Ano Natsu de Matteru is an anime about a group of friends spending their summer vacation hanging out and filming a movie. Sounds simple, yes? Not quite. It doesn't take very long for the romance and the drama to kick in, where Ano Natsu is most focused. In fact, that STILL might be an understatement. Within the first 4 episodes, all of the love interests of the main characters are well established and/or heavily hinted at, and there is indeed one hell of a messy love polygon. However, this love polygon is not like most; there is actually a couple that is established (pretty much from the beginning), which ends up leaving every other character stuck in a rut.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of Ano Natsu de Matteru is the fact that the creator seemed to ship his own characters, while disregarding the feelings of everyone else. That leaves a disgusting feeling in many viewers' mouths, including mine. Why establish a love polygon if it is not going to contribute to the plot at all? Honestly, most of Ano Natsu de Matteru was slice of life, more so than romance, and even when there was romance, you were never really in doubt as to who was going to get together. That lack of suspense (especially for a romance drama) is puzzling, to say the least.
With that out of the way, I must say that both the art and sound of Ano Natsu are two highly redeeming qualities. Really vivid colors to truly capture the essence of an anime about summer, and a great opening/ending to match the mood throughout the series. The characters themselves are actually really great (especially Remon-senpai, oh that rascal). They'll seemingly always put a smile on your face, no matter who it is.
A respectable romantic drama that is unfortunately kept from greatness by the aforementioned problems, Ano Natsu de Matteru is also plagued with an awkward Sci-fi element that derailed my interest. I think most would agree that including heavy amounts of aliens/robots/lasers in a slice-of-life anime is quite contradictory. That element certainly turned me off, as it made a lot of the scenarios seem so unrealistic. Towards the end of Ano Natsu, I was getting really afraid that the anime was going to have an open ending. Thankfully, that was not the case, and this brings me back to my original point.
That final scene provided all of the closure in the world to secure a solid rating for Ano Natsu. Up to that point, I was a bit disappointed with how the plot turned out (to say the least), and it left a sour taste in my mouth. The producers completely saved this anime by including those last few seconds. All in all, despite its various shortcomings, Ano Natsu de Matteru is a solid member of the romance drama genre, and gets a recommendation from me for its great characters, art, sound, and satisfying ending.
