Name: Ao Haru Ride アオハライド Blue Spring Ride
Prequel: Ao Haru Ride: Unwritten
Sequel: Ao Haru Ride OAD
Status: Completed
Episode: 12
Release Date (for eng subs): Every Tuesday
Summary:
Yoshioka Futaba has a few reasons why she wants to "reset" her image & life as a new high school student. Because she's cute, she was ostracized by her female friends in junior high, and because of a misunderstanding, she couldn't get her feeling across to the one boy she has ever liked, Tanaka-kun.
Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won't be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but now things can never be the same again. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago?
Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won't be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but now things can never be the same again. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago?
Summary Source: MU
Summary From: http://myanimelist.net/anime/21995/Ao_Haru_Ride/
Personal Ratings: 2.5
I've read this manga, heard good things about this manga, and I've watched the anime. Honestly, I don't think that this anime is as good as people praise it to be. Maybe it's cause I'm not a huge fan of Shoujo, romance anime. Or that I didn't actually experience love to understand this. But all in all judging from the story line and the seiyuu, I still think that it isn't that great. But for those romantic girls out there, I guess this is the anime for you?
Firstly, comparing it with the manga, I think that they really did put emphasis on the scenes which makes Kou look cool. But I still didn't really see the cool side of him (explanation below). However, I still did think that some scenes were suppose to be a little faster and more flashy. Throughout the whole show, I find myself thinking of different ways I wanted certain scene to look like, especially for scenes which were (in my opinion) really important to the whole anime itself.
I'm not too sure if this follows the manga exactly (because I only read the manga twice, and I can't remember exactly how it went), but so far it seems like it does follow the manga quite closely, except for certain parts here and there and the last part where they were suppose to show the new character (the love rival). Judging from the ending, I think that there would be a 2nd season, however considering the fact that they left out quite an important scene for the introduction of the love rival (other than the library incident), I'm not too sure anymore.
They did come out with an OVA prequel, showing the past between the two main characters, about what happened in middle school. It's quite important to know the past between the two of them because the whole stories basically revolves around the past, and their past feelings for each other. And since the anime didn't really gave a complete view of the whole past (they gave only bits and pieces), I think that new viewers would watch the OVA first.
Certain really un understandable actions by the characters, which makes things really confusing. There were also a lot of cringing moments (even Kaji Yuki himself cringes when he says Kou's lines). I think it's because of those situations that made be evaluate this anime lowly. I'm not sure if it's cause of this scenes that actually attracts people, but I didn't find that it did any justice to the anime.
For example, why grab someone's hair all of a sudden and start smelling it, and all of a sudden start blabbering some really misleading words. Like there were a lot of weird actions like that throughout the whole anime, mostly between the two main characters. This really effected the whole anime and manga all together.
I thought that the emotional side of this anime was pretty good. I thought that I could really relate to Kou and his loneliness, sadness and hatred. Since it's mostly to do with exams and student life, I'm sure most people would be able to relate to this side; be it social problems or study issues. Could have done a little better with those scenes if it has more impact in terms of animation and voice acting (the whole thing with Yuki's discomfort in voicing Kou was quite obvious).
As for the issue would Kou's mother, I thought it was a great choice to break it down into different parts; brother's point of view, Kou's point of view and studying point of view. However I still did think that they could have gone stronger with the emotional part of it, be it the issue with Kou and his dad and brother, or the time when he was sick (and cried).
As for the Seiyuu, (as you all already know, since i mentioned it so many times before this), it took me a while to get use to the seiyuu, since I read the manga and already form an image of all of them, but I still can't get use to Kou's voice.
I think that Yuki was clearly out of his comfort zone this time. Never seen him voice act this kind of character before in this voice. Even in the interview when he was asked to do certain lines, he would cringe after finishing his lines. Clearly uncomfortable with it. Throughout the whole anime, it just bothers me that he is using this weird whisper voice to voice act Kou.
As for his brother, I don't know it's because I've grown too attached to Rei (from Free!), but every time he open his mouth, I think of Free! LOL!
Overall watchable, great background story, but filled with weird actions and not the right seiyuu.
Firstly, comparing it with the manga, I think that they really did put emphasis on the scenes which makes Kou look cool. But I still didn't really see the cool side of him (explanation below). However, I still did think that some scenes were suppose to be a little faster and more flashy. Throughout the whole show, I find myself thinking of different ways I wanted certain scene to look like, especially for scenes which were (in my opinion) really important to the whole anime itself.
I'm not too sure if this follows the manga exactly (because I only read the manga twice, and I can't remember exactly how it went), but so far it seems like it does follow the manga quite closely, except for certain parts here and there and the last part where they were suppose to show the new character (the love rival). Judging from the ending, I think that there would be a 2nd season, however considering the fact that they left out quite an important scene for the introduction of the love rival (other than the library incident), I'm not too sure anymore.
They did come out with an OVA prequel, showing the past between the two main characters, about what happened in middle school. It's quite important to know the past between the two of them because the whole stories basically revolves around the past, and their past feelings for each other. And since the anime didn't really gave a complete view of the whole past (they gave only bits and pieces), I think that new viewers would watch the OVA first.
Certain really un understandable actions by the characters, which makes things really confusing. There were also a lot of cringing moments (even Kaji Yuki himself cringes when he says Kou's lines). I think it's because of those situations that made be evaluate this anime lowly. I'm not sure if it's cause of this scenes that actually attracts people, but I didn't find that it did any justice to the anime.
For example, why grab someone's hair all of a sudden and start smelling it, and all of a sudden start blabbering some really misleading words. Like there were a lot of weird actions like that throughout the whole anime, mostly between the two main characters. This really effected the whole anime and manga all together.
I thought that the emotional side of this anime was pretty good. I thought that I could really relate to Kou and his loneliness, sadness and hatred. Since it's mostly to do with exams and student life, I'm sure most people would be able to relate to this side; be it social problems or study issues. Could have done a little better with those scenes if it has more impact in terms of animation and voice acting (the whole thing with Yuki's discomfort in voicing Kou was quite obvious).
As for the issue would Kou's mother, I thought it was a great choice to break it down into different parts; brother's point of view, Kou's point of view and studying point of view. However I still did think that they could have gone stronger with the emotional part of it, be it the issue with Kou and his dad and brother, or the time when he was sick (and cried).
As for the Seiyuu, (as you all already know, since i mentioned it so many times before this), it took me a while to get use to the seiyuu, since I read the manga and already form an image of all of them, but I still can't get use to Kou's voice.
I think that Yuki was clearly out of his comfort zone this time. Never seen him voice act this kind of character before in this voice. Even in the interview when he was asked to do certain lines, he would cringe after finishing his lines. Clearly uncomfortable with it. Throughout the whole anime, it just bothers me that he is using this weird whisper voice to voice act Kou.
As for his brother, I don't know it's because I've grown too attached to Rei (from Free!), but every time he open his mouth, I think of Free! LOL!
Overall watchable, great background story, but filled with weird actions and not the right seiyuu.
Art Ratings: 2
Didn't really like the art. Could tell that they kept the feel of the manga's art in the anime, but somehow the art in the manga made be go "It's pretty~" while the anime art made me go "Looks weird".
Animation was smooth no issue, I just thought that they could have played more with the flashy scenes, than keeping it so mundane.
Animation was smooth no issue, I just thought that they could have played more with the flashy scenes, than keeping it so mundane.
Recommended for:
Gender: Female
Age: 13 and above
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