H2O: Footprints in the Sand

H2O is about a boy, Hirose Takuma, who arrives in a village. He's blind, but a spirit called Otoha somehow heals his illness. Now, he befriends the people (mostly girls) there, and many dramatic events unfold.

The story in itself was really nice. It's sad, yet happy, and it's dramatic. It gives me a feeling of happiness when watching, but also a sad feeling. And whilst it was really good, it was way too sudden at times though. And the jump-the-shark episode (episode 8) kind of ruined things, but I'm glad that it returned to normal after that episode. Anyway, this story was great IMO. Oh, ... and the last episode just couldn't settle on an end, which was irritating. I mean, first, I was somewhat at comfort with the first "ending". But not at all, suddenly something else happens, and the end has different outlook. I got used to that too, though. Then, at the last second, yet another thing happens. In the end, I wasn't sure whether I should cry of disappointment or happiness. In retrospect, I think I can say for certain that I liked the end though.

All in all, the story had its flaws and sudden moments, and one dreadful episode. The last episode couldn't settle on an end until the very last second. Despite these bad things, it was really enjoyable.

The animation wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't completely average either. Therefore, I am not sure what I can say about it either. I guess you will have to watch for yourselves, really.

Officially, I'm in love with this anime's soundtrack. Both the OP and ED themes were fantastic songs, and there were some really nice, enjoyable and moody piano pieces in this anime as well. I'm a big fan of piano music in anime shows, so that's a definite plus. Basically, I'm sure that anyone who enjoys piano music will enjoy the soundtrack as well.

The characters in this anime were pretty good. I mean, this anime has some very interesting characters. One of them is the very annoying, self-glorificating Yui. You also have the rather, um... feminine, cross-dressing boy Hamaji. And then you do, of course, have the grumpy, old village elder. I mean, how come village elders are always rude jerks with no sense of compassion for others? It's kind of weird. But then again, this kind of series need a character like that.

Of course, you have the main character, a boy who changes everything upon coming to the village. There was something about his character which I found interesting, but also bits and parts which were annoying. I guess he was just too kind, really. But then, if he was not, there wouldn't have been a story, so I was kind of okay with it.

All in all, I somewhat liked this anime, even though it had it's flaws and some bad moments *cough*Episode 8*cough*.

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

H2O: Footprints in the Sand is a Psychological, Supernatural, Romance anime about a blind junior-high boy (Takuma) who moves to a quite rural town. He is given the given the gift of sight in order for him to help the people who need it the most.

The story to H2O is very simple and easy to follow however it tends to randomly add developments, just to complicate matters. After the first couple episodes you will begin to wonder when all the unexplained stuff will be explained but there’s no real urgency with this series. There seems to be a number of underlining plots in the story ... such as: the family name and honour, bullying, spirits, etc. The problem with this is that the story doesn’t have any real focus and just brings up stuff for its own convenience, rather than focusing on the actual romance. Just like how Otoha randomly appears. But I guess it helps the series to be this way, so that each episode is able to focus on a different story, yet still managing to link with the next one.

The main aspect that let this anime down is the characters, seeing how hard it is not to hate some of them. It’s not really the character’s personalities but their actions and interaction that make some of them incredibly annoying to watch. The protagonist seemed interesting at first but after the first episode he lost his first unique aspect and became somewhat dull to watch. The only redeeming factor is that all the main characters get their own moment of development, in their own episode.

The animation quality is pretty decent with a vibrate colour palette and somewhat fluid movements however the character designs and their enlarged heads do ruin things a bit. Also the excessive use of CG for spinning objects is a bit noticeable. The music was great, with one memorable melody played throughout but it didn’t always feel like a part of the show. The constant high-pitch yelling of certain annoying girls didn’t help things, in the sound department either.

Overall H2O ended up being just another typical “visual novel” – to – “anime adaptation”, with plenty of potential but this was squandered after the major issue surrounding one of the main girls was resolved. For a short anime series, story didn’t really feel like it knew what direction it was heading in and a particular episode helped prove this point (eps. 8). In the end, with such mediocre characters and lack of focus and romance; just makes it easier to find a similar show to enjoy more but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this series.

Anime: H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~

Title: not the worst anime I've seen but close to it.

About the Anime: After a series of unfortunate events, the young Hirose Takuma was rendered blind. In an attempt to reverse his condition Hirose moves in with his uncle in a rural village, and upon his arrival he quickly begins to make new friends. However, Hirose soon discovers that one of his classmates, Hayami Kohinata, is being harshly bullied by her peers for reasons that neither she nor anyone else wants to explain. Even the seemingly honest and gentle Hinata Kagura, who had been doing her best to be friendly ... and helpful to Hirose since his arrival, acts harshly towards Hayami. Once a mysterious girl bequeaths Hirose with a life-changing gift, he takes it upon himself to help save Kohinata from her loneliness while working to uncover the truth of the situation.

Story 4/10: While not the worst anime I've had the misfortune to poison my mind with over the years, H20 ~Footprints in the Sand~ certainly deserves its spot as the worst I've seen in a long time. The viewing experience was analogous to a game of paintball gone horribly wrong; think of it like getting pelted incessantly in the groin for four and a half hours straight, without relief, followed by a long period of puking blood. Now envision the horror of H20 in precisely the same terms, but replace the excruciating bombardment of paintballs with clichés and the subsequent puking with actual, physical vomit straight from the bowels of your stomach. Ordinarily I would have dropped shit like this after ten minutes, but a friend's suggestion that it got better toward the end kept me going. While this, indeed, might have very mildly been the case, it certainly did not merit suffering through the horrendous amount of tripe that comprised the entirety of the series' beginning and middle portions. As such, it manages to stand above ordinary, crap-filled harems, but just barely.
If anything, at least H20 starts out as if it's going to be something original. Our fabulously sophisticated and intelligent male lead happens to be blind, and his naiveté initially seems somewhat believable - the kid can't see, after all. Within the first ten minutes of the series, though, he has managed to plant his face between the legs of every girl in the school at least once (lots of accidents happen to blind people, you know!) and grope at least one set of boobs a minute. This trend continues until the beginning of the second episode, where our brilliant hero somehow wakes up no longer blind. After this, of course, the face-between-legs and groping events continue, but they rely on the usual "misunderstanding" situations to occur (like when our male lead walks in on a girl taking a bath, slips on a bar of soap, and falls into the bathtub with his head smack dab between her legs underwater!) Now, I've seen these sorts of events in harems time and time again, but few dare rise to this level of mediocrity - every single fanservice shot is so utterly contrived it's laughable.
Oh, but here's the best part: H20's primary harem female is a masochistic emo girl who likes being abused because she has a guilt complex. As can certainly be expected, our resident Prince Charming tasks himself with "rescuing" her from her plight, but her constant walking in on him during his perverted mishaps make this a complicated issue. Just for good measure, the writers then insert ten episodes of pseudo-dramatic, fanservice-packed garbage for her to subsequently fall in love with him in for no explicable reason; and, of course, these episodes come with the usual array of harem events such as the bikini beach scene. By the time the "serious" events of the last two episodes arrived, I could have cared less for any of the characters, and found myself laughing at instead of feeling pity for the girls.

Animation 4/10: For a 2008 production, the animation, in relative terms, is atrocious. While not absolutely awful, its flaws make it seem incredibly dated while still aiming for the colorful, vibrant feel most modern series possess. Above all else, there is a very noticeable lack of movement, which becomes apparent right of the bat and persists all the way through. Character dialogue tended to be accompanied by an unusual amount of stills, and the inanimate backgrounds carried a very rigid, late 90's feel. To make matters worse, it seemed as if two different art teams worked separately on the characters and the backgrounds, as the two appeared vaguely congruent at best. This resulted in an overall droll and plain atmosphere, and given the horrendous quality of the fanservice, I was not impressed whatsoever.

Sound 4/10: It certainly didn't help H20's suffering aesthetics, either, by having shoddy voice acting and a poorly composed musical score. The main guy's voice is decent at best, but all the girls are either horribly high pitched or whiny and nasal. Although, surprisingly, there was one song I actually liked, it seemed way out of place when followed by this one bile-infested piece of crap track that seemed to get played four times an episode; it's as if the series intended to keep hinting that it could be good, but wanted to definitively prove that such was not its goal. I'm not even going to bother going into any further detail, as H20 shouldn't be touched regardless of the quality of its sound, but it borders on painful at times.

Characters 3/10: If you're still reading and must truly know, there are three primary characters in H20: Dumbass A (the guy), Dumbass B (the blonde chick), and Dumbass C (the emo girl.) I think their names were Takuma, Hinata, and Hayami respectively, but I honestly wasn't concerned enough about any of the three to actually pay them too much attention. As I mentioned before, Takuma is completely idiotic, and his inability to keep his head out of a pair of breasts completely ruins the respectability the writers tried to force him to possess in the later episodes. Hinata was the only tolerable character, mostly because she actually had some semblance of depth, but even then only slightly garnered my interest. Regardless, for the most part the writers reduced her character to revolve around the fact that she had the biggest boobs out of the all the girls, so she's not really worth any more mention.
Again, though, Hayami was by far the most "interesting" character, probably because none of her reactions to any events in H20 made much sense. One moment she begs for Takuma's affections, the next she's pissed off at him and cries to her classmates to kick her ass to get back at him. Seriously, what the hell? I get that she was supposed to have had a rough life, but her complete inconsistency in personality did absolutely nothing for her character. She seemed to be nothing more than plot-driven tripe, and given how downright abominable the story was to begin with, I hadn't the slightest bit of empathy for her.

Overall 3.5/10: For those looking for a recent, relatively serious romantic drama, check out Myself; Yourself and steer clear of H20 all together; aside from its fringe harem attraction, this crap isn't worth one iota of anyone's time. If for some reason completely unbeknownst to me you find yourself still interested, try coming up with different names for the series like "HYDROGEN DIOXIDE: TARSAL IMPRINTS IN THE SILICON" instead of forcing its mediocrity down your throat. Seriously, there are so many other more productive things to do with your time that there is absolutely no reason to give this crap consideration. For anybody not specifically obsessed with shallow harems, heed my advice: do not touch. Ever.
~WhiteBakemono