Oct 9, 2023
Ao Haru Ride is a very cliched romance anime that shows us how to do cliches right by having insane emotional depth and getting you attached to its memorable characters. Its very essence is watching Futaba try to navigate the maze that is Kou and his past while trying to become part of his present life.
As a romance anime fanatic, this was one of the very few animes that I still remember clearly despite having watched it first nearly 8 years ago; that goes to show just how remarkable the character-building was in this anime, particularly for Kou. He starts out as a passive, aloof,
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and avoidant douche who has no aspirations or anything he cares for, which all of us find frustrating I bet, but we watch him slowly open up to Futaba and despite his passive aggressiveness, you can see that he still does care through the way he sees himself in her. I've truly never sympathized with a character as much as I have Kou, that goes to show just how well his character was built and I truly love this anime for it. Futaba also gets her fair share of character development, though not as angsty and personal, and it's not particularly remarkable, her main goal is to help Kou break out of his misery after all. The side characters are quite typical in the anime unfortunately since they did not get their time to shine yet, but they're all coherent and go well together as a group.
My absolute favourite thing about this anime that couldn't have happened in the manga is definitely the soundtrack. Each track is so engaging and the OP is quite literally forever engrained in my brain. The romantic scenes accompanied by the emotional piano just have me kicking my feet while rewatching this anime for the 8th time. Everything about the emotional intimacy between Kou and Futaba has me in awe wishing I could find someone who fits me that well. SHE LITERALLY FIXED HIM.
I genuinely believe whoever doesn't like this manga either has no business watching romance anime or cannot see past the surface level of emotional depth in each character. Kou IS a douche and Futaba IS pushy but it's all for a reason.
I definitely recommend reading the manga after finishing the anime if you think the side characters were lacking. There's still a lot more to the story that's yet to be animated. :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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