Story : 9/10
This anime began where a girl named Nanami Takahashi went into her first year of high school. She met Yuri Yamamoto and catches wind of a well known boy in their class : Yano Motoharu. Yuri cares little about Yano because of his past association with her older sister Nana, and at first, Nanami loathed Yano's attitude but as time passes, she began to take a liking of him. The two of them hung out and ended up dating. However, their affection is tested with obstructions, such as, Yano experiencing difficulty opening up to Nanami since his first girlfriend, Nana, died in a car accident a year back, and she had been with one of her exes at the time. Ending up living in the shadow of Yano's association with Nana, Nanami and Yano battle to keep their relationship above water in the midst of errors and anguish with the conviction of their affection for one another.
The plot quite a stunning turn. For the initial couple of episodes, I felt as though the anime feels so long yet so short. I attempted my best to concentrate and absorb the composition of the plot, however, it was plain and exhausting to see and it made me yawn, stop mid-episode because I thought that the episode's almost finished, and numerous different things. I also felt as though their takings were too fast paced. As I kept watching the more and more, I felt as though the episodes were reverting back to typical and I didn't feel as if they were as long as before any longer. The anime turned out to be progressively enjoyable until I realized that the exhausting scenes were basically an impetus to boost the story development.
As the roller coaster proceeds, the story became increasingly distressing, epic, confusing and fun until it hits the peak. The climax merited the build-ups, but after the climax achieves its end,the falling action of the plot starts. Truly, I figured it wasn't awful and kept watching since I felt as though they were working up a decent closure. But.. Sike! You just got jebaited, watcher! The resolution of the plot is like a swarm of junk tumbling from the sky and hitting me. I was left panicked and stunned from the ending that I was about give this anime a low score.
But I still had faith within the anime, so I decided to read the manga! And that is when I finally discovered the true ending that finally closed my perplexed feelings for the anime. Without the manga, this anime would've been a pain in the ass for me because I never knew that this anime was a shoujo soap drama. The manga really made me feel relieved and I'm glad I didn't give up. Overall, I think the story development was brilliant for a true shoujo soap drama, what could be improved though is the romance because for some reason I feel as if the male protagonist is not enjoying being with the female protagonist as much. I don't know if this is related to the story development or just the lacking of character expression, so I will put it in both. Other than that, there's nothing else for me to complain because the story is already perfect!
Art : 7/10
I won't go berserk mode and criticize the art much because this anime is from 2006, but seriously, I can't take away the fact that the characters look so ugly. Especially their back, the characters uniform ( especially pants ) looked too large that it made me felt as if the makers don't know how to draw the back of the characters. Despite the crappy 2006 quality, I think the art is okay and it could be drastically improved if you just slap some more money into it.
Sound : 6/10
"lol". I think the worst thing about this anime is the sound. Okay, the OP's good and the ED's satisfactory. But other than that, the voice actors seem to not know how to truly express feelings for characters and it made some important scenes look less important. They just sound..Too boring. I don't like how it's like that, so the sound could be improved if the voice actors try harder.
Character : 9/10
Character development is as good as the story. Well..Not as much. The development circles around the main characters attempting to overcome their obstacles blocking their path of love. And that's about it.
Enjoyment : 9/10
The anime was very fun to watch. There's a lot of episodes and the plot is good.
Overall : 9/10
I enjoyed this anime, but I wouldn't be as much if I didn't read the manga. So if anyone is interested in watching this anime, I recommend you to read the manga after. ( you can just continue from where it left off )
