The last anime I watched that's main focus was romance was Clannad back in late 2010. I thoroughly enjoyed the second half of that show and despite how fucking depressing it gets near the end, I came away from it ultimately satisfied and with a bit of a warm feeling I couldn't really explain. I watched a bunch of "romance" shows a year before in 2009, but still just dipping my toes in the anime spectrum, most of them were bland, generic, and after a rewatch weren't enjoyable in the slightest, hence most of my ratings for a lot of them on my list. Holy shit Peach Girl was awful the second time I tried to watch it GODDAMN.
Anyway, figured I'd get that out of the way first, since it made me laugh thinking about it. Today I marathoned a show called Aoi Hana. I actually didn't come across it from looking for a romance anime though. I've spent the entirety of the last two months or so watching really violent, bleak, depressing, and just dark shows, games as well, having been replaying Nier and playing Drakengard and some of the Shin Megami Tensei games. All of that wasn't entirely by coincidence but still. I felt like I needed a break. I recently watched Nazo no Kanojo X to try and remedy this, and while it worked for a little while, I immediately after went and watched Claymore and Psycho-Pass, so I needed something even better for this sort of thing. I went and looked at a list of recommended animes that were considered relaxing or calming, and lighthearted as well. It gets tiring watching shows where the whole main cast all die in horrible gruesome ways after all.
Aoi Hana was on that list, and I decided to check out a review or two of it, since it seemed like something along the lines of what I was looking for. That's when I figured out that it was part of the "yuri" genre(the list only had boxarts) and that.... really really turned me off. I don't have any problems with yuri, in fact, I would certainly prefer to watch yuri or lesbian romance over heterosexual romance, I'd pick it any day. However, considering the majority of yuri I've ever seen, at least in anime form, was either hentai or shitty fan service, I was really hesitant. After so many people giving it high praise for being "realistic" and "down to earth" I said fuck it and decided to watch the first episode, and from there, I ended up finishing the whole show.
This show was so fucking soothing it was almost surreal. It also happened to start raining at one point when I was watching the show, and it just added to the whole atmosphere the show was giving off. It has a really nice art style and art direction that's pleasing to the eye, and it doesn't constantly have a bunch of fucking bullshit jumping out around trying to be cute or kooky. There's also a nice soundtrack to help everything, with a nice opening and ending, to some nice BGM as well.
Really, probably the main reason I enjoyed this show as much as I did, despite how different it is compared to what I normally watch, is how tastefully everything is treated. From the character interactions, to the actual subject matter its self, especially when its about lesbianism, everything is treated remarkably tastefully and respectfully. The interactions with the characters in particular drew me in a bit, mainly the interactions between the two main girls. They felt organic and didn't follow most tropes this cesspool of a genre usually introduces. Even when its just them acting as good friends, it was still nice to watch. In fact, the show as a whole,is just charming in a way. I don't like saying that, since that often seems like a bad excuse or reason for someone liking something. However, I think it does hold true here, this show has charm, taste, and class, and I say that with full honesty.
I usually have a problem with the endings of a lot of shows like these, mainly considering they usually cut something out that was in a manga or a light novel or something, and while that was also the case here, since the manga is still ongoing, the anime ending was satisfactory in my book, and the show as a whole, afterwards, left me with a nice, warm feeling that I don't get to experience that often when watching anime of any kind. I don't normally recommend a show like this to everyone, but I really would advise everyone, regardless of taste or preference to at least check out the first episode to see if it tickles your fancy.
While I never really locked myself out of any particular genres before, this show has certainly inspired me to maybe poke about in this area a bit more, particularly involving other yuri shows, but also involving more slice of life shows in general as well. It does make me a bit sad though that I did start out with a yuri-themed one that I enjoyed so much, hopefully if I look at one in the future it'll at least come somewhere close.
Regardless, I'm broadening my horizons even further, motherfuckers.
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