I first came across this little anime after finishing watching Nobody's Boy Remi on Anime News Network. I had run out of anime to watch and felt like starting on some new ones. Thankfully, Nanaka 6/17 turned out to be a fine little anime for me to watch before school started for me.
So basically it's about two kids who grow apart upon entering high school. Nanaka's the studious girl and Nenji's the delinquent. Then, they get into an argument and Nanaka gets a brain injury which causes her to suffer from 'Backwards Aging Syndrome' as I call it. She's turned back into her 6 year old self and Nenji has to babysit her. Simple enough, right?
Yes, this is a very simple story. Nothing complicated, nothing totally bland. Just simple and easy to understand, though it does go into a strange direction in the end, but it's not anything bad. I liked how it was executed.
The animation is, like the story, simple. It's not trying to be extravagant, which is good because sometimes I see that backgrounds tend to be a tad exaggerated in anime. But unlike the story, the animation tends to get a little bland at certain points. It's nothing special, but nice enough. The soundtrack too. It's not mind-blowingly awesome, nor is it bad. It just doesn't really stand out.
The characters are what made the show for me. You'll be surprised by the changes that the main character, Nenji, goes through in order to reconcile with Nanaka and rekindle his old relationship with her. He does start out rather bland, but his development throughout the show is just amazing. He knows that he can't walk away from certain responsibilities or else his reputation might kick the bucket. Nanaka's got nice development too. She starts out as a stony-faced girl who can't think of anything better to do than study study study and not care about others. Thankfully she grows into a better person, even with her age regression, by the end of the show. The pink-haired girl, Yuriko, is definitely a change from the usual 'other girl likes the main guy who the main girl falls in love with' in most anime. Instead of being jealous and raving, she's calm and considerate and knows that although she likes Nenji and used to dislike Nanaka a little at first, she knows she can't force herself on Nenji and that Nanaka's a person who also deserves a little bit of happiness.
Of course, while there are good things about this show, there are also bad things about it. The biggest flaw of this show? I feel it's the way they make little kids TOO mature sometimes. I mean, what little 5-6 year old girl would know the meaning of the words reference and reasonable and relationship? And what little kid would want to wish to be a housewife at such a young age!? That makes absolutely NO sense at all (unless it took place in the 19th century, but that's a different matter entirely)! Little kids should be little kids and play around with dolls and toys, not do housework and hook up with a high school guy! Good thing this show didn't pull a Kodomo no Jikan. Ugh. I'd hate to see this go into that direction.
Well, even with its flaws, Nanaka 6/17 is a nice little show about childhood, nostalgia, growing up, and learning lessons in life. It's not mind blowingly awesome, but it's not bad either, and that's fine with me. But don't expect it's portrayal of little kids to be entirely realistic.
