Orange

Alternative title: オレンジ

Type: Tv

Episodes: 13

Age Limit: PG-13

Tags: romance, shoujo, sci-fi, time travel, drama, school, slice-of-life

Trying to repare your mistakes and change future by sending letters to your younger self, well that's surely more interesting than your average shoujo romance.

Well Orange is pretty slow-paced and sometimes I've just felt like it could be a little more faster. It has also very nostalgic and summerish easygoing feeling which works well in contrast with Kakeru's depression. When something is sweet and cheerful, serious matters just hits you even harder. The whole time travel and playing with alternate dimensions/realities is done good but I was a bit disappointed by the final revelation about how was it even possible. That just felt kinda weak and lazy.

Art looks loveable and sweet, Animation was okeyish but during some episodes quality dropped pretty hard and background details just loked horrible. But still it was nice to look at it and it helped me to immerse into the story.

Music and soundtrack was good, maybe sometimes too much awkwardly cheerful for my own taste but still I didn't felt too much forced by it.

Characters are most important part of this story, it's more about their feelings and coping with problems and how they are facing the possibility of changing the future. I must say that characters acts very realistically, they could be bit annoying but in real life nobody is perfect too. Naho might have been too irritating with her unability to change some events or actually do something, but I guess it was because she was extremely shy and yeah it was hard not wanting to slap her sometimes. Kakeru was internally tormented and it manifested in his actions too, he was suddenly sad or mad and it was hard to predict his actions. It was natural for me to feel sad about him, to feel like he might shatter anytime. And Suwa, that adorable cookie Suwa. One of the most coolest, protective, nice, lovely and warmhearted character I ever met in anime. To see him prioritize the happiness of the girl he loved over his own was heartbreaking. Sadly the whole story is more about this trio (Naho, Suwa and Kakeru) and their complicated relationship/love triangle even there is more people in their group. I would just like to see and know more about the others.

Overall. Heartwarming and heartbreaking piece with loveble characters which do have mistakes so they feel real. Probably one of the best shoujo I've seen in a while.

Rating: 8/10