Mask The Money-San

Dear Followers,

Phew. I haven't been completely blown away by an anime for a while. Looks like Spring 2011 will be a very good season after all. While I came into Spring 2011 excited for Ao no Exorcist and Deadman Wonderland, a mixture of cliché shounen and poor studio animation left me in the dumps. Then, I came across Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, or Ano Hana for short, when scouring gg and UTW. I have no idea whether this is a joint between gg and UTW or if they are independently subbing (probably the former). Now life is good.

With Ano Hana you are thrown right into the action. The premise of the show is simple. A group of 6 childhood friends have drifted apart over the years. One of the friends, Menma, died in some unexplained event. Now, the leader of this group of "Peace Busters" (wait, are they good or bad guys), Jinta, who following Menma's death withdrew from society, begins to see what he believe to be a hallucination of her but is actually her spirit. For the sake of granting her one wish, Jinta will have to bring all of the "Peace Busters" back together again.

What makes this show so beautiful is humanity. In just the first episode I was laughing, fuming, and nearly crying. The emotions in this show are a whirlwind (which my Pidgey, Cozy, just learned). The interactions between the old friends demonstrate the aspect of drifting away like I have never seen before in an anime, capturing the frustration and awkwardness and sadness of what happened with Menma perfectly. The background art and lighting effects are sublime and mix well with the smooth animation for a dazzling presentation. If you are looking for a break from mecha, shounen, or loli (Ivan), I would wholeheartedly recommend Ano Hana. Here's the beautiful opening.

Evan Chen brought Hanasaku Iroha up as well. Very well presented show as well, but the service and character interactions were not up to par with Ano Hana in my mind. Here's the opening as well in case you are interested.

GTFO Tama,
Noel