Review of Rumbling Hearts

The next review is heavy in spoilers; the story contains information that might spoil at least half the story and it might continue down to the character development. I advise anyone who might not have watched the anime yet to skip these two parts as it might ruin their experience enjoying this anime… Story: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is the story of Haruka Suzumiya, Takayuki Narumi and Mitsuki Hayase, the tragedy that will happen in the future and the drama the characters will have to live after the tragedy… It all starts with Haruka Suzumiya falling in love with Takayuki Narumi one day, but due to her shyness,Mitsuki Hayase, Haruka’s best friend introduces herself to Takayuki in order to carry her best friends love to takayuki, along with Shinji Taira, the 4 form a group off great friends. Latter Haruka confesses her love to Takayuki, who accepts her feelings after some time of walking together, and start seriously dating, but during these happy times for the two, Mitsuki starts to appear between them, as she also starts to develop feelings for Takayuki. One day Takayuki and Haruka have a date and planed to meet in front of the station at 14:00, Takayuki is in a hurry to meet her, but finds Mitsuki while rushing and is asked to buy her a ring; it’s her birthday, after that Takayuki realizes he’s already late and runs to the station, in the meanwhile at 14:10 in front of the station Haruka waits, when arriving at the meeting point, Takayuki notices a huge commotion, there seems to have been a grave accident, when arriving at scene he notices Haruka was involved and is taken to the hospital, Takayuki is shocked with horrible accident…
3 years have passed Takayuki and Mitsuki are found together, they have changed and look adults now, it seems they are more than friends now, Latter we find that Haruka has been in coma for all this time without moving.
Takayuki during the year after the horrible accident which put Haruka into a deep coma, recluses himself in home without leaving or even living, during this time Mitsuki is taking care of him and starts to develop feelings for him, until one day she cant hold those feelings anymore and hands her body to him, only after the two start developing a serious relationship Takayuki manages to get rid of the past and leave reclusion, this relationship grows during the next two years until the present, 3 years after the accident.
What will happen when Haruka wakes from her deep slumber and realizes she passed the last 3 years of her life sleeping while the people close to her was betraying her, how will Takayuki and Mitsuki react when it happens, who will Takayuki chose in the end??

Characters: There are 3 main characters in the story Takayuki Narumi, Haruka Suzumiya and Mitsuki Hayase, 2 other important characters for the story Akane Suzumiya and Shinji Taira and 2 more side characters, not relevant to the story yet they add some fun to the show and present us with a little omake in the end of each ep starting from the 3rd, they are Ayu Daikuuji and Mayu Tamano. There are some other minor characters but not worth mentioning. And then there is the book, not a character, but plays one important role in Haruka’s life.

Takayuki Narumi – He is the Main character in the story. Haruka as confessed her feelings to him, and after some initial troubles, they start a serious relationship until the day of the accident. After that he feels responsible for not meeting Haruka in time and falls into a depression which lasts one year. During this time he is barely living thanks to Mitsuki, but soon they start a relationship together leaving the past behind and forgetting Haruka. He has left the school and is now working at a familiar restaurant. During the next 2 years he lives happy with Mitsuki who often spends the night at his place and even plan to star living together. One day Haruka awakes and wants to see her lover, hearing the news Takayuki is troubled with his new situation with Mitsuki, and their relationship start to crumble. Takayuki’s problem is that he is to nice of a guy to handle his love for the two girls, trying not to hurt anyone tries to make right decisions usually hurting even more those around him.
How will he solve his problems and who will he chose in the end??

Haruka Suzumiya – She is a shy girl who loves picture books and dreams to writer children books one day, er favourite book is Mayauru no Okurimono. Haruka falls is love with Takayuki Narumi, but since she doesn’t have the courage to approach him, asks for Mitsuki Hayase to help her. She confesses her love and they start dating like a normal couple. But one day while waiting for Takayuki is involved on a car accident and falls under a deep coma for over than 3 years. When she awakens, she isn’t aware of the passed time and continues call for Takayuki’s love without being aware of the sitution, some time after she is faced with the betrayal of her friends and her love, once a shy girl, Haruka is now strong and determined in her recuperation and pushes herself to the limit, because she never did it before and couldn’t continue that way.
In the end will she be able to fully recover and be by the one she loves the most side??

Mitsuki Hayase – She is a strong swimmer, the best in school and is Haruka’s bet friend, initially she introduces herself to Takayuki, only to carry he friends love. Eventually she starts to like Takayuki and causes to delay theirs dates in 2 occasions, the second time is fatal. She meets Takayuki while he was rushing to the station where he would meet with Haruka, she encounters him and tells him it’s her birthday, she asks him to offer something and he offers him one ring, this fate encounter is what lead to the meeting delay that caused the accident, she thinks its her fault that Haruka is now in coma (in the game if Takayuki avoids the encounter there is no accident and Takayuki lives happy with Haruka forever), the ring symbolizes Mitsuki’s betrayal of her best friend. Latter she is helping Takayuki recovering from his depression, even dropping from the swimming competition; during one year she tries to suppress her feelings toward Takayuki, but one day she can’t hold those feelings anymore and reveals them handing her body to him, this lead to the end of Takayuki’s depression, but what will it cost in the future??
During the next 2 years their relation grows healthy, but only until Haruka’s wakening, Mitsuki confessed everything saying it wasn’t Takayuki’s fault, saying she was desperate and it could have been anyone, it just happened to be him, shocked Haruka slaps her in the face and tells her do disappear, this will lead to a new depression for both her and Takayuki, leading to their separation, in an act of desperation she ends up sleeping with Takayuki’s friend Shinji…
What will happen to her from here one??

Akane Hayase – She is Haruka’s little sister and has as an idol and inspiration Mitsuki from who she learned. She is very direct to express what she feels causing sometimes embarrassment for the couple, her younger self looks more energetic and has a bitter tongue, but in the end cares a lot for her sister and Takayuki, seeing him as an older brother. After the accident, she is the only one too stay by Haruka’s side all the time, visiting her everyday. One day she discovers the relationship between Takayuki and Mistuki, this causes her pain, felling betrayed by her idol for dropping her talent and dream as a swimmer, and for her sister’s betrayal, now Aakane has a deep hatred towards Mitsuki and also feels betrayed by Takayuki. In the end she manages to continue to move on in her life and career as a great swimmer.

Shinji Taira – He is Takayuki’s best friend and always hangs together, he is a good friend who will always be there for his friends, he is always worrying with his friend, trying to help him in his relationships and latter Mitsuki, in the end, out of desperation she sleeps with him. After tha Shinji goes to Takayuki trying to knock some sense into him and ends beating him. Other than this he doesn’t have much influence…

Ayu Daikuuji and Mayu Tamano – They are the 2 maids that work on the same place as Takayuki, the Sky Tenple. They mostly provide some comic relief and peace of mind to Takayuki. The duo also stars in the omake in the end of every ep, the "Ayu-Mayu Theater".
Ayu is a Hot-headed lousy mouth always bossing around and causing troubles to Takayuki or planning his downfall, she always ends up being scolded by him. But in the end she cares for him and shows his serious side, it appears she has lots of connections in the city, and in the end manages to find the Harukas’s book edited 4 years ago and can’t be found anywhere.
Mayu, also known as Mayu-Mayu is like Ayu’s sidekick, always plotting something against Takayuki. She is soft spoken well meaning and a klutz, other than that there is nothing else to her character and no relevance t the story at all.

The book - Mayauru no Okurimono (Mayauru’s gift/present). This book is Haruka’s favorite one, by reading; it’s easy to figure why. This book is the responsible for her first meeting with Takayuki in the library, the instant she fell in love with him. The story of the book is beautiful yet sad, and tells the story of their meting. The moment Haruka is telling the story is the most sad moment of the anime capable of leaving some tears left to the ones o hear it, it plays this important role in the story, Haruka wishes to have this book, but the book seems to be a rarity and no one is capable of finding it, only Takayuki with a copy bought in the day of the accident and latter with Ayu’s help will manage to find other copy

Mayauru the fairy
lost her memories and was living alone
on a hill in the forest.
By a chance, a lone girl went there
and they become friends.
The girl called many others
and they all became friends and played, but...
because Mayauru wasn't human,
she aged more slowly.

The children grew bigger and bigger...
and forgot about Mayauru.
In the end, the only remaining
was the girl she met first.
But...
that girl became an adult
and couldn't play with Mayauru anymore.

Even so, after becoming an adult,
that girl couldn't completely forget about Mayauru...
and came again...
And then Mayauru gave the lonely looking girl a present.
Words of farewell.

Up until then,
humans didn't know parting words...
Mayauru was a fairy of farewells.
She was forgetting that...
and that's why she had only goodbyes.

The girl, now an adult,
learned the words of farewell from Mayauru.
Knowing the words of farewell,
that girl...
she was able to become the kindest person in the world...

Animation: The animation in KGNE is good, nothing like we can find on certain animes, but does a great job here. All the character are nicely portrayed and detailed, the girls are given more detail than the males here, with more colorful clothing and eyes, also their faces look less sharp than in the guys, also the girls hair looks quite good here with some fluid movement in more active scenes. 3 years latter, the changes undergone by the characters is quite evident, everyone looks realistically older, the body proportions are correct for the age and there are even some hairstyle changes in some characters like Mitsuki who cut her hair, this symbolized her change into an adult women, the guys also look more mature, Akane is no longer the cute little girl she was and as turned into a more mature teenager. Haruka also changes a lot, her hair grow during 3 years without being cut and is now really long, her face is different, and her hands look the hands of a old women, the changes one would expect a person to undergo while sleeping all that time.
The background animation is mostly in the city, but displays good colors with blue sky and some green here and there, the city is also filled with busy people living their live, sometimes stumbling against the characters, enough detail is given to them make them more distinguishably.
To the end, the animation starts to get darker, often we see the characters on rainy day trying to solve their problems, and as Takayuki starts to work until later, a good part of the action takes part at night, sometimes with the addition of rain. Half of the last ep is passed during the sunset near the beach, with the animation acquiring an orange ton of color. Overall a good work.

Opening animation – Both first 2 and last episodes don’t have an op, only from the 3rd to the 13th ep there is an op, this op shows all of the relevant character to the story in various scenes, and shows both before and after of this characters. Animation wise it might be a little better than overall animation…

Ending animation – From ep 3 to 13, the animation here takes a different way from the op, showing only still shots zooming out of the group of 4 best friends under the Starry Sky (the music playing in background is Hoshizora no Waltz (The Waltz of the Starry Sky)) watching the stars. The last ed shows some images from before the accident where the friends are having fun and scenes of the present a few years latter where we see the characters leading their lives, during this we see Akane reading the book her sister witted and tells its story (this book seems to portrait the group of 4 friends, and hopes one day the can all meet again), we also see Takayuki passing by a bookstore and notices the book Haruka writted, he enters the shop and probably buys it; A much older Akane appears in some journals as a great athlete; Next shows Mitsuki with an happy face but crying. The last scene’s are the hill where Haruka confessed her love and a photo of the 3 friends before the accident. Te end is quite beautiful showing only happy moments yet it leaves a sad impression on the viewer…
As a side note, the omake that plays each ep instead of a regular preview, is entirely in chibi form, except from some scenes that might show on a tv.

Sound: Music – The music in KGNE sounds good, it always manages to blend with the moment, there are moments where the music is just left out, as it isn’t required sometimes, sometimes when the characters are alone, just thinking or other less important scenes there is no background music. In some scenes, mostly in the sad moments the music changes to a soft piano melody, the piano plays the most important role in the music; the saddest music is played on the final moments. During happy or comic moments, the music changes to a different tune to match the action. Overall the music blends nice with the mood, and sometimes it’s easy to go unnoticed while paying attention to what’s happening.
OP – As I mentioned before ep 1,2,14 don’t have an OP, in the first 2 only a light piano music is played while the ep starts, in the last ep again only a soft music is played while the ep starts, this time played on a Synthesizer.
The real op is the one that plays from ep 3-13, "Precious Memories" by Minami Kuribayashi, she is Haruka’s seyuu, this song is a normal pop song, but the lyric is very good feting for the show.
ED – There are 3 ED themes, Rumbling Hearts" also by Minami Kuribayashi is the first and plays on ep 2 right after the accident, this one I think both song and lyric match well the drama here and the change that will occur in the story.
"Hoshizora no Waltz (The Waltz of the Starry Sky)" by Minami Kuribayashi, here the music is more soft and gentle, together with the lyric it blends perfectly with the Ed animation and the story.
"Kimi ga Nozomu Eien" by MEGUMI, this is a happy and gentle song played during happy times, all of the sadness has gone, and once again a great lyrics tells the story of a girl who has overcome many obstacles and sadness in her life, but in the end she was alone.
Voice acting – Here a superb work was done by everyone, always displaying the characters feelings the best way and maturing the voices as the characters also matured.

Overall: This anime is one of the best of its kind, with an excellent and realistic story, great characters, support characters also did they job supporting the anime, nice music and animation; everything was great.
If u are just starting to watch this anime, prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions, once you start watching it you are part of the cast, it feels like you are there sharing those moments with them.
Prepare yourself, this is sad, and u if u have the courage it should be watched again, as for me, I fell I was actually there after watching it over again…

Authors note: I spent a lot of time writing this review, looking at the internet for interesting information, spending time reviewing some important scenes and episodes, listening to Mayauru no Okurimono while watching this sad moment and transcribing the story, watching all the sad moments over and over again.
Writing this review while thinking on the anime and trying to convey my experience to a piece of digital paper, made me realize even better how great the anime is and how sad, how much those peoples suffered, and even tough it doesn’t pass from some draws of pure fiction passing onscreen, it managed to make me feel the characters lives like if they were real people…
In the end I thank u for staying with be trough the adventure this review is.
I hope you enjoyed reading it as I did writing…