Story: 7
The entire anime can be basically summed up in two words: unrequited love. That’s at the core of most of the characters’ motivations. There are a couple of cast regulars that aren’t caught in the vice grip of unreturned feelings, and I do mean a couple, in both senses: there are two, and they are the only romantic couple throughout the series. Otherwise, everyone else gets bitten by the bug. This is the heavier part of the plot, as the longing for someone that does not long for you is often a painful place to be, just ask anyone who’s been in that position.
Even our main character, the dark haired, glasses-wearing Sumi is having to struggle through those feelings for her best friend, the blonde Kazama. Our blondie is open about her love for other girls, though she herself has known unrequited love. We don’t see Sumi being known as open about her sexuality, because she seems to only have eyes for Kazama, which she doesn’t confess openly to her friend, but in just about every other aspect, is quite transparent in her feelings. But unfortunately for Sumi, Kazama has a thing for feminine, cute type girls, and not for the athletic type, which is what poor Sumi is. Couple that with Sumi’s unusual height and she seems to turn quite invisible to Kazama.
Yet when Kazama falls for other girls, and gets her feelings shattered when they don’t return her affections, Sumi is the shoulder she seeks first to cry on. Sumi of course is always there, and the movement of the main plot line is the story of how their relationship grows and changes.
To counter all of this heavy feeling stuff, the series is injected with a great deal of humor, usually centered around Sumi and the younger girl in the lesbian couple who plays the comedic foil to Sumi’s over the top reactions. The older of the couple also plays a role in the humor, often with indominable spirit and determination to establish a ‘Girls Club’ for young ladies with similar feelings to meet and socialize. No matter the obstacle that arises against the founding of the club, this girl cannot be deterred leading to some very funny moments of her own.
The addition of the humor to the overall storytelling gives the series a bit of distinction. Yes, I know there are other funny yuri anime series out there. I’m aware of ones that are funny on purpose like Sakura Trick and ones that are funny unintentionally, such as Strawberry Panic, but Sasameki Koto seems to strike a balance for me that makes it notable as well, for daring to delve fairly deep into feelings and mixed emotions and jealousy, and yet still have enough amusing moments to keep from bogging down too deep. This is most decidedly not Maria-sama ga Miteru or Aoi Hana (though I *really* loved those two) and it’s a good thing, not every romance has to be filled with only dramatic moments. This anime proves that you can have a fairly serious plot but still not lose the humor completely.
Why have I knocked the score a little on the story section? Mainly because of some dropped characters that interested me and then kind of go and disappear. First we have a young man that is a fashion model, but as a girl. In fact, Kazama kind of falls for the girl in the magazine which leads to Sumi researching the model and finding out it’s the guy from school. He’s totally in love with Sumi who is in love with Kazama who starts crushing on him in his ‘her’ persona. He, as a female, joins the Girls’ Club and attends a few of the sessions before kind of dropping off the radar as Kazama’s eye moves on to another.
Secondly another tragic character comes along that also gets left behind, and also falls in love with Sumi, a young woman who is deeply inspired by a female author of yuri romance who actually turns out to be Kazama’s older brother writing under a pen name. This anime does get a bit like Star Wars where everyone is related to everyone else in some manner, that’s another scratch, but the poor girl does her best to impress Sumi, and while Sumi feels badly for her, she just doesn’t have those feelings for anyone other than Kazama. Eventually the heartbroken girl realizes the truth, and comes to accept that Sumi will never be hers. She then immediately exits, stage right. Not a further peep about her. I kind of wondered where these two went off to, and would have liked a deeper look at their post-situation lives. Does the boy continue to model? Does he ever realize he’ll never have Sumi, like the girl did? And the girl, knowing she cannot be with her crush, does her life come together for her? Does Sumi continue their friendship? The girl’s arc deals with a passion project that Sumi helps her with, a project that due to her exacting standards is shown to have cost her friendships in the past. Does she learn to let go? Is she successful? New friends maybe? All it would have taken for her is one shot of the project doing
well to satisfy my wondering about her.
As the series closes, the story focuses tighter in on Sumi and Kazama, which of course is expected, but I kind of would have preferred a more complete wrap for everyone else. Even the lesbian couple just give way to the center plot as the ending rolls around. I wonder, were they ever able to create a proper Girls Club? Did the older girl in the couple end up in jail for that whole
‘beach’ incident? Things like that makes me lower the score some.
Art: 8
I liked the art on this one too. Sumi is well drawn, and I love the way her glasses look. The rest of the girls (and guy) are all well done, the backgrounds are nice, and the colors are vibrant. I didn’t mind the appearance one bit on this one.
Sound: 7
I kind of have an issue with the opening song. It is very pretty, light, airy, soulful. Reminds me a lot of the opening theme for Aoi Hana. Therein lies the problem. Often within 20 seconds of the theme ending, Sumi is blowing her top at something or some other crazy comedy bit drops. It’s a good song, but it’s not really all that well fitted to the show. Then end theme, however, works really well. It strikes the right note between being ‘love’-like and being playful. Just know that the beautiful vocals in the beginning might just be followed by Sumi karate chopping someone immediately afterwards.
Character: 7
I really kind of covered this aspect in the story section really well. The characters are sometimes a little flat, but for the most part work well, except for kind of suddenly disappearing. Kazama has an interesting development arc as she goes through the story. Oftentimes in romance stories, things can seem a bit like a light switch, flipped either on or off without much notice. Kazama follows a subtler arc as she comes to terms with her own feelings. Sumi does not waver in her devotion for Kazama for one instant but that does not really detract from her character, it just shows that she has a deep affection that is beyond silly lust or experimentation. She truly loves Kazama and seems ready to take on a life of just friendship if that’s what it takes to be close to her. As I said, refer to the story section for more of a breakdown on characters there.
Enjoyment: 8
I did enjoy this anime because it is well done in my opinion (who could have predicted a review comes down to personal opinions?!) and I really enjoyed watching it. I actually watched this one twice, which is not something I’m always so ready to do, with my list of recommendations being a mile long at this point. It was moving without being too sappy, it was funny without being too stupid, it was memorable for all the right reasons. The only note I have on the ending is that I could have used a ‘bigger’ scene, but it was not as ambiguous as many are (Aoi Hana once again comes to mind) but was still somewhat muted.
So there we have it, another fairly well done yuri title that given a chance, might just sate that spot in your heart for girl love. I feel my heart full of determination for the establishment of the Girls’ Club! Too bad I’m a guy and they won’t let me join. For the RTLR wall of fame, Sumi scores a pretty prominent spot.
