Our Eruption Festival is a coming of age story about two high school students that undergo a change as a result of a volcano eruption that turns their formerly average town into a thriving hot-spring resort. The premise of OEF is quite a simple one, of course you'd kind of expect this from a 16 chapter series. Regardless of it's simple premise and short length, there is quite a bit of depth in this story, particularly in regards to the themes of youth and change. I won't go too deep into the story, i'll just say that I really appreciated how simple yet fulfilling of a story OEF was.
I'm typically quite fond of the sketchy kind of art styles, and that's probably why I rated the art for this series so high. The art was very suitable for a series such as this, especially when it comes to character designs. Our Eruption Festival is a series soaked in realism and grittiness due to the coming of age themes, and the art is quite adept at representing such, despite the sketchy facade.
As for the characters in this, they're very well realized. Not to say I've seen people like them in real life, but I think that the kinds of personalities and motivations that they display are quite true to life. This is especially true when it comes to people, especially students, that are unsure about what they want to do with their lives. This theme in particular is present a fair bit throughout the story, the characters displaying these poignant themes surprisingly well. Of course, the series is quite short so the characters themselves aren't too developed in terms of the intricacies of their personalities and such, but for what we got I'm content.
Something else I haven't yet mentioned is that it's actually quite a funny read too, maybe not laugh out loud levels of funny, but it made grin quite a bit and elicited a few chuckles. Thankfully, this adds a decent amount of charm to a story that is for the most part serious, and is a another for the series as a whole.
This is simple yet thoroughly enjoyable read, similarly in story and themes to a few of Taiyou Matsumoto, most notably Ping Pong. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you've read/watched Ping Pong and enjoyed it, you're almost guaranteed to enjoy this series as well.
I highly recommend this one.
