The cautious and uncertain love lives of high school students are beautifully explored.
What They Say:
Relationships are living things: if they’re not constantly nurtured, they can wither, die, or even worse. Haruto Soma, Mio Natsume, and Hazuki Morikawa are in their final semester at Kashiogawa High, and while there are some simmering undercurrents in how they feel about each other, the main focus in their lives is to keep studying until they get their diplomas.
But into this perfectly reasonable plan falls a monkey wrench named Eita Izumi, who was their classmate and friend until his family moved away four years ago. Now Eita is suddenly back and fitting him into the current dynamic is going to be awkward. Because people and friendships can change, and when they do, there’s always the chance that someone will be hurt. Not because of malice or deliberate intent, just because that’s the way life can be.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo along with an English language dub, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. I’m still surprised this show got a dub originally but I’m glad it did as it gives the actors a chance to do something different from the usual wacky and overdramatic pieces. This is a simple dialogue-driven show so it doesn’t really stretch either on the technical side or the performance side as there aren’t many scenes where voices get raised. It’s designed with a standard dialogue approach with some hushed tones and a few moments where it pings upward a bit. But the encoding for both tracks handles things well as it all comes across clearly in a way that’s easy to understand and problem free. There’s some nice placement from time to time and the scenes are well set to utilize some good depth here and there. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2017, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The twelve episodes are spread across two discs in a nine/three format, giving it plenty of room to work with. Animated by Pine Jam, the show has a pretty good look to it, especially with all the real-world elements animated/colored over to help blend it all together well. This is a very detailed and lived-in world through many of the backgrounds, especially outside, and the end result helps to give the show some real warmth. The character animation isn’t exactly distinctive but it goes for a couple of nice touches combined with a level of fluidity that may feel a little odd at times but makes it mildly distinctive. I liked the way it plays out because like a lot of slice-of-life projects it’s not something that has to be very active, it’s more about atmosphere and dialogue and this captures it well. Colors are quite varied and wonderfully solid throughout with a clean look that should please most fans.
Packaging:
The packaging design for this release brings us a standard-sized Blu-ray case that holds the two discs on the interior walls. While we get a price drop for this release we also lose the slightly thick booklet that was included in the previous release that definitely added some heft to it, making this feel lighter. We do get new artwork for it that’s less city-focused than the previous one as we get our two leads on the train together with a touch of distance. It’s a bit murkier than I’d care for but it definitely stands out with the contrast and says a lot with very little. The back cover goes for the opposite in a way as it gives us the two on the train again but in regular clothes instead of their school uniforms and they’re very happy and smiling here, which really works well. The summary of the premise covers things well and we get the standard breakdown of production credits along the bottom along with the extras. The technical grid lays out how the show is put together and that’s done clearly and accurately. No show-related inserts are included with this release.
Menu:
The menus for this release are kept simple as they’re done with static images and even the “thematic elements” aren’t really that here. We get a standard character shot for each disc along the left that looks nice but the blue/purple filter that’s applied gives it a kind of odd feeling in general. The logo is layered over it and the right side of the menu uses the same coloring but goes darker. We get standard episode number/title selections here that don’t have anything that stands out about it but they, and the menu in general, is solidly functional and easy to use and get around in – both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu during playback. It’s just kind of bland and doesn’t quite set the mood as much as you’d think it might.
Extras:
The on-disc extras for this release are pretty straightforward as we get a small selection of Japanese commercials along with the clean opening and closing sequences, which are always welcome.
Just Because is one of those original anime projects I was interested in for a couple of reasons when it hit in the fall 2017 season. Original works, in general, get a little more attention in my eye because they’re not beholden to the usual structure and pacing, though too many fall down that trap anyway. This one intrigued me as it was written by Hajime Kamoshida, who was the creator behind a series I liked a lot with The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. He was also behind Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which I haven’t seen yet. A month before this came out we also got a novel from Kamoshida for the show that added a bit more context to everything and provided a good launching point if you wanted a little more before the anime.
Coming in at twelve episodes, Just Because is the kind of series that for me ends where I wish it would begin. The epilogue section for the show is pretty good and it works to show the paths that everyone is on. But the show wants to focus on the winter period of a group of third-year high school students, not where they end up afterward. It is, admittedly, fertile ground for storytelling as there are always new graduates and people feeling a bit nostalgic about where they’ve been. The focus is on a relatively small group overall of five that are at different stages of their lives even though most are wrapping up their high school years here. The most interesting for me in a way is that of Eita Izumi, who is a transfer student that has come back because of the nature of his father’s work. His arrival isn’t exactly a spanner in the works but it changes the paths of some of the cast here, and his own life as well.
It’s been a few years since Izumi had transferred out but even back then he had quite the middle school crush on Mio Natsume. She’s the hard-studying type that was the student council president for a while and has big plans for her future with college and what she wants to do. Izumi’s problem was that Natsume was interested in Izumi’s best friend, Haruto Soma. Soma’s your somewhat popular athletic type that has a bit more physicality about him which draws a lot of people in. He’s outgoing but not incredibly so as there are emotional depths that are plumbed and dealt with here amid this group. Mostly because he’s not interested in Natsume but rather has a crush on Hazuki Morikawa. Morikawa is the type that’s not exactly aloof but she tends to be a bit more of a wallflower, doing her thing and looking forward to what life has to offer once past her high school days. She’s not just trying to get through them, as she has a goal she’s working toward, but this isn’t a place where she’s looking for something like what Soma is looking for. She, at least, isn’t interested in someone else so that’s working in Soma’s favor compared to how some of the others are. The show also puts in a key play with Ena Komiya, a second-year that ends up being interested in Izumi while dealing with her own club struggles, which lets her be a bit of friction in what Izumi himself is actually after.
Honestly, you can see how much of the series is going to go just by the general layout of things. There are interesting paths along the way that we see, with some small jealousies flaring up that have them questioning how they really feel since they were keeping things hidden, and a lot of semi-dating and the like going on. It’s definitely interesting to watch as this group interacts with each other because of the various interests spread out as they are initially because it becomes more complicated with Izumi’s arrival. You get that moment of Soma being glad to see his friend back in his life and then the uncertainty from Izumi when he finds out that Natsume goes to the same high school. It really is the kind of thing that you can’t be certain about because of the way so many kids do make wide-ranging choices in their high schools when they have a particular focus they want to pursue and end up not staying with the bulk of their class in the local school.
In Summary:
Though it didn’t give me enough of what I wanted, and I didn’t expect it to, I did enjoy Just Because overall and it was definitely a great second experience with it. The show plays to the more thoughtful side instead of wacky action and outlandish situations, though we do get some misunderstandings along the way as you’d expect. The characters are more realistic than not and they struggle with how they feel and figuring out what it is they want. They may be a little too mature at times for teenagers but at the same time, these kinds of situations and their emotional aspects of it can definitely make people of any age much more introspective and quiet as they try to understand how they’re feeling. Sentai’s release is surprising in a couple of ways. I was really surprised something like this got a dub, which is great to have, and I was surprised to get a pretty weighty little leaflet with some manga material from it. It’s a good show with some great production values that will click and have a lot of meaning to folks closer to situations like this than I, but it still resonates very well with me.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Special Leaflet Comic, Japanese Commercials, Clean Opening Animation, and Clean Closing Animation
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: December 13th, 2022
MSRP: $59.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
