Anime Review : Ao Haru Ride

Anime Review : Ao Haru Ride

Genres : Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Wasurarenai jikan ga aru..

Written by mangaka Sakisaka Io, "Ao Haru Ride" tells the story of Yoshioka Futaba as she meets her first love Tanaka-kun again after three years, who previously went away because of a misunderstanding.

Story :

"Ao Haru Ride" starts with the flashbacks of the main protagonist Yoshioka Futaba as how she gets to know Tanaka-kun and falls in love. But then for some reason(not gonna spoil :P ) Tanaka-kun misunderstands Futaba-chan and leaves without saying anything to her.

Three years before, the female protagonist Yoshioka Futaba meets with the male protagonist Tanaka-kun and gradually falls in love but couldn't express her feelings to him. Then something happens and Tanaka-kun misunderstands her which results in Tanaka-kun leaving without saying anything to her.

Jumping forward to three years later, Yoshioka Futaba, who is now in high-school with a completely changed personality from before, meets someone who strangely reminds her of Tanaka-kun but is called Mabuchi-kun by his friends. Still curious, she(Futaba) follows him(Mabuchi) after the school to the same shrine where she had met her first love, Tanaka-kun three years ago. There, he(Mabuchi) greeted her by saying "It(rain) came down pretty suddenly, huh?", the same phrase Tanaka-kun said to her three years ago when they first met each other.

What happens next? You will have to watch the series for that. :ohuhu

The story is like any other generic "girl meets boy" kind of story which can be found in every shoujo animes. But even so, I'm enjoying the series very much, since the "comedy" part of the story is quite entertaining, and the "drama" part is enjoyable too even though its a bit slow paced. When I first saw this series I felt like watching an alternative version of "Kimi ni Todoke" which is also a another shoujo anime that I liked very much (though later, the story felt a lot different from "Kimi ni Todoke" but still the story is quite good).

Art :

Art style of "Ao Haru Ride" feels a bit different than other shoujos.

Background art looks really descriptive, you can see the small details drawn quite carefully. The sky, the window, that small blackboard-all looks detailed in my opinion.

Character design is also good. Characters don't look like out of proportion. Both the protagonist looks quite good, along with other characters.

Sound :

Voice actors of "Ao Haru Ride" did a good job on voice acting. Kaji Yuki and Uchida Maaya was great choice for the protagonist roles. Others did a good job too.

Music used in "Ao Haru Ride" is really good and it feels peaceful. You can hear guitar piece and sometimes they used piano piece. There are other instrumental pieces too. They are used throughout the episodes and they really fits the mood.

The song "I will" by Chelsy which is used in occasional moments is really good. I really loved this song.

Opening Song is "Sekai wa Koi ni Ochiteiru (世界は恋に落ちている)" by CHiCO with HoneyWorks which is feels like a upbeat song and is quite good in my opinion.

Ending song is "Blue (ブルー)" by J-rock band Fujifabric which feels slow and peaceful.

Overall :

Even though the story isn't unique, it's a good anime series with comedy and drama. If you are a fan of Japanese Drama serieses, chances are you will like this anime series (or you can just watch the live action movie which will release in later 2014). All in all I'd recommend both guys and girls (who doesn't hate shoujos :P ) to watch this series.