to finish. This rock is also what makes the story stand out from the others and brings something unique to Natsuiro Kiseki.

Scores:

Story - 8
It's not bad to use similar ideas to what has been done before, like I said before it's reusing what works. Natsuiro Kiseki does a decent job at following this format of friends doing things together with it's own twist by using the magic powers of the rock to create very entertaining and unique situations you would not see in other shows. In fact the out of this world super natural feel of some of the events that happened in the story reminded me of that feeling I had when watching random supernatural things happen in the Suzumiya Haruhi series. Just not to the extent that the Suzumiya Haruhi series took it to.

Art - 8
The art in this show is pretty good. The show seems very up to par with the quality of animation that shows use today. Their weren't really any moments where the animation really stood out (Good example of art in anime that is very good and attention grabbing would be the art in Bakemonogatari) but the animation for the show isn't half bad.

Sound - 9
I wouldn't say I'm the best with knowing how to judge sound but I felt everything from background music, to sound effects and opening themes were good. The background music and sound effects were very fitting and matched the situations that were presented. But on those alone I would've left the score for sound at a 7. This is where the opening and ending themes come in to play. It may be personal preference but I felt that the songs that were made for the opening and ending themes were very well done, catchy and just all in all likeable songs that I find myself singing along to as the opening sequence or ending credits appear on the screen which altered my view on the score for sound. This may not be true to all anime, but I found that animes with good opening or ending themes are usually good animes. (Examples: Clannad, Anohana, Bakuman, Suzumiya Haruhi and the list goes on...)

Character - 7
I found the characters and the development of the characters as the events of the story unravel to be decent. The characters themselves show typical personalities that you would find among a group friends within a slice of life anime. The show gets out the necessary amount of development with the characters and the viewer can sympathize with and understand the characters. (Not outstanding character development like Kyon in Suzumiya Haruhi or Lelouch in code geass although that may be my own opinion)

Enjoyment - 7
The show as a whole was decently enjoyable. Although it may not be the best or the most memorable show, I believe that Natsuiro Kiseki was worth the time I spent watching it. I tend to watch slice of life anime more than others and found that Natsuiro Kiseki is an anime that shouldn't be counted out as a bad show. Natsuiro Kiseki is decent and did keep my attention throughout my viewing of the show.

Overall - 8
When averaging out my scores to find an overall it averaged out to a 7.6 which seems like a fitting score but I would just round that up to an 8. The storyline is decent and puts it's own twist on a pretty typical slice of life storyline. The music is fitting and the show also has a catchy OP and ED. The characters are the usual type of characters you would see in a slice of life show. All in all, everything used in Natsuiro Kiseki works and keeps the viewer entertained throughout which is why I would be more favorable to round to an 8 rather than deciding to drop the score to a 7.