“With a stormy wind passing through my heart…on which to ride.”
What They Say:
“PAGE.12”
At the end of her first year of high school, the main heroine, Futaba suddenly has a chance encounter with her first love, Tanaka Kou. Three years ago, he transferred schools before she was able to say how she felt about him. After meeting each other again, Futaba realizes that he has gone through many changes. He acts more cool and even had his last name changed to Mabuchi. Gradually the two rekindle their love while piecing together what had happened in the time that they were apart.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Blue Spring Ride has been fantastic through 12 episodes. I was worried about Murao and Kominato, but even they were fantastic in the end. Their arcs are very much self-contained within themselves. Kominato likes Murao and Murao likes Tanaka-sensei. Their interaction with Futaba, Kou, and Makita is merely through friendship, not through love. But friendship is what ultimately changed everyone in the series, not love.
Murao, once the stone-faced girl in the group, finally softens up. She finds Futaba and Makita calling her by her first name. Tanaka-sensei points it out. It’s not something that he’s ever seen before. That’s enough for us to know that it’s never really happened. She’s never really had friends. But she was able to open up to these four goofballs. She let down her guard and the face she put on as cool and collected may not be true. She’s just a high school girl after all, that’s to be expected.
Kominato is a bit of a different case. He’s been acting upon everyone else for quite a while now, but never really got a moment of his own. He gets exactly one and it’s gorgeous. His love for Murao speaks more words than it ever did in his final talk with Tanaka-sensei. Kominato is fine with her ending up with Tanaka-sensei as long as she’s happy. That’s the mark of true love. That level of selflessness hasn’t been seen at all from Kominato, but it’s not surprising. He’s always gone out of his way to make everyone feel included. Why wouldn’t he go this far for love?
Makita and Futaba’s journeys are over by now, at least for the show. But they both get little moments of their own. Makita promises that this summer she will fight. It’s never stated explicitly, but of course it’s obvious what she’s fighting for. The same thing that Futaba is fighting for, Kou’s love. “No hard feelings” no matter how much it hurts.
Kou’s arc finally completes in this episode. He’s fully transformed from Tanaka to Mabuchi to Kou. That’s a really abstract way of putting it, but he’s been through three personas throughout the series: the middle school Tanaka, the Mabuchi we met him as in high school, and the Kou at the end of the series who’s finally willing to sit down and have a dinner with his family. Futaba is the spark for all of it. She, slowly but surely, changes him through little acts (there’s a fantastic montage of flashbacks showing each and every moment she affected him from the first time they met in junior high to the time they turned to each other on the table to the time he placed his head on her shoulder, just to rest).
Truthfully, Kou has been running this entire time. Away from the only family he has left because he let his mother die. Because he couldn’t do anything. Because he didn’t notice it sooner. Again, names are paramount. He says he wants to take the Tanaka name back, but he’s not ready yet. He uses the excuse of it being problematic during high school (I don’t know if it actually is in Japanese schools?). But he’s just not ready for that transition. In his 15- or 16-year-old mind, giving up the Mabuchi name is like giving up his mother. He’s done that once. Not again. Not so soon afterward.
In Summary:
Throughout the show, Blue Spring Ride has been about identity. Futaba struggled with her own and Kou was trying to find a new one. Makita had always been comfortable with her own, but was never accepted for it. Murao still tries to put on a face, but fails just a little at the end. Kominato tries to make a crack in all those walls because he wants to be your true friend and to see the true you. In the end, every single character has changed him/herself or has helped change someone.
The best part about Blue Spring Ride is that it’s self-contained. While there’s obviously more things that will happen in the future, we reach a point of catharsis at the end for all the characters. Season two will feel good if it comes, but I’m happy with where season one is.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV