Review of Waiting in the Summer
"The events of a single summer. Back then, we weren't doing anything, but we wanted to. That's when she showed up and made our summer memorable. Joy and sorrow all joined. That summer, we can never forget." When I saw this anime come out, I thought it would be an Onegai Teacher clone that I watched way back in 2002. The premise of this anime also reminded me of AnoHana. Considering these two situations, I came into this anime with low expectations. However, AnoNatsu proved me right and wrong in multiple ways, and that was what made this anime memorable. This is my first anime review,so try not to bash me too much :P SPOILS AHOY.
Story (7/10)
The story starts out with our protagonist, Kaito, running around with his camera filming random things. As he goes into a soliloquy about his thoughts about death, a spaceship suddenly crash lands near him and death himself knocks him over a railing and invites him into the afterlife. Just before he falls to his death, a girl saves him and he wakes up the next morning with no memory of the incident. The girl, named Ichika, then transfers to his school the very next day, and gets invited by one of Kaito's friends, Tetsurou, to be in a movie with Kaito and the rest of his friends as a fun summer activity. Ichika has nowhere to stay, so Kaito invites her to stay with him. As summer break approaches, drama/romance and the slice of life elements appear.
I personally enjoyed the story. It described a genuine experience of a group of friends just trying to have fun in the summer. Lemon, a Third-Year student in the same class as Ichika, was the driving force of the group and created most of the comedy in the show, which I really liked. She taught me that summer is a time for fun activities such as making your friends go batshit insane when they drink a juice and spying on people. The romance was realistic, but I felt like the tension between Ichika and Kaito was dragged out. It was a bit frustrating seeing their relationship either stagnate or fluctuate between awkward and tense. I also felt that after 10 episodes of slow romance, the plot accelerates into Ichika's problem in space. The plot moved too quickly for anyone to understand what's happening after the main couple finally got together. I'd also like a clearer ending than the "it's up to the audience" ending that they gave us. Overall, it was an enjoyable story about a group of friends experiencing a memorable summer, but the pacing of story was questionable.
Art (8/10)
To be honest, I have nothing much to say here. Vibrant colors, smooth animations, pleasing character designs. J.C. Staff did a good job in the art department, which is surprising considering their past animes' art have been subpar. The only complaint from me is that the art is unoriginal, but it works. One thing I'd like to say is that I felt that the artists focused more on the setting than the actual characters, but maybe that's just me :P
Sound (9/10)
Yeah, I must hand it to AnoNatsu, they did a great fucking job at this. The background music was actually memorable with upbeat acoustics. But the thing that pushed AnoNatsu's sound department to a 9/10 is the OP and ED. the opening, "sign" by Ray, was cute and upheld a feeling of anticipation (for summer). But what stole the show for me was the ED, "Vidro Moyō" by Nagi Yanagi. This song plays during the emotional climax of each episode, and believe me, it made a HELL of an impact on my feels. The feelings I felt while the song played drove me from a smile to tears. It was THAT good. I can't give them enough credit for the sound.
Character ( 7.5/10)
I felt that the two main characters, Kaito and Ichika, were unoriginal. Even though their romance is well-written, the characters themselves feel uninteresting. Even with Ichika being an alien ( This isn't a spoiler because you find out immediately), it still didn't interest me because her personality and development was typical. The side characters stole the show for me. Kanna was funny and charming in the beginning, but became a strong character in the end. Tetsurou was the typical guy sidekick in the beginning, but became more relatable and memorable as the series continued. Mio was just an average and shy girl in the beginning, but it is later revealed that she is more than meets the eye, and I was impressed with her character development. Finally, Lemon-senpai was just so fucking hilarious that I couldn't dislike her.
Enjoyment (8/10)
Not much to say here. The story was good even though the pacing could use some work, the characters were genuine and pleasing, and the sound was amazing.
Overall (8/10)