This is a story of Suzumiya Haruka, a shy and timid high school student who admires Narumi Takayuki. Her friend Hayase Mitsuki set her up with Takayuki, and from there on, Takayuki and Haruka have been dating.



But everything changed when she was involved in a car accident. Confined to a hospital for 3 years, not knowing what was going on around her. With Mitsuki's jealousy, friends turned into enemies, and love turned into hatred. Will Haruka be able to bear all the things that will hurt her, will she be able to forgive Mitsuki and Takayuki. She has one choice, and her future is on the line. Will she choose her love for Takayuki or her friendship with Mitsuki?

Story & Characters

When I first heard about this title, I must admit I was a bit leery. Though I have seen some dating sim-derived shows that are fairly good, on average the genre seems to produce shows that inspire more boredom than interest. The first few episodes of this title were sweet enough and did a lot to convince me this wasn’t going to be some annoying harem or boring “date of the week” show.

While I want to avoid spoiling particular details of the plot, after the opening episodes, the events and direction of the show change substantially. What started out as simple romance instead gets parlayed into an interesting exploration of the various facets of love and friendship. While Kiminozo doesn’t address grand existential themes or anything of the nature, the questions it does explore about the nature and limits of relationships were interesting. The very intimate nature of these questions provides the show with a bit more immediate and personal emotional impact, perhaps, than themes of a more ambitious scope.

What really kept this show interesting were its characters. The main characters are all extremely well developed and come across as real people with real suffering rather than just various flat archetypes. Despite the various sad and in some cases callous actions committed by some of the characters toward the others, there is no real “evil” character or true “antagonist”. The main characters are all just normal people trying their best to find their own happiness in an unusual situation somewhat beyond their control. As I watched the show I found myself going through a wide range of emotions involving the various characters of this show. They were developed enough that I actually felt for (or in some cases against) them.

Rating: 10

Art

The character design and artwork for this title is good overall, though as I alluded to earlier many of the female characters seem just a tad bit bustier on average. I shall note that it is noticeable but the female characters aren’t particularly overly endowed, just a bit bustier than average. All the general background and scene design work was done well and helped to bring the setting to life for this great series.

Rating: 9

Sound

Sound overall was very good. Many times the background music could have been much better in expressing the current mood or atmosphere. KGNE music is soft, colorful, and sometimes sorrowful. I've listened to the 2 KGNE TV OSTs, and I think thatthey are pretty good.
On a special note, the opening song, "Precious Memories" and the two end songs, "Rumbling Hearts” and "Hoshizora no Waltz” were composed and sung by Haruka’s seiyuu, Minami Kuribayashi. The OP theme is very good also in my opinion.
Seiyuu voices were excellent. They all put so much feeling into all their characters. My personal favorite is Haruka's Seyuu because Haruka is also my favourite character from this series.

Rating: 10

Presentation

Interestingly enough, the bulk of the events of this show, despite its starting time period being high school, take place when the main characters have left high school and are just starting to enter their adult lives. The show utilizes several flashbacks to help fill in the gaps in the viewer’s knowledge about what has occurred. Though sometimes I find such a device annoying, I thought it was used to good effect here to enhance the emotional atmosphere of the show. Given the large number of anime shows that focus on high school romances, this show had an interesting mix of young adult and high school romance elements.

Rating: 10

Final Verdict

9.83 (excellent)

Reviewed by nedved11, Jul 02, 2006

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