Ano Natsu De Matteru

Picture courtesy of Google Images

Picture courtesy of Google Images

Honestly? I had this in my hard drive for approximately a few months now without any intention to watch this. Now that I have, I'm glad :D

I didn't have any expectations with this anime. I just thought the girl was cute and the story line seemed interesting enough to spark my interest.

That aside, this anime is about Kirishima Kaito, who's in the first-grade of high school. He loves taking videos with his camera (which looks めちゃくちゃ old-school), mostly of scenery and the environment, but that doesn't limit him to take videos of any aspect of important things in his life either. It was apparently to compensate for the lack of time he spent with his parents before they died.

Anyway, he was out one evening atop a dam, testing his new high-speed camera film, when he saw this blue light emitting from the sky. It unfortunately crash-landed and the impact blew him off beyond the railings (but not before he saw a hand reach out towards him), which was supposed to have killed him.

But it didn't.

Instead, he wakes up in his futon the next morning like it never happened. However, when he starts rolling the camera in school, he catches a girl with red hair through the lenses.

This girl, is Takatsuki Ichika. As you probably already naturally guessed, the crash-landing incident was caused by her and her spaceship.

Oh yes, yes, she's an alien.

The purpose for her arrival on Earth was actually to find this one place that she's seen only in her memories. The coordinates apparently matched those as on Earth so she travelled to Earth to find the place. In the event of her crash-landing, she unfortunately "killed" Kaito. To save him, she transferred her cells, which consist of nanomachines capable of curing Kaito, through a kiss, to heal him.

However, the transfer of cells came with side effects, such as the deteriorating of skin cells on his body, which looks like hickeys to the average person.

In order to make sure he doesn't suffer any side effects, Ichika ends up staying on Earth and close to him, which was helped by the fact that Kaito subconsciously invited Ichika to stay with him while his working sister went overseas for some work she needed to complete.

You'd think that was all to the story right? That it was about the two of them and the whole live-happily-ever-after cliche?

It's not O.O

Actually, it gets more interesting from here on out because one of Ichika's classmates, Yamano Lemon *pronounced Remon* (whose in third grade of high school) decides to make a movie. I'm guessing it's to make memories? :)

Anyways, as they work on the project, things get really complicated but it's also fun to watch. For one, it's quite tear-jerking. Although I didn't actually cry, the need to was present, especially towards the end.

Characters were very well-developed. I loved the twist concerning Mio's family. Shan't mention it in order to not spoil it for you, though :) The other characters were loveable too. I love Lemon's double-identity :P Tetsurou's sister's funny too.

Story was interesting too, to say the least. Well, it made me want to continue watching, so that's got to mean something, right?

Now, the ending, I must unfortunately criticise. Although there were implications that Ichika returned to Earth, it doesn't mean they shouldn't elaborate on the future lives of the characters??

Although, in its defence (and actual sense), the cliffhanger ending was more appropriate, since the epilogue-added movie was aired at their school carnival when they had already graduated.

All in all, I would definitely say that this is an anime worth watching. If you can find the DVD, why not? For me, though, I downloaded it in 720p :D I believe in watching anime in high definition, so...

Haha.

Also my personal opinion? Ichika reminds me of Onegai Teacher!'s Mizuho :)

Picture courtesy of Google Images :)

Doesn't she?? Just yesterday, I couldn't even imagine Ichika without first imagining Mizuho. Must be the hair and style of drawing -.- The story line was kind of similar too, in the sense that both Mizuho and Ichika are older than their love interests, Kei and Kaito respectively.

I think Lemon had some form of similarity to Onegai Teacher!'s Morino Ichigo (who suffered a time lapse of 8 years, I think?).

Turns out both anime had the same character designer, Uon Taraku. Oh, and the seiyuu for both Ichigo and Lemon are the same person -.-

:D

Alright, so now for the seiyuus:

Kirishima Kaito (Shimazaki Nobunaga):
- Orobas *Shakugan no Shana Final III*
- Hiraizumi Eiichi *Kuroko no Basuke*
- Itsuka Shido *Date A Live*
- Maede Kazuya *Photo Kano*

Takatsuki Ichika (Tomatsu Haruka):
- Byakuroku *Otome Youkai Zakuro*
- Mashu *C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control*
- Yuki Asuna *Sword Art Online*
- Mizutani Shizuku *Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun*

Tanigawa Kanna (Ishihara Kaori):
- Reki *Hidan no Aria*
- Ayuzawa Suzuna *Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)
- Metis (Campione!)
- Azuki Azusa *Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko)

Ishigaki Tetsurou (Ogihara Hideki):
- Takeru Yagi *Izumo*
- Fujisawa Tomohiro *Lovedol*
- Aizawa Ryoto *Soul Link*
- Morisato Kazuma *Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai*

Kitahara Mio (Asumi Kana):
- Ran *Shugo Chara*
- Honoka *Maid Sama!*
- Maki Saori *Nurarihyon no Mago*
- Hinata *Yama no Musume*

Yamano Lemon (Tamura Yukari):
- Aoshima Mina *Detective Conan*
- Morino Ichigo *Onegai Teacher!/Twins!*
- Tiriel *Shakugan no Shana*
- Alice *Pandora Hearts*

I think this anime is available in any of the free online streaming websites such as AnimeSeason or WatchAnimeOn :D Either way, it didn't matter to me because I downloaded it.

If you wanna know how, I went to NyaaTorrents and searched for the anime. I downloaded it in 720p so you should be able to download it in that quality too :D

That's about it, then :) Watch out for episodical reviews of Suisei no Gargantia!! :P

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