Unrequited love amongst high school girls plays out in an utterly charming way.
What They Say:
Without ever saying a word to her, honor student Sumika Murasame has had a crush on her best friend, Ushio Kazama since middle school. In their social circle are the energetic members of the brass section: Kiyori Torioi, girls fashion magazine model Masaki Akemiya, and finally Tomoe Hachisuka and Miyako Taema, a couple, all making up a collection of eclectic personalities. One day, the idea of forming an all-girls after school comes up amongst them…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga by Takeshi Ikeda that ran for nine volumes from 2007 to 2011, this anime adaptation ran in the fall of 2009 for thirteen episodes as it brought young love to the forefront amongst a group of high school girls. Like a lot of yuri based shows, it’s not one that goes hardcore or anything, though many of its fans hopes that it does or sees more implied in it than there really is, but it also does what many of the best shows do. It gives us a good cast of characters that are discovering who they are, what they want out of life at that tender age, and being very unsure about how to actually get it. There are times where you just want to shake them and tell them to just say it, but it’s something that most people have a hard time doing at almost any age.
The series revolves primarily around Sumika and Kazam, a pair of girls who get along very well with each other as they’re best friends and have been since school started. Sumilka is a tall, raven haired young woman with glasses that has a good look about her, but it’s lost amongst many of the other more obvious beauties out there as some of the guys occasionally refer to her as a basketball pole. She’s smart, thoughtful and lives in a kind of practice and cautious way but she also has some moments where she just gets all goofy and lets it all out. Kazama by contrast is shorter than her, softer in color and around the face and has a very outgoing and slightly spacey feel but not in a bad way. She’s hugely interested in girls but only a certain type as she’s just going gaga over the ultra cute types. None of which actually want anything to do with her since there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of girl interested girls at this mixed gender school.
Naturally, Sumika has an interest in Kazama, but it’s something that can’t be returned because of how Kazama is, so she keeps it to herself and her dreams. She’s jealous but has to keep it in check as she watches Kazama flirt with other girls only to come back disappointed and sad about it. It’s even worse as it goes on as Kazama makes it clear she has no interest in Sumika in that way. It doesn’t stop Sumika from hoping for more, but it puts her on a more cautious path as she tries to smooth out the interests she does have until Kazama comes around. It’s a fairly standard idea, one based in the way a lot of high school kids are, but it’s given a very heartwarming manner here as it unfolds. Each of them has their quirks, but it’s not overplayed or presented in a way that makes you dislike either of them.
What changes things a bit is the introduction of Tomoe and Miyako, a somewhat open couple of girls that Sumika and Kazama catch kissing in a great scene. What happens with all of this is that after they get a little comfortable with each other, the idea of a Girls Club comes up for an afterschool club that’s all about girls that are into girls. It’s awkward as hell and the school isn’t keen on it, but watching Sumika trying to find a fifth member in order to make the formal application real is comical. Especially since Sumika has discovers a crossdressing boy in the class named Akemiya that has his own arc that’s very fun to watch since Kazama is hugely interested in his girl self, unaware that he’s really a boy. The formation of the club doesn’t happen though, which is a plus, but it becomes an unofficial club as the group really starts to hang out more and more.
The series works through a lot of silly situation as it progresses, but it’s kept to real world situations that you’d expect. There’s the fun of Akemiya and what he brings to the table since he’s semi-famous in his dressed up mode because of his sister and you get the really enjoyable scenes in the school as you watch Sumika pine after her. With most everybody growing up with a crush on someone they know, either from a distance or very well, there’s a lot of appeal in seeing how she looks at her and hopes, even while to everyone else it looks as though she doesn’t swing that way. But there are those that notice it, especially Tomoe and Miyako, and they do their best to help along the way in nudging the situation and setting things up.
Where the show takes a bit of a harder turn for me, it’s with the introduction of Aoi. She’s very much a yuri fangirl, though it’s more about the mood and atmosphere of it all than anything else. She’s been weened on these kinds of manga and is a huge fan of it, going so far as to work on a fanzine of her own making because nobody else was as into it as she was. Her story is familiar to be sure, but she’s such a needy and clingy character that it changes the dynamic as Sumika gets dragged into it. There are some good growing moments for all involved, and Aoi does redeem herself along the way, but there’s just something about her for a lot of it that left me wishing she had fewer scenes so we could get back to the main event. What makes it even harder overall is that the last episode puts the two leads in completely different areas, out of touch from each other for most of it, and that kept it from capitalizing on how they are together. It does tie things together with a bit of hope though, since the manga was only halfway through its run at that time, so there isn’t a formal conclusion. But there is hope and that goes a long way.
In Summary:
Sasameki Koto is a series that does hew to a lot of the standard forms of this particular genre but it plays them out with the right amount of heart and real world aspect to keep it from being too much, too grand or too overly dramatic. It hits up the atmosphere right in a few scenes, such as when we see Tomoe and Miyako kiss, but it also keeps itself in check when you have Sumika visualizing Kazama falling out of her swimsuit when they go to an indoor park as a group. I like the cast as a whole, though Aoi and her fannish and socially problematic nature grates on me at times, but as a whole there’s a whole lot to like here. The series has some really appealing designs to it and some very smooth animation at times for a slice of life show and the work as a whole is very appealing. It’s the kind of show I wish I could own in a high definition format to just enjoy it all the more.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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