Waiting in the Summer
Hey, it wasn’t all that long ago we had another show beginning with Ano, and because of that and the similar themes, comparisons between AnoHana and AnoNatsu have sprung up. And i’m saying this because I don’t think it’s fair to compare them. AnoNatsu is very experimental, with it’s overall theme changing at the very end of the show into some form of sci-fi romance.
Ano Natsu de Matteru starts off as a romance, where an alien comes to earth looking for a place they’ve lost in their memories for a very long time, and a nerdy male human falls in love with her at first sight. He manages to recruit her into filming a movie project over the summer, and the story begins from there.
Being a male, romance doesn’t appeal to me as much as it would appeal to other people. However, even I could enjoy the almost dream-like romance that featured in this show, and it wasn’t overly mushy and overly cutesy…almost like it understood how to appeal to both genders. There’s the fantasy, “I met a sci-fi girl who was amazingly hot and fell in love with her” for the guys, and there’s the cute romance aspect for the female viewers. It’s often really hard to make a gender neutral romance, an that’s why I admire this show in my own way.
However, the show isn’t perfect. It had a prominant love triangle in the background, and that slowly starts to become a huge, major theme, and well…I don’t tend to like love triangles, but this one was done really well. There’s reasons behind everyone’s actions and why everyone loves each other, and why they all can’t hug and stay friends. Mostly, it may be down to the idiotic male lead, but hey…males are meant to be clueless at romance, so what did you expect?
Romance aspect aside, the sci-fi very much comes into focus in the latter half of the show. More aliens come to rescue the existing alien, and the group of friends all has to band together and save the alien from being caught by more aliens. It’s not as lame and as cheesy as I make it sound, as this part is what really shows that romance in friendship groups doesn’t ruin friendships..despite what people commonly think.
Overall, this makes Ano Natsu a show that’s worth watching if you want a realistic romance in teenagers. Teenagers often have love triangles and complicated, fantasy styled romance, and that’s what redeems the show to me.
Meeping Anime 
This series really hit home for me. I was tearing up at the conclusion. People say that it’s better to fall in love than feel nothing at all… But that is a complete and utter lie. The pain of losing someone when you both love each other due to circumstances you can’t control is the absolute worst feeling in the world. It’s a feeling that you may never get over.
Magic says that love is the essence of humanity itself…and I fele that it’s pretty true. I got that tingly sensation during the last episode xP