Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete (In Search of the Lost Future)

Kaori Sasaki—a member of Uchihama Academy's Astronomy Club—confesses to Sou Akiyama, but later that evening, she dies in a tragic road accident. Her friends and fellow club members mourn her death in a local hospital. Yet she shows up to school the following day, and no one senses anything amiss.

The day finishes without any unusual incidents, and the group of friends plans for the upcoming cultural festival. Suddenly, the room is shaken by an unnatural earthquake. Everyone splits up to investigate—except for Nagisa Hanamiya, who stays behind. As everyone leaves, Nagisa notices that the odd relic-like cube that she was toying with starts emitting a strange blue light. Meanwhile, Sou stumbles upon an unconscious, naked girl lying in a pool of water.

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete follows the Astronomy Club's increasingly bizarre adventures—from dealing with ghosts to quelling unrests between student clubs. All the while, they unravel the circumstances behind the sudden appearance of a new transfer student.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete, Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete
Sequel:	Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete: Ushinawareta Natsuyasumi wo Motomete

Ootsuka, Akio
Japanese

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Staff

Uesaka, Youichirou

Assistant Producer

Hosoda, Naoto

Director

Motoyama, Satoshi

Sound Director

Kobayashi, Kouji

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Opening Theme

"Le jour" by Satomi Sato

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Ending Theme

"Ashita Mata Aeru yo ne (明日また会えるよね)" by Kaori Sasaki (CV: Hatsumi Takada) and Yui Furukawa (CV: Akane Tomonaga)

Reviews

Oct 19, 2020

Iota_

Recommended

this anime is going to be on my top 10 romance anime list i like the story,
the charachters ,the art is pretty decent, i enjoyed the anime its really good
i rate this anime 8/10 i love the ending and i like how there is like a little comedy for it this actually almost made me cry really really good anime
this anime is supossed to be rated 7 but some people has their own opinion
i hope this anime get known by a lot of people in the future and
i personally recomended it for people who enjoys romance anime

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Aug 29, 2021

OneFaintingRobin

Mixed Feelings

This feels like a show with a bit of an identity crisis.

When you start watching the first episode, you settle into what it seems like this is going to be. A high school club show, with a solid enough set up; the Astronomy Club is actually a really fun group, with a strong dynamic, distinct characters, and a good pre-existing rapport; their position in the school is great fun, with the idea of them being known for getting into trouble, and the Student Council even relying on them as informal problem-solvers, being really cool. The first episode pitches this as something along the lines ... of Hyouka or Kokoro Connect (admittedly with much poorer visuals), a fun high-school mystery series, perhaps with a bit more of a supernatural, or at least faux-supernatural, side to it.

Then, as a twist at the end of episode 1, we realise that there's a lot more going on; a horrible accident, a time-loop, a mysterious girl. Think a high-school, lower-effort version of that middle section of Steins;Gate. Again, I don't think this is a bad idea. We get bits of explanation trickled through, so by the time we officially learn everything, it feels like the show has given us enough of that information to get most of the way there without feeling like it's been overly predictable. There's a decent enough sense of urgency about it, each loop feels like enough changes that it never feels repetitive, and it also doesn't force itself to show us more loops than necessary, so from that point of view it never falls into that trap so many time-loop stories stumble into.

Either one of these shows could have worked well. The problem is that they tend to get in the way of each other. Because it has to keep focused on the time-loop story, which is clearly intended as the main plot, the Astronomy Club hijinks tend to fall by the wayside, with those mystery aspects that drew me into the first episode so much never really getting a chance to happen. We see the club getting ready for the school festival, and one specific incident we see a few variations of, but not much else. Given the club felt so unique at the start, and the dynamic between the characters felt so fun, it's a shame that it falls so much by the wayside.

But, conversely, because it still has those characteristics of a club show, the time-loop plot also feels a little underbaked. While the sense of urgency is still there, there actually isn't that much that happens. There's not a whole lot of proactive character decisions made, just a lot of knee-jerk reactions to specific situations; it's a very reactive story. This also adds a secondary issue, being that, because the time-loop story feels so underwhelming, it makes the feeling that the show has wasted the Astronomy Club dynamic even stronger; I really feel like this would have been better cutting the time-loop entirely, and just having it be that high school mystery show the first episode hinted at.

It comes together to make a show that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. This isn't the only aspect that feels like this, either. There's a bit of an odd romance dynamic; the obvious pairing the show is clearly hinting at for most of the time never comes into fruition, and where the protagonist's eye ends up shifting to is weird at first, and, once you learn the bigger picture of the story, a little bit creepy. The show's a visual novel adaptation, so that definitely explains this a lot; there's obviously different paths the player can take the romance. Still, it's another way that the show ends up feeling like it doesn't quite know what it wants to do, and in this case it makes that shift in the romance feel a little out of nowhere.

Ultimately, this is just a bit unremarkable. The animation follows suit, not awful but fairly stilted and uninteresting (the OP included, although I actually found the ED quite charming), the sound design is fine, nothing awful but nothing to comment on. Overall, it feels like an adaptation of a half-successful visual novel that made enough money to be financially viable, but didn't inspire any real creativity or passion in the people making it, leading to an anime that just feels sort of there.
There's definitely something better in here, a more refined version of this story that balanced its two identities well and created something with some real weight to it. It's a good premise, just with lacklustre execution. And sometimes, even though I did mostly enjoy this, that feels even worse than outright disliking something.

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Jul 17, 2017

NeoSeoul

Not Recommended

This show, in my opinion, took way too long to kick into gear. Throughout the first half of the show, I spent more time wondering where this show was going than actually focusing on the show. The story takes too long to progress for you to even enjoy the show in the first place. In all honesty, I was somewhat hooked when shit hit the fan. This anime wasn't entirely all that bad.

Story - 4
I had no sense of what the story even was until things started getting explained. The problem with this show was that hardly anything was explained EVER. The only thing I ...

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Poll: Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 20, 2014	124 replies	by Archean-Return »» Feb 21, 6:21 AM
Poll: Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 22, 2014	62 replies	by Archean-Return »» Feb 20, 12:54 PM
Poll: Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 13, 2014	62 replies	by NoviSun »» Jul 22, 2023 11:34 PM
Low score??? ( 1 2 ) SakurasouBusters - Oct 19, 2014	57 replies	by Crimson_poetry86 »» Jun 10, 2023 3:46 AM
Poll: Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete Episode 6 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 8, 2014	46 replies	by Gringo5959 »» Sep 26, 2022 3:10 PM

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete

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Furukawa, Yui

Sasaki, Kaori

Hanamiya, Nagisa

Hasekura, Airi

Akiyama, Sou

Osafune, Eitarou

Sasaki, Shiori

Fukazawa, Karin

Azuma, Yaeko

Honjou, Sakunoshin

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Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete

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