Kimagure Orange☆Road: Shounen Jump Special

I realize this review won't help a single person who HAS seen or read the source material, but I went in blind and actually enjoyed this special:

Y'know, I had no idea what Kimagure Orange Road was, except that it was some 80s series, and then the sequel movie was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki, who directed the excellent Ocean Waves and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. so I was gonna watch that sequel movie without any context, but then I saw this one-off OVA and thought, hey, maybe it'll give me some good context to watch this first, since Mochizuki also directed it.

And yeah, it's pretty nice. Turns ... out this was made BEFORE the TV show, a pilot of sorts, so it's basically what you're "supposed" to watch first even if it assumes you are already long familiar with these characters. It's cute and unassuming, but its main draw is the all-encompassing 80sness of it, which I will admit I am quite susceptible to. Good music, good antics. That's probably all you need sometimes.

As a pilot, it was okay but not amazing. Back then, I didn't know who Yuusaku, Hikaru, and Kazuya were. I only know that Madoka is this beautiful waifu.

I watched this first so I could experience it without watching the TV series. It gave me a good enough motivation to watch the TV series, but nothing to write about. Had I watched the TV series first before watching this, I might have had a different opinion as I would have had some context as to who these people are and their relationship dynamics.

It is essentially an earlier of version of Episode 46, an episode ... where Kyousuke and Madoka are in a life-threatening situation.

As I am writing this, I checked some of the clips and the animation is stunning. As mentioned earlier, it's not complete unto itself but can be a motivation to watch the main series.

I won't recommend that route right now. Just watch episode 1 and see for yourself if you like this anime. The only reason the studio created this is to test the market if there are viewers who would be interested, sort of like a beta version.