Lamune

We all have a niche anime which fanbase is so small, it seems like essentially nobody's heard of it. Although it might be unknown and might not be perfect, there's still a passion for it. Today, I will be reviewing the niche anime I’m passionate about and hopefully, this anime will get more reception. This anime is the fall 2005 romance series Lamune, which is assumed to have only around thirty thousand viewers. Throughout this video, I will be talking about how good this anime is and if you should watch it too. I will try my best to keep it spoiler-free with an exception ... of a spoiler segment which will have a warning before it occurs.

To begin, let's shed a little light on the history of Lamune so you could get to know it a little bit better. Lamune was originally derived from the Japanese beverage Ramune, which is essentially just a carbonated drink. Lamune was first released as a Japanese adult visual novel for the PC on July 30, 2004, by Neko Neko Soft. It would later get ported to the Playstation 2 on August 25, 2005, as a much more family-friendly version. On October 11, 2005, the visual novel was adapted by Trinet Entertainment and Picture Magic to a twelve-episode anime series. Other notable anime these studios produced was Final Approach in 2004 and Penguin Musume Heart in 2008. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until after the anime was finished airing that its respecting manga and the light novel were released. The manga was released on January 26, 2006, while the light novel was released on February 1, 2006. Both the manga and the light novel would only have one volume and would be published by completely different companies. Overall, the lamune series received horrible feedback as barely anyone watched it and scored 6.83 out of ten on My anime list. You’ll find out soon enough if this anime deserved that score.

As for the characters of Lamune, it actually has a fairly small cast. Lamunes main cast features Nanami Konoe, Kenji Tomosaka, Suzuka Tomosaka, Hitari Nakazato, and Hiromi Sakura. Kenji Tomosaka is our generic protagonist of the series, he is a mechanic and helps out the Konoe Families local restaurant. Nanami Konoe is the main love interest of the series, she is Kenji’s childhood friend and works at a local farm for her family's restaurant. You can probably guess by the name, but Suzuka Tomosaka is Kenji’s little sister. She's always seen by her brothers side and helps keep their unstable family together. Hitari Nakazato is Kenji’s popular cousin. She is mostly there to cause trouble and try to get Kenji and Nanami closer. Finally, Hiromi Sakura is the romance rival of the series, but I won’t say how her arc ends.

As I usually do, I combined the music and animation into one section since it's the least I have to talk about. Beginning with the animation of lamune, I’d say it seems like Trinet Animation took more of a lead on the art or style of Lamune. Lamune has that classic anime look to it, the kind you would expect a retro slice of life anime to look like. For the early 2000 era of anime, I’d say its animation was midrange, it wasn’t the worst for its time, but it also certainly wasn’t the best. The character designs were really nice, but in my opinion, the color was lacking, although the source material is a little hard to find, I’m going to remain hopeful that the designs were faithful to its source material. As for the music of this anime, Lamune Features the opening “Lamune-iro no Melody” by Mayu and the ending “Summer Vacation” by Ayumi Murata. These artists are seemingly unknown and difficult to figure out what other music they wrote, but I’d say their performance for Lamune was okay. The opening by Mayu was a good wholesome opening and the Ending by Ayumi Murata was mediocre. As for the OST of the anime, I’d say it's fairly generic and nothing really to write home about. All in all, I would say that Lamune had fairly good animation with some mediocre music to go alongside it.

Story (spoilerless)
Lamune was a romance story about a small country-side town. Lamunes' story seemed to have a heavy reliance on flashbacks at the beginning of the episode, which would somehow find a way to incorporate itself with whatever occurs within the episode, which in some circumstances felt kind of forced. These flashbacks also served to strengthen the relationships between the characters and helped to explain why some characters act the way they do. The story does have a fairly slow start but picks up in the second half whilst also getting fairly interesting near the end. Although Lamune aired for one season and received only 12 episodes, I’d say the story does feel complete, the writers completed all the plotlines introduced in the series and gave the fans essentially everything they would want in a romance anime.

Story(Spoilers)
Alright so for those who are still here, let's talk about the story of lamune, more specifically, the second half of the series. In the second half of the series, the typhoon episode was introduced. This episode showed us how much Nanami relied on Kenji, but also the lengths Kenji would go through for Nanami's safety. This was a strong episode and I personally really liked it. The result of this episode ended up with Nanami in the hospital though. A little time later when it was time for Nanami to be discharged from the hospital, Kenji got into that car accident, causing him to fall into a coma. Although I felt this episode was powerful and emotional, I also felt like this was rushed as Nanami was literally just in the hospital. Even with these trailing arcs, the anime still managed to have a strong ending where Nanami and Kenji begin dating, something most anime fail to do these days.

Conclusion:
Although Lamune has a mysterious source material, which is fairly unknown to me, I’d say the writers did a fairly good job at piecing together the story and making something that had a fairly satisfying ending. As mentioned in the animation segment, I was a fan of the character designs, but the colors of the anime were lacking. Although its soundtrack was mediocre, I would say that it's wholesome opening really fit the vibe the anime was going and really fit the country atmosphere the anime had. All things considered, I decided to give Lamune a. seven out of ten! Although I am passionate about Lamune, I just can’t say it's perfect. The anime has many obvious flaws, but I wouldn’t say it compromises the enjoyment of the watch. So, considering it got 6.88 out of ten on my anime list, I would say that score was fairly deserved, even though I believe it could do with a couple of decimal boosts, but nonetheless, I would recommend Lamune if you are a fan of retro romance anime or just a romance fan in general.

Lamune is your typical warm romance that follows the adventures of Kenji and Nanami.

And yes, if you were thinking the title sounded similar to "lemonade" in your head, then you are correct, as it is indeed transliterated from the English word itself. The actual Japanese word is "ramune" which is a popular soft drink there, but they replaced the first letter to make the anime sound more unique. The drink, however, does play a role in the anime to symbolize bonds and you will find out what I mean by that when you watch it yourself.

One thing you will notice right away in Lamune is ... that the dialogue is pretty direct. Unlike most anime where the male character is normally a wimp and the girl is bitchy, both of the two lovers in this anime are very, well, lovable! And the dialogue itself tackles a lot of modern anime standards because of this, so if you are looking for an anime that is a breath of fresh air, look no further.

Kenji has a personality that is more rowdy than your typical male lead, which is something that was a more standard practice in nineties anime than it is in thousands, so it is an unusual surprise to see it in Lamune, considering the time it aired.

Nanami is actually the one that is wimpy in contrast to Kenji, which is something you would not expect to see in your usual romance. She usually allows Kenji to do the hard work and she is very gentle to her surroundings herself. A very lovable lead female character indeed and not one that you will soon forget because of these traits.

The rest of the characters, however, follow your typical stereotypes. As per the usual standard in your romance anime, expect the male lead's sister to look the hottest out of all the other females. Though, I personally did not think so myself, the anime blatantly makes it obvious that everyone is jealous of her.

Aside from that, though, you have the actual bitchy female character, though she falls under the sense of conjuring obnoxious plights wherever she treads. And indeed, she will annoy you a bit, but she will not make you hate the anime.

I could go on a little more, but the anime does have a fruitful cast overall, so there's no sense in spoiling all of them. And speaking of, as you may be thinking, will twelve episodes be enough to flesh them all out? Surprisingly, yes. When you watch this anime, there is not really a time where you will feel that there is a character that has something unresolved about them. And that is why I personally enjoyed this one a lot.

It is funny, though, considering the source material is from that of a video game, where they normally rush things the most since it is your usual case of trying to juggle all of the female characters' plots all at once. But, I never felt like that was the case and did not even know it originated from a video game until I wrote this review.

Overall, I like Lamune a lot because it gives me a loving story, warm characters and calm atmosphere. The environment is also very soothing to look at and it really gives me a homey feel that I have not experienced in an anime in a very long time. Despite its rather small setting, I grew to love this one a lot. I was rather sad that it was not available for purchase, because it would have been a nice addition to my collection. At least I found a poster of it, so I will definitely not forget about it.

If you enjoy warm romances and want something that is much more fresh than all the others out there, give Lamune a go. You will be very happy that you did.

This is the epitome of cheezy anime. I'm not kidding. It's so friggin' cheezy that I considered dropping it. But I still finished it because during its time, this was perhaps a new thing.

before I begin, let me just reveal that the title "Lamune" would not make sense in the earlier episodes nor should it have been considered the title because it hardly had anything to do with Lamune.

For the plot, like I said, it was cheezy. It was your typical slice of life romance set in a rural area. Other than that, it didn't have much to offer. It's pretty much like watching ... a biography of two lovers. It didn't stand out much.

Speaking of not standing out, let's talk about the characters. While I liked the personality of the main character, his appearance did not match it at all. It would have been fine if he had spiky hair to go along with his trickster personality. But no, they just had to make him look like your typical light novel protagonist.

And the worst out of all of them: the art. You can literally find better animation in a hentai. Now I'm not saying the animation wasn't good, but even during 2005, there were series that had better art style. Maybe they didn't have the budget, but the truth still stands.

Negative criticism aside, I suppose it did well with the BGM. It truly felt like I was in a provincial setting. Even the setting itself was well made. If there's one good thing about this series, it's the accurate representation of rural life.

Did I enjoy it? Not really. But if you're a hardcore slice of life fan, then you might. But I'm just gonna throw this out: nothing is exaggerated in this anime.