Natsu no Arashi!

It’s a crime that this series seems to be so unappreciated and under viewed when clichéd garbage such as Maria Holic gets overhyped and legions of fanboys. I only bring up Maria Holic because it was made by the same studio, SHAFT, and I feel both have a kind of niche quality to them. However where Maria falls on its face, Natsu no Arashi! emerges as one of the best shows of 2009.

To sum up the storyline in a word it would be; quirky. From the beginning of the first episode and from just looking at the promotional art you might think ... this is just yet another school comedy romance. That wouldn’t be a big surprise since the author of the source material is Jin Kobayashi who is probably best known for creating School Rumble. However this notion of it being just a romance-comedy is quickly turned on its head as it takes a turn for the bizarre and supernatural. Ghosts, time travel, comedy, and romance put together makes for one of the most unusual and original shows I’ve seen.

Everything about Natsu no Arashi! feels fresh and new. I have seen quite a few series now and that is not a feeling I get all that often anymore either. Natsu is very funny, and that is one thing Jin Kobayashi understands well. Though I am not a huge fan of his work, even though I find a lot of it funny it always eventually seems to annoy me. It’s rare that I watch a comedy and don’t feel like I am watching the same joke told over and over. It is even rarer still that a comedy manages to use echii humor and for it to come across as completely tasteful and non perverted. I don't recall seeing any ones boobs or panties even once yet this series oozes sex appeal.

Time travel is the most important element of the plot. Many of the familiar paradoxes are brought up along with the consequences and ramifications of altering the past in regards to the future. Some of the technobabble gobblygook is likely to give you a headache but several of the shows more funny gags are made possible with time travelling. In particular Sayaka's believe that taking expired milk into the past before its expiration date will make it good to drink.

The only real negative in terms of the plot is that it is a bit confusing and strange at time. By the end it all makes sense but for the first half of the series your likely to be scratching your head a lot and wondering what on earth is going on. Some people aren’t going to like this and the way the series is structured, starting at the end and then flashbacking to the beginning can be a bit hit or miss. That’s the only thing I can really complain about. That and it was too short! Good news is that a second season is in the works!

Hajime and Arashi are without a doubt one of my favorite lead character duos. My first impression of Hajime was he looks just like Luffy from One Piece! Beyond the physical resemblance there is nothing else in common with him. He’s a likeable lead and makes a great narrator for the story. There isn’t a lot of back story on him but see him grow up over the course of the series. Arashi herself is just a great character. Most of the shows sex appeal is because of her. It goes to show that you can have sexy characters without gravity defying breasts and skirts so short they barely cover the hips. We learn a lot about her past and she remains and interesting character until the very end.

The rest of the supporting cast is also very good. As Arashi's best friend, Kaya is basically the complete opposite of Arashi in personality. She is very important to the main story and we get about as much character development from her as any of the other leads. Jun is the one character I would have liked to have seen more screen time and back story for. Perhaps I will get my wish in the next season. Sayaka is quite funny as the con artist owner of the Ark in which most of the cast works. The best of the shows running gags flows through her. I could go on and on about the entire cast but I can’t find one that I didn’t really love, right down to the cafe customer who futilely asks for the salt during the entire series.

The art and animation is absolutely gorgeous. SHAFT always does a fine job in this area but in Natsu I think they really outdid themselves. The backgrounds and settings are beautiful but it’s the character models which I really fell in love with. As I mentioned the show has just this sexy and a bit erotic feel to it despite not feeling like its being exploitive. I thought everything was just very tastefully done. Especially when compared to the tacky way most anime series do things.

Sound, music, acting is all tremendous. Natsu has a great cast including some personal favorites such as Yui Horie. The OP theme is really tremendous both musically and artistically with the animation. It’s one of the sexiest OPs I think I have ever seen. The incidental music and EN songs are all great as well.

Natsu no Arashi! is truly a work of art and genius. If you haven’t seen this yet then I have to ask, what are you waiting for? I’m not sure where I would rank it in regards to everything else I have seen but it’s one of the few series I can find almost no major faults with. I give it my highest possible recommendation.

Natsu no Arashi was a manga written by Kobayashi Jin, known for his work with School Rumble, and published by Square Enix. In 2009 it received a two series anime adaptation from Shaft. The same studio behind the Rec series and the sub-par Ef A Tale of Memories. But it's not all bad. They also did the work for Madoka and a bunch of stuff I've never seen and can't comment on. So, how does this one hold up? Let's look at the first series.

Story:

It's summer time and thirteen year old Yasaka Hajime is moving to a new area. When stopping by a small cafe ... he meets Arashi, an attractive older girl. While working at the cafe, Arashi is accosted by a brutish looking man in sunglasses who claims that her family hired him to bring her back, a claim that leaves Arashi visibly confused. Hajime intervenes to help her and the two end up grasping hands and going back in time. Arashi tells Hajime that she's a ghost and they've just connected. She also asks him to travel back with her so that she can save people who would have died during bombing raids in the second World War. He's naturally skeptical at first, but he goes along with it because he finds her attractive. After going back in time and finding a sixty year old photograph in the present of Arashi where she looks exactly the same as she currently does, he believes her. They meet a second ghost named Kaja, who had been a good friend of Arashi's when they were both alive.

Let's start with the problems with the series. The big one is that it's tonally bizarre. You have some episodes that focus primarily on zany time travel shenanigans and others that treat things a lot more seriously. Remember when the first series of Galaxy Angel randomly had a serious episode and it made no sense? Imagine if the series had been closer to half serious episodes and half zany comedic ones. It feels disjointed, like you're watching two different shows entirely. There's also a huge problem with the serious episodes. They try to establish tension and make you worry about the safety of the main characters, even faking you out about whether or not a couple of them will survive. But the first episode in the series takes place after all of this. Gee, I wonder who will make it out okay besides everyone? The comedy is pretty hit or miss too. Some of it works well. Some of it is basically repeating an earlier episode, even using the same payoff, but this time they're wearing ridiculous outfits, some of which are really fan-servicey, that shift from scene to scene. Then there are the jokes that really don't qualify as jokes. The big one being the scenes where Yayoi and Kanako talk about the book that Yayoi read but can't remember the title of. She then proceeds to describe it and the punchline is that it's something from pop culture. This conversation gets basically repeated with a different piece of pop culture in virtually every episode. Yeah, referencing pop culture isn't funny. Parodying pop culture can be funny. Snarkily pointing out various aspects of pop culture can be funny. Just pointing out that it exists through a general description and a catch phrase isn't funny.

On a positive side, both sets of episodes are pretty decent, even when you factor in them not playing particularly well together. There are some pretty funny moments throughout the series and the more serious episodes do have some good touching moments, like the stuff between Yayoi and Kanako. I also appreciate that the series establishes rules for time travel early on and follows them throughout. The characters also have some pretty detailed discussions about time travel and they ask all of the major questions that you would expect concerning paradoxes and the ethical implications of changing the past. Which I do like, it has a certain realism that a lot of time travel narratives ignore. I also like that they use time travel for things that are actually important in addition to the petty shenanigans. Yeah, this half comedy does better on that front than the supposedly dramatic Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Characters:

I will give the series credit, most of its characters are pretty well developed and have motivations that make sense. The big exceptions being “Shades” and the cafe owner, who follow their tropes pretty strictly. Sure, the characters do believe and do some stupid things, but they're mistakes that make sense and have verisimilitude. I do appreciate that Kobayashi took the trouble to flesh them out since a lot of zany comedies just stick to basic tropes. We probably owe them being fleshed out to the series being half serious which illustrates how the mix of the two elements could have been a really good thing if not for how awkward the execution was.

Art:

The art is a bit odd. The series likes to do strange things with perspective like putting in random overhead views or showing things from a slanted angle arbitrarily. It also likes to make things chaotic in scenes that are supposed to be more intense and it's not really in a good way. They're trying to convey that someone is remembering or seeing terrible things without actually showing anything intense. It does work in the sense that you get the idea behind it, but it also kind of hurts the impact. It's like those “sex scenes” you get in some media that show a train entering a tunnel or fireworks going off or something ridiculous like that. Scenes like that can be funny, but they don't really work in a context where they're supposed to be intense. The backgrounds are kind of lazy. I will give the series credit for having character designs that are pretty good, though. I'll also give the artists credit for doing the facial expressions really well. They're just incredibly emotive.

Sound:

The voice acting is decent enough. There really aren't any performances that are just amazing, (Horie Yui's probably comes the closest since she does have some strong emotional scenes) but all of them are well done. Not the best performances, but good ones. The music is pretty standard. There's nothing wrong with it but nothing that stands out about it either.

Ho-yay:

There's a bit. Yayoi and Kanako definitely come across as being more than friends. But they don't play a major role in that many episodes and the most they do is hold hands while looking lovingly into each others' eyes. So, the ho-yay factor is a 3/10 for those two.

Final Thoughts:

Natsu no Arashi has quite a few highly noticeable problems. Whether its two tones that don't so much mix as sit awkwardly beside each other, some strange art direction, jokes that just fall flat or moments that should be tense being ruined by the series spoiling the result. However, both the serious and zany episodes are pretty well handled and the series has a lot of good moments. Some funny, some touching. It also has well fleshed out characters and capable voice work and the art is pretty good in spite of its odd direction at times. My final rating for the series is going to be a 6/10. It's decent. I'll take a look at the second series some other time but for next week let's look at Gakuen Heaven.

Stories 9/10:
Natsu no Arashi (summer storm) is not like your average drama/slice of life series.
It started the series by some complicated things like time travel and no character introduction at all, somehow this will give 2 kind of impression for the viewer :
1. This is a "boring" anime.
2. This is interesting, must watch the other eps.
And if you choose the 2nd option (recommended by me), you will eventually enjoy the series.
There story revolves around some boy named "Yasaka Hajime" spending his summer time in his grandfather house. There he met with a sixteen years old girl name "Arashiyama Sayoko" who claimed to be ... a ghost. From here on the adventure between hajime who knows nothing about the world (world war, etc) and arashi who try to help the people by traveling through time begin.

Art 8/10:
The art of Natsu no Arashi is a little different from another shaft work :), it present you with a bit old style drawing of character (but the cute eyes remained) and enjoyable environment, yeah it's summer afterall.

Sound 9/10:
The seiyuu was very great, I always know that Shiraishi youko(hayate the combat butler seiyuu) was a great seiyuu. The way she say "hajime-chan" is great!
Great! The opening give you this "past" feeling :p you will know when you hear it.There are also some great insert song too.


Character 9/10:
The character cast was very good!
The main male protagonist give you a good male impression at making decision and also the ice breaker at some moment, the main female protagonist is a caring person and easy going. There are also another character that goes with complete different personalities with the main character. Cross-dressing character also exist in this anime. These character cast make this anime lively.

Overall 9/10:
Great anime!
This is an definitely an exciting anime, as it cover some slice of life/drama about world war and peaceful time, and also some scientific comedy about time travel.
And you'll eventually realized that the character draw you to love them even more.

"No matter how many years pass, the warmth of summer never changes.
So, when this season comes around, I remember the summer of my thirteenth year my day as younger boy, when i know nothing at all
Even now, it remained unchanged within me."

Another phenomenal story penned by Jin Kobayashi, the mangaka for the famed School Rumble. To be honest, I didn't know about Natsu no Arashi due to it's low popularity until I ran out of recent anime to watch! LOL. Of course, seeing how much I've enjoyed from watching School Rumble, I thought Kobayashi's new series would not disappoint, despite the rather low ratings given. Turns out, I was right! As some people would say, "don't judge a book by it's cover", the same thing sorta applies here. Don't just look at its 7.something rating score, but actually try watching/reading the series, each series will have ... different tastes for different people. Anyways, I'm sure you're here for the review, not me blabbing about it.

Story: 9
Soz, when I first started watching this series, I was able to be absorbed in on the main plot, but I felt that the stories where more or less one shots per episode or 2. It's easy to tell that this style of story-planning belongs to Jin Kobayashi, but this one was easily more well-planned out than School Rumble was. I was amazed how absorbed by the plot and I stayed up till about 4 AM to finish the series. I also noticed how this type of genre/story only attracts a very specific group of viewers, but ignoring the obvious genre, I thought Natsu No Arashi was a pretty refreshing series to watch and the story was definitely superb.

Art: 10
Art, is something that varies between people. Luckily for me and School Rumble buffs, the art has remained more or less the same. A major difference I noticed between School Rumble's art and Natsu no Arashi's art was that Jin Kobayashi drew the eyes of the characters a bit differently. Not that it affects the viewer's opinion a lot, just a little not. Outstanding art and graphics, nothing to complain about here :D

Sound: 8
I actually found the OP and the EDs pretty good. I don't know if anyone noticed but they change the lyrics of the OP every episode. They say like "on my 8th Summer" to reference the 8th episode and that changes per episode Also, they say something different about the joys of summer every time in the OP. As for the ED, I found the dancing Arashi to be a great candidate for the next Ipod CM! ROFL. The ending's music wasn't too shabby and was in fact, quite catchy. The thing that bothered me the most about sound was the lack of OST present during the series. Either i was too absorbed by Arashi's looks or there just really wasn't much music?

Character: 10
As with School Rumble, the characters were pretty versatile and i found the Master/ Arashi / and Kaja have very good personalities between the 3 of them, and it provides variety in the show. Also, Hajime and Jun had also very supplementary characteristics leading to hilarious clashes between the two. Overall, I thought the characters were much more appealing than most of the other shows i've watched recently. Definitely a plus for this show.

Enjoyment: 10
Personally, as long as the art, character, and story is good, my enjoyment is almost always high. It's impossible to not enjoy such a great series as Natsu no Arashi. With many funny moments in the series, lots of crush-like romance, and several parodies of School Rumble such as Tenma Tsukamoto/ Eri Sawachika on a milk carton or Harima and Tenma spotted on a date or a character drawn very similar to Yakumo Tsukamoto. Personally, I thought because Jin Kobayashi realized Yakumo's success in School Rumble, he made Arashi's attributes very a like to Yakumo such as the hair and eyes.

Overall: 10
Well, if you could see my expression at the moment, you could tell it's an obvious ten. Natsu no Arashi is definitely one of the top anime that was released during it's time. I don't think I've ever seen an anime with such genres been as appealing as Natsu no Arashi was. I certainly hope there will be a sequel to the Natsu no Arashi Akinaichuu, but I doubt it. Although so underrated, Natsu no Arashi will always be one of the very best show's I've ever watched. Definitely will be rewatching some time soon! I hope you'll will enjoy it as much as I did!

When I first started watching this, I was tempted to turn it off because the animation style was very unusual and it took me a little while to get used to. I'm very glad I stuck with it, as it turned out to be quite a good watch. It's about a young boys summer adventures with a ghost from WW2. Very different from anything you would expect, and I highly recommend it.

Natsu no Arashi! is what you get when you take an anime like Working!! and fuse it with the science of time travel, WWII and 1970's nostalgia. Adapted from a manga by School Rumble's Jin Kobayashi, this series is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and Shin Oonuma (both of SHAFT fame of course) and written by Arakawa Under the Bridge's Deko Akao and Takayama Katsuhiko who wrote Ga Rei Zero and Boku no Pico (No, seriously).

It's about a boy named Yasaka Hajime (voiced by Yuuko Sanpei) who's having the summer of his life by working in a cafe during the summer with a ghost named Arashiyama ... (voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi) who has the ability to time travel to the past. Both Arashiyama and Yasaka worked in the cafe with their boss Sayaka (voiced by Hitomi Nabatame), Yasaka's friend Jun (voiced by Chiaki Omigawa) along with other ghosts including a German girl named Kaja (voiced by Kaori Nazuka), and two of Arashiyama's school mates Kanako (voiced by Yui Horie) and Yayoi (voiced by Nonaka Ai). And frequenting the cafe is a detective named Hideo Murata (voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto) and several characters voiced by Tomokazu Sugita.

The thing i love about this series is the music. The OP and ED for this anime is based on the groovy late 60s to mid 70's music that was popular in Asia. My parents were raised by the music of the 60's and 70's, and listening to the OPs and EDs of this anime brought me back to the days of my mom & dad listening to vinyl records of the 60's and 70's. And the that 60's/70's influenced sounds are littered throughout the series. it's even played during the scenes in the cafe, which makes you feel liek you are there.

The visuals and art are okay. However, i do not think that Shinbo and Oonuma's directing is fit with the art of this series. There is something i felt missing whenever i look at the art and direction of Natsu no Arashi. I always think the designs of Jin Kobayashi's anime are more suited for straightforward directing like you see in Schol Rumble. But Shinbo and Oonuma does manage to make their direction work well sometimes and since this animne is less absurd and less weird than his other works, i think he along with Azuma Kouji, Watanabe Mayumi and Hibino Jin pulled it off really good.

There are subplots in this anime, including a backstory on Arashiyama's past, along with backstories on other ghosts like Kaja, Yayoi and Kanako. There's even an episode discussing the ideas of time travel paradoxes, and it's hilarious. Seeing Sayaka and Kaja debating ontological paradox for an entire episode is just amusing to my sake.

Now the characters to me are very good and likeable. Yasaka is a rare male character. He's enthusiastic, playful and he doesn't give a fuck. You don't see guys like him being main characters nowadays. And what's better is that he works in a cafe full of female employees, and yet this series does it well in refusing to give a harem subplot for Yasaka. He doesn't go around and flirt with his female colleagues. He just wants to have fun working with a time travelling ghost in a cafe which is filled with female employees.

This is very underrated. Infact, it's so underrated that you don't see this anime being discussed alot unlike other anime series by SHAFT. If you really love works by SHAFT, then i suggest you should go and watch this. It deserves more recognition and more DVD sales because while it has 2 seasons, i think a 3rd season would be great as well.

Oh, and can you pass me some salt please?

"Please, give them a chance to be watched!"

Before reviewing, sorry for my bad English.

For the guide before watching this : You may pass the first episode. Please begin from eps 2. The first impression of this anime is too bad, because in eps 1 it doesn't give you any background. You can say it "this is can't be called as eps 1"

This TV show is kinda.. how i can say it?
Maybe interesting?? Yeah; but i thought it can be perfectly described as 'fushigi'. It such a 'meh', freaky, but at the same time; fascinating. Actually, i got them as recommendation after watching Tasogare Otome ... x Amnesia. In fact, i feel disappointed because it is not what i expected, except the 'Ghost from the long-time era'. But fortunately, i love the kinda GS Mikami anime plot. therefore then, it takes not too long time for me to be attached.

the main character is kinda pure child who loves in the first sight with the ghost. Umm.. but it seems like a shitty boy who loves onee-chan-type character for me. Fortunately this MC, even surrounded by many women, the mangaka doesn't give a sh*t for harem. HEY, THIS IS A GOOD POINT FOR ME! Thanks for Jun Kobayashi-sensei..

I love the song for this anime. As i pay attention with, there is many inserted song. But, the best song for me is the OP1 in second season of this anime.

The art? looks weird. At the first time watching, i felt annoyed by the unusual art, especially for Arashi and Kaya's face.. but it's ok; however,
you can't expect more for the underrated anime for its graphic quality.

In fact, i got a very good enjoyment (and fyi, i never making an anime review except if the anime show is very good for me); but even i give my "9" score for 'enjoyment'.. still, i can't give my "9" for overall score.

I feel indecisive while scoring. But however, i really love this TV show. This anime is worth to watch, especially for you who love the time-travel, ghost, and freaky rom-com with a less ecchi comedy inside.

Over the past years, time travel has always been such a good way for the entertainment industry to get a good buck from the masses. It is interesting , yet a bit confusing.I really am worried though that time travel will become something done over and over to the point where it becomes unoriginal. You can make any story with a time travel element interesting as long as you don't buy the thing and expect it to work on it's own. Like buying bagels, the bagel is the base and what you put on it is actually what shows yourself and talents .Why am ... I talking about timetravel? Well this show is about timetravel and not only that but this is the one show that no one knew Akiyuki Shinbo actually directed. Sure he directed Monogatari and Madoka Magica but he did this one too sooo, Anyways.In Natsu no Arashi's case. This is just a regular plain bagel with a side of cream on the very end of the plate.

Natsu no Arashi(Summer Storm) is about a boy and a girl who have the power to time travel, and instead of saving the world they use it for shenanigans like sabotaging food and using spoiled milk. They work iat this rural cafe living their lives and doing dumb things.The first episode is the most entertaining part of show because it's hilarious and intriguing at the same time. But then the show loses its humor and still holds onto the intrigue during a bit of middle part where they go back far in time and touch on the theme of changing something back then and making present things different. But that's only a portion of the mess thats goes on. This show is called Natsu no Arashi but to be honest, they should have been called"REPETITION" that one word is the basis of every element in the show from structure all the way to animation.The first use of repetition is the guy who doesn't get salt and the second use of repetition is the ending of each episode where these two girls who don't get into the show till the end are telling about stories they've read which is literally just references to other works.REPETITION. A good bit of entertainment comes when they actually break their repetition in the final episodes which is very clever.The story is good but only when its supposed to be and besides that everything else is just doing stuff. There is an actual story but the majority of the show does not progress the story.if that makes sense.

The animation is decent, but that's an understatement. What I like about Shinbo and those kooks over at SHAFT is when they don't have the budget to make this show look good since they're working on Bakemonogatari they still make it refined. When characters don't move and just talk, there are crazy SHAFT and artsy fartsy shots and backgrounds, lots and lots of color and some live action shots for good measure.This is where the REPETITION comes in;Every episode just about has the same aerial shots in certain spaces. What I like about these shots is that it actually makes me feel immersed in this world. I feel like I am observing these people from a distance instead of looking like I am laying on the ground looking up someone's skirt. There are some disorienting moments though, there is this time where the foreground and background like the building , trees and sky are moving in different positions like a powerpoint animation. It was a bit weird.Then there are always those shots that have some glowing gradient around the frame and that happens just about every shot. The character designs themselves especially for the female figure looked a bit odd for a SHAFT work.I took some time to get used to but some of the character designs looked very nostalgic in a way.Also the actually character moment can be smooth and subtle if they move at all.And it's not a SHAFT work without references . This is the case with the people who show up at the cafe and the op and ed sequence. From School Rumble to Touhou and even Earthbound for some reason. Also, the characters are featured on their own album covers that are actually references to other album covers. Repetition plays a part too because of the recycling of animation from the OP sequence which was nice.The ED uses sequences of live action shots. The one thing I wasn't a fan of was the second ED because it looked like they did four different versions of the second ed but decided to overlay all four of them together and ohh man it hurt my eyes.

Despite the fact that the show focuses on time travel. the music itself divides from it. The tone for the music is very jazzy there are a lot of horns and trumpets , The first OP is pretty much a summary of the soundtrack. Then the music gets a bit weird when the plot actually goes on and I miss my horns and trumpets already.The first and second ED are no different with the horns but the vocalists for both are great.


The characters is probably the weakest part of the show. The little boy(Hajime) at first was very annoying and I wasn't looking forward to him for the rest of the season, but the entire show doesn't focus on him so that annoyance was not seen .Then there's his partner(Arashi) who is actually the time traveling ghost, She is a very sweet person and she is not rude but thats it. She has more emotions but she doesn't really try to express them. The other "boy" is called Jun who is gynophobic apparently.She gets the most character development than anyone else so I don't see why (her oops I mean him is not on the posters and stuff. His/her partner is Kaja is a very formal person because of the traditions that women possessed back then but thats the only part of her character that is interesting . She is also good at singing.Then there's every one else. We got the two guys at the table who get less than 4 seconds of screen time every episode But they are IN every episode(This is where the REPETITION comes in),Then theres the two girls who don't really play a part until the final episodes.And finally that Police Detective guy ,Murata. who is constantly harassing Arashi and the others despite the fact that he is as broke as a door knob. And the cafe owner, Sayaka who is actually one of the more interesting characters. She is very cheap and sly but she's not stupid or annoying. She is kinda portrayed as the drunkard of the show and if anything she made me laugh a good bit of the time.These characters may be nothing special individually but the true magic comes when they interact with each other.

If you are a Shinbo fanboy, if you were in a trival game guessing his works, I am pretty sure this show will be the one show you will have trouble with. It is good:not great but not bad. If you have any time on your hands to laugh or if time travel is your favorite element in anime then you should give this a go but don't expect the show to fully commit to either side.
Overall-7

Bagels do sound good plain though i'll admit, but you see my point.

Story 9/10
This anime is not an average drama/slice of life/rom-com/sci-fi, this is a masterpiece for me. The story is very unique.
The story is about a boy who meets a girl that dies in the world war and is able to travel back in time. At first, I was confused because there was no character introduction and I was shocked when they time travel for the first time. But I enjoy watching every episode of this anime.

Art 8/10
I love the old-style drawings of this anime. I like the animation it is more like the "Monogatari Series" style.

Sound 8/10
The sound effect, ost, background music, intro, and ... outro, was great.

Character 9/10
The character cast was excellent.
I love how they create the characters in this anime. The male protagonist is kind, hilarious, and has good decision-making, The female protagonist is a caring and friendly person.

Overall 9/10
Recommended anime!
This is a great anime. The story is not generic. it covers some slice of life as a middle schooler, romance, comedy, and sci-fi about time traveling. I love the art and sound used in this anime. If you think this anime is boring because of 1st episode, please still try to continue watching this anime, I'm 100% sure that you will find this anime interesting to watch.

#7
Now this is a series with an interesting start so don't be fooled, the first episode is meant to be the way it is and will make sense later. I really enjoy the focus on a time and a place that this series looks back on because history is something everyone should learn from and the obvious lesson here is that no matter where in the world you are from pain is the way for your body to tell you something is wrong, it is not a good thing and there is no way to justify it from any angle.

This series is very good at ... setting moods and creating unique humor with its time travel and I very much enjoyed this show because of it. I also felt they explained time travel perfectly even creating multiple examples and I really enjoyed the logical thinking behind it because even if something as fantastic as time travel doesn't exist in our world there are still many complex ways of looking at it and problems that are very fun to try and solve.

The story wasn't breathtaking but I could feel the passion and work put into the characters and that is something very important to me in any series. If you like time travel and anime then this will be a good watch

This is one of those titles that doesn't fit the three episode rule. The first few episodes give hints that the show has more to offer, but mostly feel juvenile and kind of generic. However, there is more going on than might be apparent at first glance. The story grows deeper and by the end I even appreciated the beginning for the set up that it was. I wouldn't normally say it's worth watching bad episodes to get to the good part, but the later episodes gave me a different perspective on the early ones. The last episode is a ... fan service episode, but done right. There are swimsuits, but the story is the real audience pleaser.