Review of Rumbling Hearts

*Everybody who reads this: PLEASE understand that this is my opinion, and even though you might not agree, I have an opinion too, and I would like it to be respected, just how you expect to have your opinion respected. Just because I thought that something was better than you thought or worse than you thought, doesn't mean that I did a "Bad review". If I did a "Bad Review" than I wouldn't have cared to make a review in the firstplace. Also, I can understand if I might have said something that offended you, upset you, or whatever, but I literally can't quite helpthat. I certainly can make a review that deserves "Constructive Criticism", but I certainly don't intend on EVER making a "Bad Review" of anything. Anyway, rant over. Onto another review.

In English, it is known as "Rumbling Hearts." Its a romance anime that likes to take a look into relationships among friends and how they play off each other. Now, I have seen this at least one other time, and honestly, I thought it was pretty bad, but that was about 6 years ago. I rewatched it again but didn't finish it, and then about a year ago, I watched it again, and I loved it. Why all this change? Well, for one, I couldn't relate to them years ago, but now that I am older, the changes they made also I can relate to, so here we go, Rumbling Hearts.

The Story is about how 4 friends grow in their friendship, struggle with their friendship, until one of them succumbs to an accident, and they all were never the same again. Now, It may not seem like a good romance anime, but each of these people are unique, in the sense that they develop almost like real people and they go through semi-real struggles. Now, I don't quite understand why 14 episodes, because it seems that they fleshed out some things, and they should have just done a 24-ish length instead of making it this confusing, but it was a very well done story, even if some things don't seem right. (8/10)

The art wasn't spectacular, but it was VERY good for its time. For anime that have appeared around this time, it is definitely very well done visually. This is also a year, where it is transitioning between the older styles, like Berserk and even older anime have been in to a more modern style with some modern effects. Now, it isn't even the best of its time, but it definitely is definitely up there, in terms of visuals. (8/10)

The music and such wasn't too great, but it wasn't even mediocre. It had a nice ambiance, which really did well at the very least keeping me entertained and keeping me VERY interested in the story and everything else. (7/10)

Now, the characters were actually better than I expected them to be, since it is a romance anime. Now, I don't think that these characters are better than Clannad's characters, but I didn't finish Clannad at all, so I can't really judge it wholeheartedly. It mostly revolves around the 4 main characters, two males and two females, who have some wierd and convoluted love rectangle go on, which helps to add interesting twists. Mitsuki is definitely my favorite of the two women, and she goes through some tough emotional stuff with Takayuki, the main male lead. Now, the only character that I don't particularly like is Takayuki's best guy friend, Shinji Taira, but he is more of a supporting character overall, despite being important to the development of Takayuki and Mitsuki. (7/10)

Overall, this anime was definitely better after watching it a number of times, but it definitely could have been played better. It definitely was a very enjoyable anime to watch and its one of those anime that you have to see, as a rival to Clannad, and no, I am not trying to say that it is better, because I haven't finished Clannad, and nor am I going to finish it for awhile.