Orange

You know, I thought I was immune to being disappointed by anime at this point of my life, but apparently the medium still hasn't lost it when it comes to getting my hopes up, only to crash them back down with more impact than Icarus hitting the ocean after he flew too close to the sun. I mean obviously I'm not a fan of the manga having never read it, but Orange really looked promising based on the limited research I did. A shoujo romance that was only five volumes long and critical acclaims across the board with a premise that goes beyond the usual ... shoujo tropes found in...well...pick any shoujo anime or live-action drama that got made in the last few years? Sounds like my cup of tea, especially since it deals with suicide: an issue that is still very prevalent in Japan as well as the basis for several very good fictional works from the country.

The start was pretty good as well. Nothing amazing, but at least you understand where it's going by the time the premiere ends. Orange is a show about a young girl named Naho, who starts receiving mysterious letters from her future self regarding a new kid named Kakeru - and because there'd be no plot otherwise, said letters don't specify that if she and her friends invite him for a night out on the town, they'll inadvertently cause his mother to commit suicide. So his mom dies and the letters start to warn Naho that she'll fall in love with the dude whilst warning that he ends up committing suicide in the future, meaning that it's up to her and the Scooby-Doo gang that always seem to be in shoujo romances to save him. Throughout this journey, we occasionally cut to the future timeline where Naho and her friends reminisce about the dude and the regrets they had in regards to saving him, leading up to the moment when they discover the ability to send letters to the past. So here we've got a typical shoujo romance flavored by themes of regret, second-chances, and highschool problems that are more grounded in reality than most anime showcase, in addition to all the suicide stuff. And at the very start of the series too. Sounds great, right?

Well it's not like Orange didn't have problems at the very start either. It is still a shoujo romance anime, so of course that means an insecure female lead and lot of annoying will they or won't they situations, not exactly helped by the fact that we see in the future that Naho married the other male friend, Suwa. And shortly through the show, you'd definitely be supporting that side, because like most male protagonists in this genre, Kakeru is more of a cipher than an actual character. Most of his story is told through the other characters' observations of him without any real input on his end, and while none of the characters really transcend their stereotypes either, we at least are able to understand where most of them come from and why they act the way they do. Which is kind of impressive in of itself given how the other half of the main six are completely unimportant to the plot to the point, even by the usual standards of ensemble romances. The only thing they ever do is encourage the main trio or prevent contrived problems from occurring when they decide they want to have a go at making things more lively, and even when a later plot twist gets them more involved, they still come off as supplementary as those three non-plot important girls in a visual novel adaptation.

The show mostly gets through the cockblock padding by having a bit of self-awareness regarding how stupid it is whilst also highlighting some legitimate teenage issues in the process. Okay, it's no John Hughes film, but at least it raises some interesting points regarding how there's a difference between knowing what's going to happen and actually doing something about it, along with guilt when you discover that you're an accessory to someone else's problems. I was always a bit iffy on the whole love triangle thing that happened when Kakeru ended up dating a female senpai who is - and let's be reasonable about this - a massive cunt, though. Yeah, I don't like using that c-word, but there's really no better way to encompass how completely unlikable she is. While the idea that Kakeru just dated her for her looks was kinda cool, she never gives up on him even after they break up, always showing up out of nowhere to give Naho a hard time whilst having no personality traits or story importance beyond her cunty nature. I don't even think she's very pretty. If I was given the same hypnotism Jack Black got in Shallow Hal, I'm pretty sure I'd see her as a gray-haired hunchback with broken teeth and a trick foot.

But of course, nothing is perfect, and I can get past some bullying if the overall story is good, even if it's a cliche I'm never going to accept in fiction. Unfortunately, as seems to be the running theme for 2016 anime in general, you should never believe a good anime will stay good until the very end. And dear god, did Orange stop being good really fast around the halfway point. TMS Entertainment had put out four shows that very season, so of course I knew that they were spreading themselves a little thin, but that did not initially come through with this show at the very start, because it had some pretty kickass visual direction to the point that you wondered how they were going to keep it up for an entire season. The short answer is they don't, and they seemed to have dragged down the storytelling quality along with it. There's a school festival arc in the second half of the show that only exists as buildup for the sake of buildup, making the characters have fun with each other so that the "save Kakeru" flag will get triggered. It's like how the first movie of that new Harry Potter spinoff series consisted of nothing but introducing the characters and the rules of the world whilst saving all the meaty stuff that's not guaranteed to deliver for the sequel.

Someone please explain to me the appeal of watching setup to a major plot direction when you don't have anything to support it but curiosity regarding the future and likable characters, because I don't see it. It's completely boring, and even if the curiosity is enough to carry you the first time, it's not going to be around on rewatch, leaving you with absolutely nothing. No amount of likability is going to help a character if they're not given anything interesting to do. Most people with a soul love the cast in animated Disney movies, but most people with a brain wouldn't call those direct-to-DVD sequels good. And the less said about Kingdom Hearts until I inevitably review one of the upcoming games, the better.

What's really funny is that despite the artificial lengthening and worsening production values later on, the final episode ended up going double-length, which makes me wonder what the point of it all was. You could have easily cut out twenty two minutes of fluff, split the finale into two weekly chunks, and just run with that. I don't keep up with anime news so I couldn't say for sure, but it feels like there were some creative differences halfway through production and the anime we ended up getting was the result of a bunch of bitter compromises. You know, kind of like what Kare Kano went through when Anno was booted off the set, only not nearly as unique and definitely not something that would fly by today's standards. Oh, and you want to know how the show actually ends? Well I hate to spoil things, but I can't sum up my full opinion on the show without talking about it, so skip the next paragraph if you haven't finished the show yet.

Kakeru ends up realizing that his friends are too important to him to go through with killing himself, he and Naho are still in their "will they or won't they" phase, the future characters smile at the thought of a changed past that they'll never feel the results of, and all I could think was "wow that was lame". Why is friendship and love always the goddamn solution to these sorts of serious issues in anime-land? Yes it's important for depressed people to be surrounded by folks who care about them, but there's more to suicide prevention than that. When you have it on its own rather than just as a tool, it's basically nothing more than a psychology student who failed to get his degree trying to make it into the storytelling business. Most medical professionals would be clueless regarding how to deal with Kakeru, and Orange handles his situation with such a simplistically optimistic tone that not only is the solution bullshit, but we don't really get much of an insight into Kakeru's psychology either. All the shoujo cliches kept getting in the way, trying so hard to lighten up the substance that it ended up forgetting the substance even existed in the process. And everything the characters say or do is too obvious, so that when the substance is empty, their actions are even emptier. No, this show isn't exactly Welcome to the NHK or Aku no Hana, is it?

Orange never really got to the point where I'd consider it an amazing show, but it still saddened me to finish it because of how close it came to transcending its genre at times, only to gets its kneecaps shot off ant a moment when it really couldn't afford to be put on life support. The animation went to shit, ruining key emotional moments to the point that the characters might as well have been wearing clown masks the entire time. The suicide themes devolved into generic go-nowhere shoujo cliches and fucking retarded "as long as you have friends, you shouldn't throw away your life" PSA bullshit. And the time travel stuff ended up being another pointless gimmick that exists for the plot to function a certain way without getting any real acknowledgement until the very end, and of course it's done in a saccharine way that I don't even want to elaborate on. Just trust me when I say that ERASED's usage of it wasn't as conveniently contrived and let's call it a day, shall we?

6/10. It was fine, but I would never bother rewatching it. The pacing was too slow for my liking and the story was depressing but in a dragged out sort of way. Everything felt like it was at 0.5 speed. The characters are okay but I didn't particularly love any of them. It seemed a little odd that this group of friends would be SO invested in Kakeru when he's the newest member of the group. I would have preferred if he had been their friend from childhood. It also felt a little unrealistic that Suwa would be so selfless when he clearly also likes ... Naho. I just wish they would have developed the cast chemistry a little more before we got to the big reveal.

A quick search on google on the word ' densest ' and this is what I find , Osmium is the densest naturally occurring element, with a density of 22.59 g/cm3. To my surprise I didn't find Naho , or something close to that , maybe the scientists don't watch to many animes because if I were them I would correct that statement and put her as the most , without a match , peerless , first place for the most densest ' material ' on this planet . From the get go she was there just for the female MC , she falls in ... love without a reason , just because he helped her once , that's stupid even for ' plot ' reasons , runs away even if she knows what will happen if she does and many more reasons not to like her , not even one to do so .
Onward , next stop Kakeru , a piece of garbage character , suicidal prick with no brain to even think past 3 words , ' mom ' , ' sorry ' and ' death ' . Ok we understand that you love your mother , that you are sorry that you were a douche with her and so on , but after you read her message why the hell do you have to go and kill yourself ? Her message was awesome , not something you would want to kill yourself for , she didn't blame you or anything , she fucking loved your stupid , worthless ass , but you decide to kill yourself and go to her side to apologize , I bet she would hug you , kiss your forehead and say ' Ahh what a good son I have , there there , mommy is here , have a cookie ' , that clearly won't happen , but because he is a moron he can't get past the 1+1 threshold , so yeah , I guess he is better of dead IMO .
The saving grace of this anime , the art , except one episode , the ending song , really beautiful and ofc Suwa , the MvP that made this show watchable , if not for him this would've been a fucking disaster ...
PS : The shadow MvP goes to Hagita for destroying the idiots bike , good job mate you deserve a girl ^_^ .

Orange is one of those shows with the potential to become an instant classic, but it ultimately falls short and succumbs to every shoujo cliche imaginable while basking in melodrama.

Naho, the protagonist, is exceptionally bland and probably the least interesting character in the show. She's shy, clumsy, and very sweet, but has no personality whatsoever. Throughout the 13 episodes, we never really learn about her goals, what she likes, or what she wants for herself. Instead, Naho spends literally every minute of her time trying to save a boy she loves from committing suicide. This show kind of sends a toxic message that I see ... in way too many series for young women--that it's normal to sacrifice your own well-being for the sake of someone else who needs professional help.

I stuck with the series because I loved Suwa and the other friends in the group. Orange does have some funny and genuinely heart-warming moments, but they're overshadowed by Naho and Kakeru's incredibly slow-burning relationship. It can get frustrating when there is such an emphasis on the awkward and overdramatic moments between these two when that time could've been spent developing the characters or creating more subplots. At one point, someone mentions how messing with the past could affect other people or events in the future, but the conversation stops there. It would've been interesting if the show had explored that more.

I'll try to keep this short, so, is this series worth watching? I would say sure, but you're not really missing anything if you don't see it. I put this on before bed and it was a nice, calming thing to watch, but I couldn't help but think about how great it could've been with a little more effort. Orange is just another show that could've been amazing, but it checked off its boxes and didn't strive to be a truly memorable series.

We see many shoujo romance anime and manga that don’t attempt to do anything different with its premise. Very few of them end up doing something different. Orange attempts to do something different with the shoujo romance genre as it takes a more science-fictional and dramatic take. Adding a time-travel and suicide-victim factor to the story and focusing on themes like depression and regret, makes this one of the most original shoujo series out there, even if the execution itself can be a little wonky. Though it may not be as good as its manga counterpart, the anime manages to be one of the better ... anime of the season.

~{Story}~
The premise is basically about a girl who gets a letter from her future self that says that she needs to save a new transfer student from an accident by changing up the past. The story revolves around how the girl and her friends befriend the transfer student and make him not have any regrets. Like most shoujo anime, this series has a very heavy emphasis on romance. The main focus of the series is on the romantic relationship between the protagonist, Naho, and the transfer student, Kakeru. However, the story also focuses on Kakeru’s friendship with the rest of the main cast. Overall, the story is handled pretty well throughout. The first half of the series doesn’t do much to advance the plot, but rather it focuses on the characters. The second half adds more to the story as many plot points get revealed. If there was one thing I was disappointed in, that would be the explanation they gave for how the letter was sent to the past. It’s ridiculous and unbelievable, even when considering the story as pure fiction. But that wasn’t the main focus of the series to begin with, so it doesn’t affect the series as a whole that much.
Story: 7/10

~{Presentation}~
The thing about Orange is that it’s pretty well-directed, yet it never feels as impactful as the manga. Things like the cinematography and the lighting is done really well and adds more to the mood of the series. And unlike most shoujo series, it manages to blend its lighthearted jokes into its drama (although Orange doesn’t have much humor to begin with). However, despite all that, the series never really feels effective in conveying its emotions. Many of the emotional moments might just fly past you because its themes aren’t organized to well. More could’ve been done with its theme of regret and it feels like a lot of the opportunities were lost. And the pacing is rather inconsistent too. The first third and last third’s pacing could’ve been a little faster so that the second third wouldn’t feel too rushed. But the biggest inconsistency out of all of them is definitely the production values. But that will be covered later on in the review. But at least almost everything was adapted from the manga, so it was loyal to a degree. But its emotional impact remains lackluster when compared to the manga.
Presentation: 6/10

~{Character}~
Orange features a somewhat large cast of main characters. The protagonist, Takamiya Naho, is a somewhat decent main character, but she can be a little annoying at times. Not always does she follow her letters has she finds some things too hard to do. Though some of her behavior is reasonable, but she does it so often that it feels too irritating. Due to this, her character lacks a proper growth and it never feels like she’s changed much as a character. The transfer student, Naruse Kakeru, is a pretty well written and believable character. Though some of his actions may seem a bit rude and selfish, when his inner thoughts are properly explored, and when his way of thinking is apperent, his actions feel more justified. The choices he makes are wrong, but he’s not wrong himself. Naho and Kakeru’s friend, Suwa Hiroto, is a great character. Not only is he such a great guy, but he’s also selfless and doesn’t care whether he doesn’t gain anything as long as others do. He is easily the most likable character of the series. Another likable character who is part of the group, Hagita Saku, is actually pretty funny and is used as a comic relief pretty well. The other two main characters, Azusa and Takako are alight, but they don’t play a huge role in the story.
Character: 5/10

~{Art}~
When Orange is at its best, it’s really, really beautiful. The backgrounds are simply stunning and gorgeous. They are easily the best backgrounds I’ve seen this year. The bright colors really work well with this series. And the character designs are really good and are very well detailed. As mentioned before, the lighting is put into good use and is very effective. This would have easily been one of the best looking anime of the year, until the second half happened. The drop in the art quality was slowly becoming apparent in the second half. The ninth episode was one of the most ugliest episodes I’ve seen this season, and that’s saying a lot when Berserk was airing in the same season. The backgrounds still looked good though, but the character models looked atrocious in some places. The art improved near the end, but it looked nowhere near as good as the first half of the series.
Art: 6/10

~{Animation}~
Unlike the art of Orange, where it started off great and then quality drops happened, the animations of Orange weren’t as fluid since the first episode. The backgrounds however are animated nicely and look good. But some of the character movements lacked a bit of smoothness at times. Though this was apparent later on in the series. There’s one moment somewhere in the last couple of episodes where some characters are walking along a path and we see them from far away behind them. Their moments looked like as if they were sliding along the path, and it felt very distracting. But for the most part, the animations are functional and are alright.
Animation: 5.5/10

~{Voice Acting}~
The seiyuu cast did a fairly well job in Orange. The cast itself is mixed with well-known and not so well-known seiyuu. The extremely popular and really talented seiyuu, Hanazawa Kana, does a really good job with Naho. She does what the script asks her to do. She doesn’t do too much with her character, but she does just enough for her character to work. Kakeru’s seiyuu, Yamashita Seiichirou, hasn’t done much in his career yet, but he did an excellent job with his character. He conveys his character’s feelings and emotions properly. Furukawa Makoto, who’s now really well-known for doing Saitama from One Punch Man, did a very good job as Suwa and makes his feel like a true bro. Okitsu Kazuyuki did a good job as his megane character, Hagita, and he gets his comic timing right. Takamori Natsumi and Kinugawa Rika does a fairly good job as their characters too.
Voice Acting: 7/10

~{Music}~
The music in Orange is really good and is one of the series highlights. The OP, “Hikari no Hahen”, is fairly good. The vocals and music is nice and the song matches the series. But the ED, “Mirai”, is fantastic. Not only is the vocals and music amazing, but the lyrics are good too. It really has an emotional feel to it and it’s the perfect ED for this series. The ED made me feel more emotional that the actual series did. The background music in the series is also very good. The music used more the emotional scenes are good, but they don’t add too much to the scene. And the music used for its normal moments are pretty good too and work well.
Music: 7/10

~{Enjoyment}~
Though I was hoping more from this series, especially since I really liked the manga, but it was still a good anime that’s one of the best of the season. The characters, for the most part are handled well. Suwa and Hagita were definitely fun to see. The art, when it was at its best, looked gorgeous and the anime is worth watching just for that. The backgrounds especially were amazing. I really liked how Kakeru was handled and near the end of the series, I really understood how he felt and made most of his actions justifiable. I would’ve enjoyed the series more if the production value drops weren’t so drastic.
Enjoyment: 6.5/10

In the end, Orange is worth checking out for those who want to see something new in the shoujo romance genre. Though, if you have already read the manga, you’re better off not watching this adaptation. Even if you haven’t read the manga, if you can, try reading the manga instead of watching the adaptation. Though the adaptation is loyal, the emotional aspect of the manga isn’t properly conveyed in the anime and feels lacking. And the sudden production value drop is jarring and distracting. But this is a really good story about regret and depression and it handles most of its characters pretty well. Even with the adaptation being not as good as we were hoping it to be, Orange is still one of the better anime of the season.

+ A nice story focusing on a group of people who wants their friend to have no regrets.
+ Nice and unique take on the shoujo romance genre.
+ Kakeru’s perspective is handled well and Suwa and Hagita are really likable characters.
+ Background music is very good and the ED is fantastic.
- Very inconsistent production values as the art quality dips mid-way in the series.
- Emotional moments aren’t as effective as they should be and feels lacking when compared to the manga.

Overall: 6.3/10

As a fan of the manga, I had high hopes for this anime. However, I was disappointed.

Story: The story is definitely interesting. It's a mix of shoujo, sci-fi, and romance. Who knew there were alternate dimensions in the world.

Art: It was consistent at the beginning, but then IT STARTED GOING DOWN. In the middle of the season all the characters started having derp faces, which totally took away the enjoyment from watching it. Towards the end it got better, but you can tell the animation company cut the budget halfway.

Characters: Basically, the two main characters will drive you off the wall in the anime. ... One's dense and clueless, and the other is too sensitive. The other characters are mainly supportive and characters you'll like more than the main two lol.

Overall: I liked the beginning of the anime, but then it really went bad. It did not do the manga justice. The manga definitely made the characters unique without over-exaggerating them. In conclusion, read the manga instead.

Orange. This show seems to be a hit or miss, and I guess it missed me. Orange tackles some very interesting topics (Suicide and depression) but it loses steam quickly. My issue with it is that KAKERU is the one experiencing depression. KAKERU is the one who wants to kill himself and end the pain. Instead we get to watch Naho's insecurity and hesitation, even though she knows the freaking future. Naho becomes more and more unbearable with every episode, reaching a peak at around episode 10. At that point I honestly wished she herself would commit suicide and the show would match Kakeru with ... Suwa.

Instead of going through the categories I'm going to quickly explain why I rated this show a 6. Based on my previous paragraph this show earns maybe a 3. The reason it's a 6 is because, despite Naho, this show was interesting. The side characters were fun and developed "well" or at least much much better than Naho. Kakeru was relatable and interesting to watch. Although the mechanics of the time travelling letter wasn't explained well (It shouldnt even have been mentioned at all but whatever) it was fun to see which events changed the future and how it impacted it from a technical standpoint. Naho is the only truly "bad" thing in this show, but unfortunately she is an important chunk of the show.

"It's me, what's the situation? Make it quick, my assistant is... what?! A ma- *lowers voice* a mail from the future? Ridiculous! Need I remind you our divergence? Yes. Yes, precisely, so please brief me on vital intelligence only. An impostor, you say? Disguised as a high-school chemist teacher? Good grief, what a crossover episode. Though I commend his bravery, for he aspires to be non other than me - the mad scientist! Hououin Kyo- ...tch, I've told you to not interrupt me like that! Anyway, I've got to go, I think my cover is blown. Heh, the organization's agents are too easy to spot ... when they're staring at me like that. Yeah, I'll call you if I find anything. El. Psy. Congroo."

Please ignore whatever that was above. Let's get on with the review. Includes spoilers.

So, what's up with Orange? On the surface, it looks like a pretty decent anime, doesn't it? High quality graphics, a vibrant atmosphere accompanying a tough subject, great dialogue... and sure enough, the first episodes quietly assured me that this was going to be a "good" series, if anything. Alas, you can see my rating for yourself. I couldn't enjoy the latter part of this anime. Quality drops significantly, while various scenes felt forced; the anime insists that orange tastes "sweet and sour", but really, sour? More like sweet to the core, throw some extra sugar and butter to the mix. Orange fails to deliver strong, meaningful moments, with an otherwise reactive cast and a heavy main topic. And this is the result.

Let's start with what I liked: the show's atmosphere. Not only are the surroundings visually pleasant (music's fine too, I guess... just not my kind of beat - good opening though), but dialogue between characters also feels natural. Conversations are taking place on top of each other. Exchanges are quick and streamlined. Replies often come in the form of nods or hums; superfluous detail is generally omitted. True teenage spirit. Nonetheless, characters are perceptive without coming off as telepathic. They know when to leave others alone, yet they'll still pry on the minute facets of daily interactions. Wasn't Naho's reply a little unusual? Did Kakeru really meant what he did? Why did someone do this or that? The cast is alive. It's true that some of them were poorly developed, though for our argument, that didn't matter. They always gave the impression of a group of friends who knew and cared for each other, and that's a victory on my books.

Let's take a look, however, at the attempts to develop said characters. I'm not sure if it's the result of the show overdoing things, but there are two problems that killed the cast for me: emotional expression and character logic. The former makes for a truly perplexing case. Orange is one of the few shows I've watched where dialogue comes so naturally (at least early on), yet it somehow falls apart when it comes to scenes of deep emotion. Joy and Sorrow? These have no meaning in Orange. Characters will cry and smile at EVERY little opportunity. No restraint; sensitivity is devalued. And when they smile... it's unsettling. Their mouths are absolutely gargantuan. It's just weird, I hate mouth design in Orange.

Then what about personality? Really, without spoiling anything, here's how I interpret the cast: Takako, the "don't hide anything from me" lady, striving to be the most intrusive and rude friend possible; Hagita, the Troll Meister (a pretty good one at times, I'll admit); Azusa, the... "don't hide anything from me" Premium Edition? Only the three remaining get some acceptable development, and from them I only liked Suwa. My point is, while Orange had the blueprint for a truly refreshing social drama, it fails to come through with an end product. Most characters are shallow, and a wreck in expression. It's a shame.

There's no point analyzing our three side characters, so the only ones I'll go into detail will be Kakeru and Naho, which I alternatively like to call Aho. Although Aho is the protagonist from a narrative standpoint, from a story one, Kakeru is our boy. In fact, the whole story felt like five people babysitting him - baby cart, fresh breast milk and all. Honestly, I cannot pretend to know how it feels having lost your family at such an age, and I'm not going to. I want to voice my opinion on Orange, however, and in my opinion, this show somehow manages to both exaggerate his importance, and at the same time undermine the gravity of his situation. How, you might say?

On a macro scale, the show is way too focused on Kakeru, to the point of tunnel vision syndrome. I can demonstrate this with a comical example: towards the end, we learn how the group came with the idea of sending their mails to the past. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's five fully-grown adults, some of which are married, genuinely believing that they can suddenly throw five letters inside a black hole underneath the Bermuda triangle. Without any basis whatsoever, not even an observational one - it's all from a silly rumor. Plus, they expect all their results to follow the parallel world model, something their high-school chemist brought up TEN YEARS AGO, something which isn't even proven in the slightest... ah, at times like these one could really appreciate a Makise Kurisu, am I right Mr. Director? Seriously, they just woke up that day, and were like, "how didn't we think of this before? So obvious, duh! | But guys, seriously, this won't work. | How can you say that? We can't know unless we try!"

The example above highlights two points: first, an anime not focused in science (for even hypothetical concepts like ours) shouldn't touch science, let for trivia only. I would be completely fine without any explanation to the time-traveling aspect. Orange, however, goes out of its way to justify it and messes up. A funny side effect of using the parallel world model is the following: assuming there are infinite parallel worlds, we can therefore assume the existence of infinite worlds where Kakeru is alive. I'm not sure if the group is aware of this, but it essentially makes their effort "meaningless" from a purely mathematical perspective. The only "meaning" one could derive, is that their new world will be a product of deliberate action. One could still argue here, though I'll spare the philosophies.

Second highlight, is how in order to create an isolated environment for our dear Kakeru, Orange ignorantly shuts the curtains to reality. Throw common sense and self-respect out of the window! We have to make Kakeru a happy duck. I can appreciate the value in this effort, if it actually helped viewers who could relate to the story. Though what do I, an unrelated entity get? Even by somehow accepting the unbelievable circumstances of the mails, personally, I couldn't but ask at times: is everyone acting willfully? Or are they simply following orders? One could reply that no, of course they're not; they're trying to save him, because they want to save him. Kakeru is a friend. Furthermore, there are occasions where they do not even follow the letters. Yet it still felt off, somehow. I still didn't like the way Orange presented itself to the audience.

First of all, I dislike the sense of responsibility Orange shoves in the group of five. Through their messages, among other things, they convey regret and grief, even a decade after the misfortune. My question is: what's the source of this affliction? That they could have spent more time with him? Made him happier? And ultimately, perhaps, even saved him from his demise? Yes, one could argue that this is indeed the source, and so they try to erase it. My answer to this: oblivion. To assume that you could have known or done better is pretentious. Even with the knowledge of the future (which I should point is written knowledge, ambiguous and prone to human error), we are all limited to two ears, two eyes, and one brain. Orange admits to this notion: point in case Aho, a girl stupidly unaware of her surroundings, missing social cues like my jungler misses smite every game. Even in a changed future, Kakeru was still centimeters away from bidding farewell to that world. Did their future selves assume it could have been any better than that?

So really, we find that the mails have a hidden postscript at the bottom: it's their ego. The premise of the mails is to erase regret, a task they entrust on their past selves. Yes, we learn on the final episode that, because of the parallel world model (which we will, for the sake of my sanity, assume is the correct one in the world of Orange), they won't experience any change at their present. Though does that make any difference? They're still sent in some world. What's wrong with that, you may ask? Well, let me remind you an insightful thought from our Troll Meister Hagita: the butterfly effect. He (is the only one that) acknowledges that by taking a different path, the world changes in ways they cannot predict. If the red team wins, the blue team loses. In their effort to save Kakeru, they might trigger a chain of events leading to even bigger tragedy. So, is it really "okay" for them to change the timeline? To drop a bomb of chaos on their past selves, potentially erasing a future of happiness? I do not expect our cast to be divine creatures of justice, but I would at least like it if they entertained this idea... of the very realistic idea that your plan might, in fact, not work.

Now take the above, and combine them with the tone of the mails, which is by all means instructive. They're not just warning their past selves of something about to happen, they give them a list of orders - a shopping list. Today I'll erase this regret, tomorrow that regret. Honestly, I'm surprised by how accurately they remember events so far in the past. More than that, I'm shocked by their ignorance in sending these mails. I'll specifically refer to Aho, since her mail is the only one we can read. All she had to do is warn her past self of specific events concerning Kakeru's death, yet still, that wasn't enough for her. She believed that telling herself to play that baseball game ten years ago, is actually that much important. Go figure.

I've really over-analyzed things here, so let's see what conclusions we can draw so far. First, the mails are flawed. Orange ignores the arrogance present behind them, and in a scenario more open to chaos, these mails could have led to disaster. I'll admit, a dark pleasure of mine would have been fulfilled had Kakeru actually died at the end. I believe it would be poetic in some way. Alternatively, get rid of the mail shenanigans altogether - the show would be better without them. Make characters realize Kakeru's situation when they find out about his first suicide attempt or something.

Second conclusion, the ridiculous side effects of magnifying the focus on Kakeru. I gave an example on how the show is affected on a macro scale, so what happens in micro scale, AKA character interactions? Well, it's obvious. Do you have any secrets? I don't care - tell me everything. Buy stuff. More stuff! Is Kakeru okay today? Someone call an ambulance! I had a persistent, nauseating feeling watching this show... like I said earlier, it feels like five people nursing Kakeru after a while. Everything is overly exaggerated, from facial expressions, to Kakeru's tiniest aspects of everyday life. Individuality is abandoned. It feels as if the group is nothing but actors on a theatrical performance spanning thirteen episodes, with the title of the play reading: deliver a message of reassurance and safety, satisfy Kakeru at all costs!

This clashes strongly with Kakeru's behavior. It is not immediately obvious, though on the long run, you can discern Kakeru's emotional response to the group's efforts. Or to be more precise, the lack thereof. He never says thanks. He rarely expresses gratitude. When he's down, EVERYTHING feels wasted. He forgets his friends and what they've done for him, almost intentionally. He complains how his friends from Tokyo laughed off his troubles, yet here's some people taking him seriously, and he still turns down all of them, and especially Naho. Will we, all of a sudden, pretend that his friendships are something taken for granted? Well time to wake the fuck up, because they aren't. Having people care for you is not something you should ever expect, and this is amplified thrice-fold when you're suffering.

Take our guy Suwa for example. This man swallows his own ego and emotions constantly and consistently. He has the determination and emotional intelligence to do what everyone else can't, and always with a careful and affectionate intent. Speaking of consistency, remember how Takako and Azusa told him "hey sorry bro, but we'll be rooting for Naho and Kakeru only", and then, several episodes later they're like "um, actually, how about you confess to Naho?" Yeah. Still, Suwa remained true to his initial purpose, that of saving Kakeru. We could all appreciate a friend like him... unless that someone is Kakeru.

So, I want to reemphasize the problem with our second protagonist, because it's a major one. Everyone is centered around him, yet his response to that attention is empty, and it seriously feels as if that's intentional. Take for example the new year's eve arc; this is where the most forced melodrama on the show plays out. Even with the two having confessed to each other and doing absolutely fine any other time, he suddenly has the audacity to tell her "don't ever speak to me again", simply because she wanted him to stay with her. He will then purposefully (and even sarcastically!) ignore her at school when she's trying to speak to him, and to top it off: he did all of that with the intention of "not wanting to hurt her feelings". Are we actually serious?

Orange wants to make Kakeru the target of trauma, but screws up big time. It cannot paint the depth of his psychology in a meaningful way, yet it tries to anyhow present the consequences of a potential trauma inside a social setting. Thus, his rebellion is one of no substance. His sorrow didn't resonate within me, neither was his anger and recoil in his interactions. However, even assuming that he's troubled in making relationships - even then, will he really make zero effort in trying to apologize for being a jerk? He only does so when Aho approaches him, and she actually apologizes to him first for doing literally nothing. We never get his side from a narrative perspective, so how does the show expects us to find depression and trauma within him? For all I know, I cannot create it from thin air.

At least Aho always has a clear objective in mind, even with an extremely fragile determination. Kakeru never feels genuine. You'll find him overjoyed and rubbing on Aho in one scene, then a second later, all of that is forgotten as he activates emo mode. Aho then proceeds to put the blame on herself, she finds the courage to confront Kakeru, apologizes, then Kakeru makes his own version of an apology, and there you have it. Rinse and repeat, end of story; this is their relationship summed up, the nature of which I can describe as facepalm-inducing. An awkward game of ping-pong. An excessively melodramatic romcom, which seriously rises to parody levels occasionally. There is some progression on their romance, that's true. Still, everything is thrown out of the window when Kakeru feels like it. It's like riding a bicycle blindfolded, only to periodically take it off and find that your wheels weren't in contact with the ground all along.

Orange had two main themes. One is of erasing past regret; live the present with all your might. The other is the subject of suicide; a tender hug on people who are drowning in dark thoughts. Most of the anime is actually focused on the latter, and the efforts of our cast as they try to change Kakeru's life for the better. The problem is, Orange couldn't make me care for Kakeru. I believe that neither is the subject given the appropriate magnitude, nor is the character involved one I could sympathize for. In other words, Orange fails to accomplish a fundamental task; that is, to deliver feelings.

It manages to do other things, sure. Like I said, it convincingly presents a group of friends that really feels as one, while also painting their social surroundings at a satisfying degree. They even show their parents! Find an anime that does that, I dare you. On the surface, the atmosphere of Orange is truly invigorating. Though that is only of secondary importance next to the core of this anime, a core I couldn't get close to when the show opted to drown itself in ignorance and hypersensitivity. Thus to me, Orange gave off more of a white, buttery hue, and nothing close to the "sweet and sour" of orange. But hey, who am I to talk. I'm neither a cook nor a painter.

In conclusion: Suwa is a fucking GIGACHAD.

Ever make a decision that you regret? What if you could send a letter to your past self to act otherwise? Orange is a slice of life following a teenage girl, Naho, and her group of friends that encounter this exact scenario. Orange is about as unexpected a title as you can get for a show with a coming of age twist to the whole time travel category. However, it is also one of the most predictable shows once you get past the first episode.
The show comes across as something between Anohana and Ao Haru Ride. Though I don't see it nearly as favorably as ... the aforementioned shows, it's a nice departure from the wild sci-fi and fantasy shows that seem to be dominant these seasons. If you're looking for a show that explores character relationships a bit more naturally than Kiznaiver and don't mind the predictability, then this is a pretty good candidate.

Animation:
The show is nicely drawn overall with reasonably detailed backgrounds and modern, crisp lines. The show has a slightly unsaturated color palette, which is fitting given the somewhat apprehensive mood for the majority of the show. There is some occasional 3D CGI but it isn't particularly distracting. Animation-wise, two things bothered me about the show. First, the show is about notes from the future. Expect these notes to flash quickly across the screen, so fast that unless you're extremely well versed in Japanese you'll probably need to pause to fully digest the contents of the letter. The second thing that bothered me was the drawing style. Something about the eyes just doesn't mesh well, especially on the girls. It feels like they have doll eyes at times, thus somewhat killing emotional scenes (especially Naho). Furthermore, Kakeru's smile just looks wrong; I can't quite pin down what it is but it's just off-putting. Characters do get emotional quite often in this show, even the guys; just don't expect the same detail and authenticity that you get with P.A. Works.

This isn't an action based show, unless you count athletic meets as "action." There also isn't any ecchi though you do get some light romance.

Sound:
The show opens with a warm, slow guitar piece. I'm not a huge fan of the singer but the melody is decent. The ED has sad overtones and is sung by another guy. The BGM is standard-fare material, supportive but not memorable.

Honestly speaking, other than Kanahana and Ayane Sakura, the cast is relatively junior. Kanahana shows her experience, giving Naho a very fittingly shy and reserved voice. On the other hand, I have yet to find a role voiced by Seiichirou Yamashita that I like, and this show doesn't change that. Though only voicing a minor role, Yuu Asakawa deserves super kudos for her outstanding role as the English teacher; her intonations are almost passable as a native!

Story:
I'll admit that the premise of this show was particularly intriguing to me - the idea that one can influence their past self rather than forcefully take their earlier version's place like in so many other time-travel shows. How differently would you behave if you knew that someone would soon become intimately close with you? Of if you knew they would soon die? Furthermore, they play with the idea of regret, and whether choosing a different path really would reduce your future regret (by making yourself happier, doesn't it rob someone else of a chance to be happy, such as during a competition?).

The show is at heart a modified slice of life so the majority of the scenes revolve around school life. The atmosphere here is a bit complicated as everyone is trying to strike a familiar, friendly mood while knowing that disaster is looming on the horizon. Still, they manage to have many good times with a fair amount of comical and romantic scenes. The majority of the apprehension comes from the future scenes, where more mature versions of the protagonists look back with regret on their past.

There is a single main plot line that, while slow, eventually builds to an incredibly predictable climax and resolution. This is honestly one of the most predictable shows I've seen in a while. The whole time traveling letters thing and the impossibly photographic memory of all the future protagonists are pretty much glossed over to my disgust. However, despite these shortcomings, it's still a reasonable storyline, especially from a thematic perspective.

Character:
Whether this show works or not for you will strongly depend on how you perceive the characters. These are not your standard, bombastic anime characters that don't actually do anything. Instead, these are more realistic teenagers that show lots of hesitation in relationships, and often are caught up in trivial misunderstandings. These characters eventually start developing innocent relationships that form the backbone for a majority of the tension in the show. From that regard, this show is pretty strong for me. You can expect all the main protagonists to be dynamic characters, albeit perhaps a bit forced given the future letters.

There are two major detractors from this category. First is Kakeru. He definitely is a bit of a nutcase, making me wonder why everyone is so fixated on him. Furthermore, the show purposely makes it hard to get inside his head; really, he's the only thing that is rather unpredictable in the show - you never know whether he's going to accept something or go crazy and run off. Though there's an entire episode later on dedicated to explaining his past and thoughts, it doesn't help his relatability for the many previous episodes. Perhaps I just can't like a dude that smiles in such a fake way all the time. Second, I understand that these are very young characters but their reluctance to act or their inability to see the pitfall in actions that they take is all rather irritating; this will continue to occur throughout the entire show.

If you're looking for a show that really explores and grows character relationships, this show is a pretty decent candidate. I won't say it's as fulfilling as Kokoro Connect or as relatable as the characters in Nagi no Asuakara, but nonetheless it's quite a few steps up from many other shows out there. Just expect there to be lots and lots of crying.

Value:
I'm not a regular consumer of the shoujo genre, but compared to previous offerings I'd have to say that this one just doesn't feel as complete. I can't quite pin down whether it's the lack of relatability to the unstable Kakeru or statistical improbability of their letter plan actually working. In any case, I find myself at the weird crossroad of liking the character development and relationships yet also constantly being infuriated at the characters' actions or lack thereof. I'll still give credit to the interesting premise and amazing English teacher, but overall this is isn't a particularly strong shoujo show. That said, it still was a welcome deviation in terms of characterization and had an interesting premise.

This review contains mild and vague spoilers, but not specific plot/ending details.

Nope! This is not the shoujo anime you're looking for. Not unless you like over-dramatic, contrived storylines, thin and uninteresting characters, and more sap than a Canadian maple tree.

One day in high school, Naho receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. It accurately describes everything that will happen that day, including the arrival of a new transfer student from Tokyo named Kakeru. (Get ready to hear "Kock-ay-ROO" over and over again. You'll be hearing it a lot.) The letter says that Kakeru is no longer ... with them in the future, and Naho should save him.

The problems begin immediately; despite accepting that the letter is real, Naho ignores its advice the first day, and things go predictably wrong.

And really, Naho is the biggest problem out of the many issues which plague this show. There's no way to sugar-coat this, I'll just say it outright: Naho is a deeply stupid person. She is unobservant, socially awkward, and frequently makes terrible decisions. Most of the tension in the plot stems from her ineptitude, and she's rarely proactive--she either passively does what the letter tells her to do, or passively fails to take action, rarely making her own decisions.

There's an entire friend group in this show, and that's one of the few things I'll praise about it; they feel pretty natural together, and they're one of the more convincing friend-unit depictions I've seen in an anime. With that said, none of them have any real depth either. The most interesting of the bunch is Suwa, the odd man out in Orange's love triangle; he has a bit of pathos and courage, but we don't get to explore him in depth.

The series is mainly about Kakeru. Everything revolves around changing the future by helping him throughout the entire run of the series. But because he's not in on the central conceit--he doesn't know about the time traveling letters--he's a passive player in his own drama. And he's so defined by his own depression and regrets that there isn't room for anything else interesting. It's kind of hard to see why Naho and her friends like him, because he's kind of a quiet, personalty-less bummer most of the time.

So we have a situation where the protagonist is an idiot, her love interest is a passive, depressed bore, and the plot is based on a contrived cliche.

And it never really gets better. There's a lot of drama over banal things, like falling down in a relay race, or obviously contrived and ill-fated love triangles. There are emotional scenes where Kakeru's friends try to get it through his thick head how much he means to them, even though we as viewers never understand why he matters so much to them anyway.

At least it all looks nice. The animation is pretty good, and I like the character designs. The dynamics between some of the side characters are enjoyable, even though they're shallow; Hagita and Azu are amusing and provide some believable brevity to an otherwise glum and overwrought show. The time travel mechanics avoid the paradox problem, even though the answer to how the letters were sent is unsatisfying and goofy. The music and voice acting are fine.

But the writing is just too terrible for the studio to salvage much.

I'm not usually a fan of time travel, but that's not the biggest issue. Here's the bottom line: When you try to make a character-based drama, it's kind of important to make sure the characters don't suck. That's where Orange fails. I don't want to spend any time with these people. They're boring and dumb.

Nktheepic's Not-so-epic Reviews
Review 1: Orange

This review will most likely not contain spoilers, but I cannot guarantee that. Proceed with caution.
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People have always debated over whether human lives are controlled by fate or by free will. There are some that believe that everything is set in stone, while some also believe that humans control every aspect of their present lives as well as their futures. That being said, Orange is an anime that essentially sums up the doctrine of free will, as the characters of the show have to prevent the death of one of their close friends.

Story

The story follows a girl named ... Naho Takamiya who uses letters delivered to her by her 26-year-old self in order to save her close friend from death. While time travel has often been used in several different series, the creators took a unique approach to the use of time travel - which emphasized the present over the past or the future. Thus, the story was quite unique.

However, the story could have been improved. While the point of the story was to pull at one's heartstrings, I was unable to feel any sort of sadness or hopelessness while watching. This was mainly because the audience members could easily predict the ending from the beginning of the show. This is easily a shoujo type of story, where the main character ends up with her fated other, and where there are no tears shed or any sad endings.

Now, even as it easily followed the general archetype of shoujo anime, it was still unique. Thus, I rated the story as a 7/10 - because it was an interesting story in spite of it being rife with cliches.

Characters

The characters were almost exactly as I expected them to be, and thus I did not enjoy them at all. The main female protagonist, Naho Takamiya, was the housemaker type who did not have any redeeming qualities besides the ability to blush easily when in love (does that even count as a redeeming quality or is it just a flaw). She did not have any complexities and was basically a cookie-cutter shoujo heroine.

Next, the main male protagonist, Kakeru Naruse, did not have many qualities at all, except for low confidence and what looks to be depression. Even then, he consistently takes it out on others, like towards Naho, and it largely seems as if he is just hung up on one incident, his mother's death, believing that it is his fault. This seems less like depression and more like a normal reaction towards emotional stress, so he is being quite weak and melodramatic, just to keep the darn story going.

Finally, the side characters, who are Naho and Kakeru's friends, pretty much exist for the two to ultimately get together. These characters are not interesting in any way, shape, or form. Their whole purpose is to make Naho and Kakeru a thing, so even if they are removed, the story would ultimately have the same result. The only redeeming character of the side characters is Suwa, who is shown to be caring and puts Naho's happiness over his own. Suwa has proved himself to be a nice guy, but, just as in real life, the nice guy ultimately gets friend zoned.

Oof, now I feel bad for nice guys.

Due to the issues that I found with the characters, I rated them a 3/10.

Art

The art is quite average. I found the background art to be interesting and quite beautiful, but at the end, the characters were designed in a basic way. I rated the art a 5/10.

Sound

I do not normally consider sound as a big factor in anime, mainly because I skip the openings and endings whenever I binge watch a show. However, I decided to re-look at the opening and closing and found them to be quite delightful, albeit skip-worthy. So, I rated the sound as a 7/10.

Enjoyment

Even though there were several flaws in Orange, I still enjoyed it to a reasonable extent. Orange is the kind of show one should watch if they need a break from dark psychological thrillers or action masterpieces. It is certainly worth watching, even as there were several things that could have been improved. I hope you watch this and enjoy it.

I hope you liked this review. Please give me some feedback on it by commenting on my profile. Thank you very much for letting me display my opinions over this show. Have a nice day!

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Conclusion of Review 1: Orange
Nktheepic's Not-so-epic Reviews

6.5/10
I enjoyed watching, but I would say it's probably not for everyone. So, overall:

- Good plot, it´s interesting, it makes you want to watch the next episode as soon as possible because you just can´t wait to see if the protagonist will be able to save her friend;

- It's a comforting show, in the way that it mixes sci-fi, through the time travelling thing, with school life and all the clichés that come along with it; however, it's not another cute high school romance, it talks about very deep and emotional topics, such as depression and suicide; plus, the animation is very pretty and it ... matches the atmosphere the anime exudes;

- The main message is very emotional and well portrayed, as we see how such minor things, that initially have no weight in one's life, can turn into huge regrets; the anime portrays this very well, making the series very nostalgic and emotional.

On the other hand, there were things I didn't enjoy very much, although they didn't completely ruin the anime for me, but it might for others. So here's the points you should have in account before watching:

- The main character, Naho, is quite boring, she's a very shy girl who we barely know anything about, besides that she's in love with one of her friends; she can be very irritating in some moments due to never having courage to do anything, and I know, we shouldn't judge someone for being shy, but her personality can be very frustrating for viewers;

- The show doesn't do much to develop the characters, because, besides the main trio, Kakeru, Naho and Suwa (only in the last three episodes), the others only appear to say some funny line in the background and we don't really ever know anything specific about them, so you might feel the show could have done more;

- The ending is bittersweet, because it's not sad, but it makes you feel like it should've gone differently, somehow; a lot of people recommend watching the movie to have more information on the finale, but I would say the movie even emphasizes more the bittersweet taste; another thing about the ending is that it felt like the there's something missing in the plot, like they should've explore the friends reasons and lives a bit more for a better understanding.

Concluding, if none of the reasons above bother you entirely, I'd say you will enjoy this anime very much. I, personally, enjoyed partially, but didn't feel exactly fulfilled, that's why I said it's not for everyone.

Orange is a show that could potentially have a double appeal thanks to its premise. It presents itself as a drama-romance anime with a light sci-fi element in the form of having information from the future. These two elements while complimentary do not always interact well with each other, sometimes undermining either the narrative or the ideas behind it.

It would be unfair to Orange to expected it to explore its light sci-fi concept since it clearly presents itself as more of a teen-drama with a twist. However, Orange also does not help itself since it draws attention to its sci-fi ideas without delivering on anything. ... Perhaps it would have been better to leave it as unexplained magic than attempting to having characters think about the cursory implications of time travel and then just drop it without a second thought. While Orange could be satisfying to the viewer that is solely here to view a drama, those hoping that it is something of a more dramatic and subdued Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumyia which thinks about its ideas to an extent will be disappointed.

Orange does its characters fairly well with it being praiseworthy that they all genuinely feel like they are friends. Something which many other shows fail to get past. Despite this, one of our protagonist and arguably the focus of the plot, Kakeru feels distinctly under developed. This is in part addressed by the implication that his characterisation is subdued due to his emotional turmoil and suicidal ideation. Though as a result, it is the letters that end up telling us about Kakeru rather than us being show things directly. This also creates the strange feeling that Kakeru is somewhat limited as a character as we feel nothing about his responses are organic given the other characters access to future information. In addition, Kakeru not being the initiator for most of the story and being kept in the dark does not help this either.

This limitation feels exacerbated by the romantic interest between Kakeru and Naho since she has information from the future. While this does not mean that an attraction is now inexplicable, it never really address the idea that a viewer might immediately have: would this relationship even feel natural? From the outset, the letters containing information from the future come into play without any "natural" relationship developing between them aside from the first day they met. Perhaps the most painful things brought up is the parallel timeline idea, the question of if they should be altering the future and its inevitability. Heavy sci-fi questions that would be better reserved for the likes of Star Trek aside, the show does not use this to create any emotional tension between its cast. It is both a missed opportunity and a under developing points that characters already bring up.

Suwa is perhaps the most interesting character since it is clear from the first episode as Naho's future husband that he will stand a lot to lose. The plot moving forward makes this an apparent issue which Suwa is never really affected by. There is a very positive side to this in that Orange is tonally not a story about conflict between people and instead is them coming together. There would have been tonal whiplash if this were to become an overt flash point and it would undermine the themes of the show. However, since we are not seeing the story from Suwa's perspective, perhaps its more interesting elements are never visible and it seemed to be just swept under the rug with only hints of his wrestling with this decision. It is a Shojo anime so it would make the most sense that the perspective be Naho's. Sadly, the plot they created around their premise actually makes it more interesting to view it from Suwa's since there is deeper conflict there. This could be fixed with some retooling but that would be quite a drastic alteration to the plot and character dynamics.

While it is debatable on how well Orange portrays mental health and addresses its topic, it does present at the very least a decent portrayal. Praiseworthy is how Kakeru can still participate in social activities and even have burst of happiness despite his underlying struggle. On the other hand, it returns to feeling inorganic because of the information the other characters they received. There was little questions of how to go about implementing advice they received from the future with only two episodes dancing around this idea and largely coming to a non-conclusion. This creates many instances of contrived actions that feel off because the letters are used more as a plot device than as an element driving the plot.

Overall, Orange is a show that can only be recommended if someone is looking for a drama without any conflict within its main cast coming from their differing ideas or objectives. In that it is a hopeful show and has some merit since it does have better characters than your average show. However, it never fully utilizes its premise despite flirting with it and its resolution to the overarching tension of the show can feel a bit cheaply like "the power of friendship". Even then because of its own premise as letters from the future altering the past, it can feel oddly inorganic or off that the characters do not go very far into considering the full implications of it.

Perhaps Orange can be best surmised as having the right ingredients that make it a decent show but missing very far from its full potential. If you can over look that and are watching it almost purely as a drama, only then can it be said to be above average. Despite all its missed potential, because it is so much on the sci-fi side it is distinctly unfair to Orange to say its an abject failure because of that when it had very little pretence of attempting to be about that.

For those that were interested in its specific premise, a rating of 5.5 or even 5 out of 10 might be more accurate. For those solely interest in drama it might even be closer to a 7 as the characters are very competently executed if not for the premise. Attempting to balance the two and taking into account my own inclination for the science fiction elements of its premise, it is hard to give it anything more than a 6.

History [9]: The story and its plot is so beautiful, see how a letter of the future may or may not change the life of someone you want. See how all the characters strive to avoid mistakes, and be able to make someone happy. From the first to the last chapter is something so beautiful, since the slightest mistake can lose everything advanced.
But if the story is beautiful, what was the mistake of this anime? its animation
Art [3]: The first 4 chapters was a masterpiece, the gestures of the characters, the background, it was very beautiful, after that, there was a sudden fall, in which ... the animation was so horrible to a point that it gave you Other shame look at it. The key moments where there was pure sadness made you laugh the drawings, no longer conveyed happiness, pain and loneliness.
Sound [8]: the soundtrack is one of the most beautiful you can hear.
Characters [7]: The protagonists I liked their developments as characters, see what they think outside and inside the school is quite entertaining. As for the others, I would have liked more development, there is no detestable character.

Enjoy [6]: While the story, the characters and the soundtrack is beautiful, the animation makes all that can not be enjoyed at all, I felt that it could have been one of the best animes, if not for that. I would recommend reading the manga before the anime because there you can appreciate things better. A real waste.

I was disappointed with Orange. The anime I had recently finished before watching this newer series were Your Lie in April, Kaichou wa Maid-Sama, and Kimi ni Todoke, so, if you're familiar with those shoujo classics, you'll understand the high bar I was setting for Orange.

The worst thing was that time and time again the unoriginality of the characters' interactions/tropes were highlighted. I was repeatedly noting how similar the characters were to those in Kimi ni Todoke. In my opinion, the decision to tackle mental health/depression was poor in that the rest of the story was so bland.

That being said, I watched all 13 ... episodes in one day, so there must've been some redeeming factor; probably just the adolescent giddiness to be watching another shoujo anime that recreates the feelings of a high school crush no matter how long ago your own experience with it was.

Waffle - OK, so let's keep this short and simple. A friend of mine, when asked for an animator review, recommended this anime "Orange". This was roughly Christmas time so I personally thought the timing was slightly off, but a promise is a promise so I am making it for Valentine's say. Why? Because it is a romantic drama with a sci-fi twist.

Spoilers a Head....................................................................................................

Story - Have you ever watched an anime involving high school students? I am sure that has never even crossed your mind before, revolutionary I know but surprisingly uncommon with this genre of the medium. And, stop me if you have ... heard this before, have you ever seen an anime where the sub-main character is a transfer student who is the main character's love interest. That last one is kind of fresh, however, we are going to ignore it for the sake of the joke because I'm not funny. My point is that the story is fairly stereotypical as well as safe to do. Boy transfers in, girl likes said boy, the full story is about the girl not admitting this fact, friends help her to get close to the boy, both fall in love. It is a fairly easy structure, however, they added a small change; time travel. It's an interesting spin on the genre, with the concept being fairly impressive, the only gripe I have with it is they didn't utilise the time travel enough.

For example, let's take the letter that changes the story. Put simply, the main girl gets a letter from her future self, telling her past self about future events, to which she was sceptical at first. After witnessing them coming true she changes her mind and so the story continues with her changing the past. The problem lies in how? I mean how does any of this work? This is a very open question and there doesn't seem like there was an answer to it or at least one that is satisfying. This really didn't feel like a sci-fi anime, it felt like a romantic comedy
.
Animation - This one is at least satisfying. The best way I would say it is that it felt a little rough around the edges. Sure, nothing to the extent of Aon Hana, but there were certain issues in both animation and art style. T he art style took on more of a realistic approach, a relatively noble thing to do, however, this does make it much harder to animate. Moe is a unique thing, it is surprisingly easy to animate and easy to get the attention of people. The issues with realistic animation is the Uncanny Valley, a spectrum where if something looks too human people become scared of it. A much more realistic proportion and when there are mistakes they are much easier to see. Sure, it can be done in several cases such as Ghost in the Shell, but that had a massive budget for a start and had a much wider cast and crew, meaning more people to check things. Whilst I consider it noble to take on such a style it wasn't my cup of tea. The same thing can be said about the colours, ironically enough there was plenty of oranges, but for me personally, I found it to be oddly hard on the eyes. It could have just been the animation issues but something felt weird about the colours. Everything felt a little saturated and not appealing on the eyes, which is relatively odd as I recall that this is one of the anime's I couldn't binge watch, and I didn't realise at the time that this might have been the case. However, I am not confirming or denying.

Sound Design - The opening was country music - nope, just nope. And whilst I can't play it I encourage you to go and listen to it. And, whilst it wouldn't be my taste, I honestly can't think of anyone else who would enjoy it. However, even if it doesn't match up to my personal tastes, the OP wasn't catchy enough to hold my attention for long. As for the sound design no track was really too memorable, there were some that were slightly catchy, yes, but nothing that I can really get down and boogie with. As for voice acting, I stuck with the dub mainly because I thought that time travel would be something I needed to remember, for example, time, date, location, however this really wasn't the case, and whilst the dub is serviceable, as it is Funimations, it's not necessary that you would need to remember a lot of details, so if you prefer subs go with subs.

Characters - These have to be some of the weakest characters I have seen. It is so bad in fact that you only need to know three characters, main girl, main boy and love rival, also known as Naho, Kakeru and Hiroto. Those are the only characters that you really need to remember until the second half where everyone gets pushed. This here was an annoyance, you spent an entire season dedicating yourself to three characters and then you make everyone else relevant just because. And Naho has to be the worst one of them all. First off, her future self-time travels to get a guy she liked, killing off her baby, and yeah that was her future self but it still shows a bit of selfishness on her part, at least she got someone, and even throughout the rest of the show she is fairly stereotypical. Hiroto was the tolerable one, but at least he was nice a bit cookie cutter, but you know, a tolerable character.

The best character by far though, Kakeru. He had the most character development, a fairly deep backstory and he remained ignorant for the entirety of the show. This character is worth the watch though. The character has some very deep moments. And, as for the rest of the cast, who even remembers them. One was so bad they were reserved for getting bread; she was the bread girl. Nothing really happened much with the other characters and, for anyone that watched it, I think most will agree, they only really become relevant in the second act, and that is relevant with quotation marks. Sure, they did account for some plot points, but that is kind of a moot point, they didn't do that much to advance the story and, quite frankly, was a waste on Naho's money on buying them drinks.

Synopsis - Overall I would say that the only character that it worse the watch is Kakeru; he makes the entire show. The only other redeeming quality is the time travel gimmick, which they didn't even utilise, or at least not to its fullest extent. The soundtrack happened and the animation was noble, it doesn't mean it is worth watching for that, so yeah I would recommend watching it but it is one of these that you could pass and not miss much, however, if you are going to watch it, watch it for Kakeru.

Recommendations - Anything else... ok ok It's not that bad... try Kimi ni Todoke it's that close in both themes and feel to each other only ones good

Summary-Naho, a second year high school student, receives letters sent from herself 10 years into the future. Her future self asks her to prevent her "biggest regret", which has something to do with the new transfer student from Tokyo a boy named Kakeru. At first skeptical Naho begins to believe the letters as they accurately predict events.

Animation- The animation for the series is done very well. the character designs look very nice as well as the background. problems can be seen from long distance shots, but those rarely happen.
7/10
Sound- The soundtrack is average nothing really stands out, but it's not bad. The voice acting was ... done well, so no complaints there.
6/10
Story- Now the main theme about this whole story is about regret. Things that could have been done, but didn't, leading to the first timeline where Kakeru died. It isn't tell the letters are sent back in time where the main story is set that tries to give theses problems. The problem is that the time travel is never explained or presented leading to a cheap plot device where things are already figured out before they happen. It's also ridiculous because it seems they don't read ahead in the letters only what's next.
The positive note is that they are able to figure out ways to show that things can't be changed so easily or the way they wanted to be. Such as the letters not changing, leading to the idea that it's starting some parallel universe effect where one timeline doesn't affect the other because they're separate. they're where something that still couldn't be stopped like Kakeru's mom killing herself.
also the romance aspect wasn't that great. sorry not sorry.
5/10
Characters-Not much too say about them, they're all 2-dimensional with the exception of Kakeru(a bit). they all have unique personality, but nothing really changes about them. however it doesn't mean it's bad since they all have great interaction with me each other.
6/10
Enjoyment-There wasn't much I can say I enjoyed about the show, it was at times boring or endearing. also maybe because I'm a guy
6/13 episodes
Conclusion- good animation, above average soundtrack and characters, good voice acting, and an average story that needs more improvement.
5.5/10

Orange is a wonderful mix of everything that is right with Shoujo manga and everything wrong with Shoujo manga. Great Premise, horrible characters at least Naho and Kakeru are.
I can't talk about the Story though without talking about the Characters. As I said the Premise of the story is great and for some reason these always happen to hook me. But the way it seemed to only get dragged on by Characters that seem to act like there 6 and not 16 hurts the whole plot-line. So if your looking for consistency in your anime avoid this at all cost and just read the ... manga i heard its a lot better though I'm skeptical.
The art is actually quite good for the most part it's Shoujo so they go for the lighter colors in almost all the scenes. But just like the Story and Characters it's inconsistent. Usually i can give it a pass but the amount of times where i ended up seeing faces that seem to be right out a 4th graders sketch book is ridiculous. I don't know if they were rushing it or what but the show is all the worse because of it.
I didn't have a problem with the Voice actors/Actresses though Kakeru's voice didn't exactly pop specifically in the more dramatic scenes. The Opening and Closing are just kind of there almost as a after thought.
I still thoroughly Enjoyed the story line despite Oranges many many flaws. I'm a sucker for happy endings. All I can say is if your coming for a Shoujo title then here it is. Problems and all.

Spoiled orange juice below:

Okay, so I want to get in and out of this shit as quick as possible so let's just get the easy stuff out the way. The art is ok. It has some nice landscapes and shit that look like a slightly worse version of things you have probably seen before like The Girl who Lept Through Time. So the backgrounds and areas look good enough for a TV show. The characters are kind of muted and bland looking. The women's faces have a tendency to look like drugged out aliens with wigs on when they are at their worst, but usually, ... the art isn't that terrible. The voice acting is voice acting in which voices were projected onto the screen with sound through recording devices. That is to say, it was mostly average. I give props to the main character, the girl was emoting her heart out in this and I can tell even as a foreigner who only knows a smidgen of Japanese that she seemed more talented than the rest. The music like everything else was ok, it was the most average of average things about this show, with no real pitfalls or highs to speak of. Let's just get to what I really want to talk about here which is this shows story.

This show right here has one major problem with it. Ok so for people who don't know, this whole show is based around stopping one dude from killing himself during his high/secondary school years. Now the thing I kept asking myself when this was revealed was whether this kid was even worth saving or not and I just have to say it, friends, this kid wasn't worth even a quarter of the effort these other people put into saving him. He might not even be worth ten percent of the effort it took to keep his ass alive. I know that's a harsh thing to say and I would never say it about a real living person, but as a fictional character, this piece of shit was just not worth a single iota of the effort all these people put into saving him. As Bill Hick's would say "I don't think we're losing a cure for cancer with this guy." I don't even think we're losing a cure to foot fungus with this dude. Look if this kid was in a trolley track scenario I think most ethical systems would say it's a-ok to let the train ram this dude at full speed and save whoever or whatever is on the other set of tracks. Unless Yui Hirasawa is on the other track in which case send a cart down both lanes at full speed.
It's not even that this guy is terrible or more useless than average people, nor do I think people need to prove their worth to warrant being alive. I mean I'm clinging to existence and I don't feel particularly deserving or worthy of it especially at the moment. It's just the level of effort and sacrifices everyone else in the show has to commit to including ending a few perfectly happy marriages in order to go back and save this kid just seems mighty big. Especially when the kid still might want to be dead at the end of the day. I mean I know they would probably think all this effort is worth it anyway, but what if he just really wanted to die? Respect his wishes and leave the dude be. That is to say, don't pull out the necromancy books when I go. I'm where my ass want's to be, in hell for writing this review.
It all also hinges on the idea that he is worth saving because a high school romance went unfulfilled, you know those things that are notoriously flimsy and not stable once you reach adulthood and your priorities and perception of people change? This is for some reason worth more than being married to someone who seems like the nicest dude on the planet if this show is any indication. It's a really good responsible message to give to a mostly young audience that these romances have suicidal and cosmic significance. To be fair to this show though it's not like this fuck up is exactly new, I mean it's at least as old as Romeo and Juliet and that story also added political and cultural significance to the fleeting young romance at hand.

Harsh jokes aside let's get to the real problem here. If this kid had a real psychological problem and the show was about helping him overcome that and the problem was detrimental enough to explain why his personality was bland and uninteresting I could be more forgiving and this might even be one of my favorite shows. I like shows that take psychological problems and ailments seriously and if this show was a serious look at suicidal depression, I would say go ahead and save the poor bastard. Hell, I might even petition the universe to send an orange-haired vixen to come save me from whatever the hell is wrong with me, but the show isn't a serious look at any psychological problems, it's not serious about anything.
Another problem with this show related to that is that the reason the kid want's to kill himself is just dumb. I won't spoil it for people who want to know why, but this is also the kind of dumb that undermines people with actual suicidal depression and other mental ailments that might cause you to self-harm. This perception that people only ever have dumb reasons or that a short term "moody" feeling is the main reason why someone would kill themselves is the reason why people have the stupid reactions they do when people say they're having these problems. "Just get over it" sentiments that don't really reflect the reality of what is going on with a person that has these problems and is never good advice to anyone.
I can also tell that his lack of a cohesive and or interesting personality was a mistake and not part of his characterization and the reason I can discern this like a true ace detective, is that every other non-afflicted character is also not that interesting. I mean the most I can say about these people is they played a serviceable part in the story. Serviceable as in they didn't add any kind of interesting personality or depth to what was being told.

One of the biggest problems with this show is that even if you accept it's shallow framework and understanding of how this situation usually works out is in there attempts to bring him back they aren't really giving him any good reasons to want to be alive after all is said and done. You essentially get the "love conquers all" bullshit, but even that isn't really ironed out enough to be the clear outcome of this story.
It was nice that they tried to save this lad ok, but I just expect more from this kind of story and I think there needs to be more responsibility entailed in doing a story like this so that you're not further undermining mental illness. So in other words, great show literally, laterally and figuratively saved my life.

SPOILERish:

Going into Orange I had high hopes for the series. I was told that it was a great shojo anime and many people favorites. When I started the series that had come true. I found it quite enjoyable to watch.

However, after about the 4th episode it started to go downhill to me. I am a person who really likes sad shows and endings and at first, I had hope that this show would be like that. However, after a while, it started to turn a different direction than I had hoped. I am not saying it is a bad anime all I am saying is ... that it didn't go the way in which I liked.

The end of the show was what really sold it into me not liking it. I had hoped it would be a sad ending and something happened like it was supposed to because it helped the story. However, when the thing didn't happen I got disappointed about it. I had hoped that two people got together by the end who didn't and it really made me not like it as much as I could have.

I'm not saying don't watch the show. I'm saying it went the opposite direction that I wanted it to go and that it hurt how I felt about the show as a whole.