Review of Waiting in the Summer
I'm generally not a big fan of anything under the 'romance' label. Doesn't mean that I won't watch it/read it, but it's not exactly what I jump to when I want to be entertained. Ano Natsu, by far, is one of the best romance anime that I've seen. It feels real, even with the alien girl and her spaceship...pet-thing. (I know that a lot of people have said that it rips off Please Teacher (considering it's from the same writer, I wouldn't be surprised), but since I've never seen that show, I have nothing to compare it to. And I won't.) Story (9/10): We've all heard thisone- alien girl ends up living with the main character and interacting with his friends. Funny times and romance ensues. But Ano Natsu does it best. The story, while it has it's moments of 'where did that jump in logic come from?', feels like it's about real high school students, not the stereotypes that we see in the majority of general anime. The situations that they end up in are what you would almost expect them to get into. The romance between all the involved parties feels natural and heart-warming/-breaking at the points that it's supposed to. And even in it's more cliche parts, they don't feel like that- they feel almost nostalgic, in a weird way.
(Also it's nice to see a romance develop that doesn't involve the 'oh sorry I peeked in on you while you were naked like seventy times over the course of the show and you hit me for it' cliche. Thank God for the little things, I say.)
Art (8/10): The series definitely looks good. The character designs are nice and fluid, all of the alien tech looks alien to our setting, the backgrounds look good too. Just good stuff all around, really. The only thing I have against it is that the coloring tends to vary a bit, becoming either too much of one color depending on the lighting of the scene or just being too pale/bright in comparison.
Sound (7/10): The opening theme Sign sounds good, evoking some alien techno sounds throughout, while having a good singer and beat to work with. At certain points throughout the show there's an acoustic version of the opening and it really helps with the scene, so give that a listen as well. The ending was good too, though it's a little slow to me.
Character (9/10): These are the characters you want in a romance- the good guy lead, the charismatic girl he becomes involved with, the girl who has a crush on him but will be his friend throughout, the guy friend who helps move him along to make things happen, the other girl friend who is just a sweetie pie, and the senior that gets involved and is pulling the strings behind the scenes. They all have personality and make you want to root for them, no matter if it ends in happiness or heartbreak. All of them have good chemistry with each other and you really believe that these are teenagers in their first real experience with love.
Enjoyment (9/10): Like I said in the opening, I'm not a romance genre person. But this show felt like something I wouldn't mind seeing again. I was happy to watch the next episode to see where we would be in relation to everyone else and I loved that everything really progressed well. Also the comedy really is too funny in this show. Watch out for the MIB guys! XD
Ano Natsu de Matteru may not break new ground in the romance department, but it definitely kicks the genre back into gear, being a heartwarming and funny show that really doesn't get enough credit. Give it a watch if you want a story that doesn't fall into common (now-a-days, anyway) romance traps and annoyances and just let the nostalgia flow through you.