orange review

oha-luckies! been a minute TwT life's been suuuper busy so i apologize. ontop of school, my laptop broke!! ･ﾟ･(｡>ω<｡)･ﾟ･ and while that's sucked, it's also left me with no choice... but to watch anime! while searching high and low for a good new romance to binge through, i found orange.. which brings us today's review!

now, on the surface- yes, this is a romance. our mc naho finds a letter on the first day of school from her future self, which gives her day-to-day instructions on how to correct her prior mistakes and prevent her regrets. those main regrets have to do with love interest kakeru, whom she missed the chance to truly show her love to.

the reason for this is, well... not so cheery. we discover kakeru has actually died in the world of future-naho, and so she wants to do her best every day to love and spend time with kakeru while she can, and to possibly prevent that tragic outcome. this plot definitely takes precedence over the romance plot, and for that, i'm actually glad. while love and romance is great, spending time and appreciating a friend is even more important! so, i won't be grading this anime as a straightforward romance. sorry if that's what you were expecting ><

introductions! first we have naho, a caring girl who is quite shy at first, but truly tries her best to follow the advice of her letter to live to the fullest.

i quite liked naho as an mc. she may have fallen under some shy-girl tropes, but she really tried hard to make her friends happy. i appreciated seeing this effort, because she put herself out there in ways that would be difficult for anyone wanting to avoid the more uncomfortable of interactions.

i also got a haircut that looks like hers so she cute or whateva =w=

love interest kakeru- a troubled boy who lives with many regrets.

he's invited to walk home with the group of five friends on the first day of school, and we discover that something tragic happens when he does this that he feels responsible for.

his worries are very empathizable. he feels like he has let down those around him and doesn't want to be responsible for the hurt of any others by sharing his burden.

aside from his sads he's a sweet boy who you really wish the best for T_T

suwa. he makes my heart ache. in the future timeline, he is married to naho.

we know that he loves her but refuses to act on it- instead trying to push her and kakeru together despite his feelings.

initially you peg him as 'loud, friend to all' trope, but then you see that he's a very sweet and caring guy. he's just,,, so nice :,,3 it hurts to see him smiling as he helps out the main pair when you know it must crush him a little each time.

at least he can be happy in some world.. but ow

left to right: azu, hagita, and takako. less central but i love em.

i loved when azu was on screen- she's so pleasing to look at with her makeup and accessories. always so sunny, too.

hagita was a silly guy. serious-sounding but doing very unserious things. you could always tell he was trying his best >_< you could tell there was something between him and azu that could have been, but it was never given enough fuel to develop. more pressing matters, i suppose.. ur not safe from my headcanonz tho!

takako was the kind of friend willing to smack a bitch for u. love her for that. not much else to say there, though. she didn't serve a huge purpose :,)

bitch slut whore rio ueda.. pretty to look at but unfortunately i h8 u cuz ur a BULLY >:c

she's one of our first 'regrets', as her and kakeru start dating in the beginning when naho doesn't manage to stop it.

they do break up, however, and her and her bitch slut friends bully naho afterwards.

nasty cunt., ur picture gets to be smaller u tit ^_^

so, orange. not sure why it's called that tbh. naho likes oj i guess,,? that's all i can think of lul maybe im missing smth. but! i liked it! i expected to sob but only managed to squeeze a few tears out at the end. it was tear-worthy, but maybe i've used up all my cry-juice lately ^.^;

opening was nice, animation was pretty. for some reason i thought the art was going to be really plain before i watched it, but it always looked quite nice! the eyes were good to look at and there were some real nice environmental scenes- esp when we were looking at our future characters.

the whole time-traveling letter thing only had a bit of an explanation, but that really didn't bother me. they mentioned it was unlikely it would work, and the different possibilities- even explained the difference between time travel and parallel worlds, which i do appreciate. its an important difference, people!! (in this case, it was parallel worlds)

overall, did well for its short length. dealt with an important topic with grace, and kept romantic aspects in tact and tasteful throughout. what would it lose points on? mmm... hard to pinpoint, really. i suppose the fact that it didn't tear my heart out of my chest, stomp on it, and run it over with a bus? it certainly had the bus ready to go, so i'm not sure why exactly i feel this way. i also could see some more angst with suwa. it had to have hurt for him, but we never saw him without a smile. maybe in the manga?

in conclusion...

★★★★☆ 4 lucky stars.

really good! could have been.. sadder? considering the subject matter. still, i think it pulled off what it wanted to do well :]