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Moderator note: The following review is for the first one-shot, Kawamo wo Suberu Kaze. Three additional one-shots aired under the same title and were merged into this entry in 2013.

„Though the Asano River is known as the woman river, she always used to feel like an independent girl. Looking at her now, her banks sawn by slabs of concrete, controlling the current, this river is now more of a crude lady.”

Noriko, a 33 year-old woman, who lived abroad for 5 years, returns to her home town with her 4 year-old son. While she walks the small town she used to live in, we ... slowly get to know of her past and her current life.

This anime takes us not only into the mind and feelings of the main character. It tells us a story of life, decisions we made and reminisces of what could have been if we had followed a different path.

The style in which this anime is directed is wonderful. Small gestures, the movements of the eyelids, the many different appearances of the main character in each time skip, they all tell us more of Noriko than the many monologues we’ll hear from her, can describe. And the monologues are great. They are thoughtful yet never haunting; throughout the episode she narrates her story in a level-headed impartial style, which leaves us only our own opinion to judge her in the end.

The music is fitting; it is most of the time subtle but takes action when needed and contributes nicely to the atmosphere of the story. The animation is solid.

This anime may not be that enjoyable for those who are still not old enough for having to face important decisions you made. But for those, who have already set foot onto a path they have chosen, this anime is a nice intermission to look back for a moment, getting nostalgic and then turn your head and step towards to the stories life will offer in the future.

Given, that this anime manages to tell such an intriguing story in a single episode of 25 minutes, I gave it a score of 9.
In this short amount of time, this anime did everything right.

I’m looking forward to seeing more from the director of this anime.