Ranked #3702

Naisho no Tsubomi

Please don't care my little mistakes around this review :3 !

I was looking one anime download page when I saw title "Naisho no Tsubomi". I wanted to know what kind of anime it is, so I clicked the title and read what kind of story there was. "Fifth graders thinking about pregnancy, period and the strange feeling around boys..." It sounded pretty interesting to me, so I downloaded all three episodes and watched. I guess that fifth graders are little too young to have period and first kisses, but ~

Animation style was really cute ! It wasn't the same as almost every anime has nowadays, it was cute and definitely different. Even if you think it cute, it was sometimes pretty annoying and some face weren't looking right to the moment. Their hair and clothes were cute, mut face... not so cute as I could have thought. But the first kiss was really cute !

When I looked the voice actor in MAL, I noticed that there were many good names around. I knew almost all of them, or I have heard their voices somewhere, so it was nice to watch their speak in little different anime. But it was little shame that there weren't backgroundmusic. It would have bring some new atmosphear to this serie.

Because of the number of episodes were so small, you really don't get to know all the characters. It is just a scratch. Even if Tsubomi is almost in every act, you don't know what kind of things she really likes or how she became friends with Rea or why she was so good friend with boys. Saya was the only one who you could get known better, but in the end you don't know why she just disappeared sometimes. It would be so much better if there has been some more information about characters.

This anime is not really funny. It's hilarious is all about that, that fifth graders are shouting "penis" all over the school. Or that, that Tsubomi is watching her friends tits and thinking why there is hair in the "special place". But there isn't any other funny things so you can't enjoy it really much.

But still, it was some new experience in anime so I just had to give it eight points. And maybe it was that too, that Saya resembled Nadeshiko from Shugo Chara! ? I don't really know, but this was something new for me and I guess that there isn't really much animes, which are similar to this. read more

I've known about this thing's existence for a while, but I didn't think it'd interest me. Years later, after being bored to death and losing a lot of the anime I want to watch thanks to the closure of MegaUpload (like Digimon Adventure, Emily of New Moon, and live-action With The Light), I decided to seek out more titles and broaden my anime horizons. In doing so, I ran back into this and, seeing how it's only three episodes long, decided to take the plunge...and I came out alive, but with a weird taste in my mouth.

Apparently, this is based on a very popular shoujo manga, and it's about a sweet girl named Tsubomi who's learning about adult things like pregnancy (in the form of her mother getting pregnant), the male and female body (Yes, sex, in the form of a sex ed video being shown to a classroom full of fifth graders), her period, and falling in love. You'd think this would be an almost fan-service free anime, right? Uhh...no.

Well, there's definitely no boob-grabbing, undie flashing, or straight out nudity in this show. It's DEFINITELY not a Kodomo Jikan, Mitsudomoe, or Ro-Kyu-Bu (ugh), which I laud them for not becoming, but...it's still very flawed. The show's biggest flaw: the subject matter. Okay, a sex education anime featuring fifth graders? An episode with kids watching a video about sex? What? I wasn't taught this stuff when I was in fifth grade! I mean, I could see this working with teenagers, but...with little fifth grade kids? Seriously? Aren't they a little young to have to learn stuff like that? What the heck were these producers, and the mangaka, thinking?! What the freak?! I honestly don't approve of kids learning about sex at that age. No I do not, though to its credit, it is rather realistic in its portrayal of boys, showing them (or most of them) getting all excited about the video, talking about sex, and shouting the P word (had to deal with this in high school). People, if you're gonna do an anime about sex education, can you at least pick the right AGE in which to show them?! Showing fifth graders this kind of thing is just downright lewd! In fact, I think it should be against the law! I mean, sure if they do experience these things then they have to be told them some time soon, but not like this!

Another flaw lies in half of the cast. Now don't get me wrong, I liked most of the cast, like Tsubomi, Saya, Daiki, Yae, and Yoh. In fact, my favorite character out of this entire series is Yoh, and not just because he's voiced by Mitsuki Saiga either (though I do kinda wish he had more lines. He only got ONE LINE in the first episode alone!). The other half...well, I do think Futoshi is a very realistically portrayed boy...though as a fifth grader in general, I can't picture it. I mean, I can understand his behavior if he were a high schooler since, y'know, high school boys nowadays do nothing but shout inappropriate things regarding sex, but has ANYONE ever seen a fifth grade boy act like he does? I know I haven't! I kinda found Rea to be annoying. Seriously, WHO is interested in that sort of thing?! Why is she interested in knowing what a boner is?! She shouldn't be taught that kind of stuff until she's of age! I really didn't like her. But the rest of the cast: approved! *thumbs up*

Okay, now that's all the bad stuff (and part of the good stuff). Let's get to the rest of the good stuff, the first being the animation. Sure some shoujo-haters might think it's a bit too sparkly and extravagant and too shoujo, and sure movement is minimal and there are a few still frames, but I never found this to be a problem. It did what it did and nothing more. It's not trying to be anything it's not, and being an OVA, I think it did okay. The music isn't particularly memorable, but it was nice and it fit the show, though I do wish there was an opening and ending theme. I just can't picture anime episodes without proper intro and outro songs and videos. It just seems weird to me. My favorite episode out of all of this has to be episode 3. It did just about everything right, even if some parts of it were a tad cliche. I especially liked the twist at the end. More anime should do stuff like that, though I wouldn't recommend it for all anime.

While it isn't great or mind-breaking, Naisho no Tsubomi is a nice little time killer...though stay away from it if you don't want to see fifth graders learning about sex. I don't want to see any more like it anytime soon. read more