Add one dash of evil genius boy, a sprinkling of carefree girl and one pound of characters with odd personalities. Throw in some time-travel for good measure and then let simmer for 30 mins.

This is the recipe for Natsu No Arashi.

We start with Hajime Yasaka a boy weak in resolve but not without ingenuity. In the first episode he creates a "bomb" in the shape of a strawberry, but inside is every hot pepper and magma flavored spice known to man. He plans on giving one to his self-arch rival from class. The only problem is he has created three of these bombs and one is lost. Turning back time (with the help of the female lead) he takes the other two.

It seems like any other day at the coffee shop where he works, but soon he finds that one of the two strawberry short-cakes (one with the bomb and one without) is missing and in like any anime fashion the one with the spice bomb is missing. It doesn't help that one of the girls that works at the shop is a bit of a sweets fanatic, so when she sees that her short-cake is missing, another bout of time travel ensues and the conclusion is no big surprise. Anyone would be able to call the end by the half-way mark, giving if they have seen enough anime.

The storyline is near (if not complete) cliche, but it's the cast and the animation that help this shallow anime. It's clear animators took some risks with the color scheme and with the visual indicators, some screen shots have subtle multi-colored boxes to help you to pay attention, in many cases this distracts the viewer, but with an anime that moves as fast as Natsu No Arashi does, this is the one time i actually found them helpful.

Rounding out the sights is a disjointed collaboration of music that never stays consistent (I know this sentence is redundant but there is a reason) the beginning and end themes are forgettable and slightly annoying, but the music during the actual show is surprisingly pleasing to the ears and appropriate. The music swims into the animation (with the exception of where the music is suppose to surprise the viewer) and most importantly it doesn't cover up the voice actors, meaning the music itself never really becomes a character, if you have seen Samurai Champloo or Cowboy Bebop then you understand what i mean.

The voice acting is believable and even.

All and all, if you're looking for something new and innovative then this might not be the place to look, but if you're looking for a good time with a few laughs and time travel hi-jinks then this is where you need to take a seat, relax and breathe in Natsu No Arashi.

Natsu no Arashi! (夏のあらし!?, lit. Summer Storm!) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi, who is known for his previous work School Rumble. The manga started serialization in Square Enix's Gangan Wing shōnen manga magazine on August 25, 2006, and six bound volumes have been released in Japan as of September 2009. The anime adaption began broadcasting on April 5, 2009.

Plot
Thirteen-year-old Yasaka is a boy staying at his grandfather's house during his summer vacation. One day he entered a store and met Arashi, a beautiful sixteen-year old girl working there. After trying to protect her from a man who claims to have been hired by her family to take her back by force, Yasaka ran away with her and now she stays at his grandpa's place with him. It didn't take much time for Yasaka to figure out that his new friend is far from an ordinary girl, as she possesses mysterious powers. The plot thickens when he finds a sixty-year-old picture of Arashi and another girl named Kaja, and to the surprise of all Kaja suddenly appears, and just like Arashi, her appearance hasn't changed at all since then.

Two other characters introduced so far are the place's owner, a woman whose name is still unrevealed and rumored to be a high level con artist, and Jun Kamigamo, a student of Yasaka's age who he met at the store, and works there with him since then. Despite being a girl, she keeps dressing and addressing herself as a boy to the other characters. So far only Kaja and Arashi knows her secret.

Characters
Hajime Yasaka (八坂 一, Yasaka Hajime?)
Voiced by: Yūko Sanpei

The main male protagonist. A 13 year-old boy who is spending his summer vacation in his grandfather's house. When he met Arashi from the first time, he established a connection with her when he touched her hand, and since then the duo gained the power to travel back and forth in time. He is infatuated with Arashi's beauty and kindness, but is afraid to convey his feelings to her.

Sayoko Arashiyama (嵐山 小夜子, Arashiyama Sayoko?, Arashi for short)
Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi

The main female protagonist. Despite still looking like a beautiful sixteen years-old girl, Arashi is in fact a ghost who lived during World War II times. Since then her mission had been traveling back in time to rescue those in her community from air-raids by American warplanes. However, to travel back to the past, she must do it accompanied by a living person from the present with whom she made a "connection". Her realtionship with Hajime is a bit complicated than it seems.

Kaja Bergmann (カヤ バーグマン, Kaya Bāguman?)
Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka

Another ghost from Arashi's time and her best friend. She was an exchange student from Germany who studied at her school. Her polite and cool demeanor opposes to Arashi's lively and carefree personality. She possesses the same time traveling powers as her, but she can only make a connection with a living girl due to her shyness around boys.

Jun Kamigamo (上賀茂 潤, Kamigamo Jun?)
Voiced by: Chiaki Omigawa

She is Yasaka's friend that has made a connection with Kaja and jumps through time with her. Yasaka thinks she is a guy.

Sayaka (さやか, Sayaka?)
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame

A con artist who owns the cafe in which Yasaka, Arashi and the other girls work.

Hideo Murata (村田 英雄, Murata Hideo?)
Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto

A private investigator. He is the son of man Arashi saved from certain death by preventing him from fishing in the river, on a day when an air-raid struck the area.

Yayoi Fushimi (伏見 やよゐ, Fushimi Yayoi?)
Voiced by: Ai Nonaka

Just like her friend Kanako, she is another ghost who died during the war and an acquaintance of Arashi and Kaja, her ethereal body has been weakening through time. Due to a horrifying accident, she's half-paralyzed and can't walk without wheelchair. Her paralysis is more to psychological condition. However, she was healed when she went back to the past and met Kanako again for the first time. Her personality is the polar opposite of Kanako, especially her naiveness that worries Kanako greatly.

Kanako Yamazaki (山崎 加奈子, Yamazaki Kanako?)
Voiced by: Yui Horie

Just like Yayoi, her ethereal body weakened and she resorted to steal Arashi's energy to replace her and her friend's, until she figured out that only by making a connection with a living human, her energy would be restored. She and Yayoi are best friends and spent their ghost-living in a run-dwon mansion. She is very protective and deeply cared of Yayoi's well-being, up to the point where she does not hesitant to hurt somebody for her sake. She is "connected" with Hideo. She looked tough, rude, and unlikeable at first. This is because she had gone through a lot of hardships since childhood and loathes rich girls such as Kaja, Arashi, and Yayoi. Her encounter with Yayoi changed her perspective and she became able to open up herself.

Takeshi Yamashiro (山代 武士, Yamashiro Takeshi?)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita

A young man who Arashi saved when he was a child and Yasaka's main target of jealousy, as he is always in good terms with her.

Anime
First series

An anime adaption was announced in November 2008. The anime series is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, Katsuhiko Takayama oversees the script, the character design is done by Kazuhiro Ota and is produced by Shaft. The series started broadcasting on April 5, 2009, total of 13 episodes is planned.

Theme songs

Opening

* "Atashi dake ni kakete" (あたしだけにかけて?) by Omokage Lucky Hole

Ending

* "Kirari Futari" (キラリフタリ?) by Ryōko Shiraishi
* "Hitonatsu no Keiken" (ひと夏の経験?) by Ryōko Shiraishi (ep 6)
* "Kassai" (喝采?) by Yui Horie (ep 11)

Second series

A second series called Natsu no Arashi! Akinai chū (夏のあらし! 春夏冬中?, lit. Summer Storm! Open for Business) was announced on June 29, 2009.
Theme songs

Opening

* "Oyasumi Paradox" (おやすみパラドックス?) by Etsuko Yakushimaru

Ending

* "Otome no Junjo" (乙女の順序?) by Ryōko Shiraishi, Kaori Nazuka, Ai Nonaka and Yui Horie

Reception
King Records's Starchild division has offered to pay Amazon gift certificates to bloggers at the unofficial Neko to Negima! to Seiyū-san anime blog site for their reviews of Natsu no Arashi!'s anime series.

I started to watch this anime by accident and it turns out to be WONDERFUL! I really don't expect a lot since the old man's prologue in a first few seconds, but I sticked around anyway. I love how Jin Kobayashi could developed all the character's differently. Judging by Kaja's appearance, I thought she will the 2nd Sawachika Eri, who is all stern, cold, and keep her appearance from others. But she turns out to be a highly amusing girl, who despite of having such a clam aura around her, could be such a running gag for sweets.

The animation style and the tone is perfect and quite clear in describing how Showa 20 era looks like, although only briefly mention. This anime is not so much about the storyline, because Jin Kobayashi is all about the humor, so I don't think you should perceive this anime seriously, otherwise you will lose its 'flavor'.

For me, personally, this anime offers some moral lessons and it makes me reflect back to how I have lived my life. The way all these summer ghosts live their short life at its fullest, gives some inspiration for us to do the same.

Enjoy the Summer while you can, guys! =D

The series is as energetic as it's always been, but the time travel has taken a holiday over the first two episodes of season two which throws away one of the main joys of the show. Also, it's now clear that the end of the season can be pretty easily predicted. My main hope for this season is that the path we take to get there will be as much fun as the path we've taken this far. About the only open plot question in my mind is "when is 'salt guy' going to go postal and shoot the place up?".

Once again, the opener is visually inventive, seductive and with an unusual tune, but it doesn't seem to have the sense of humor that was in the opener for the first season. Maybe the humor is there but just doesn't translate as well this time around. Given the "Storms" of summer title, I was hoping that the opener or closer for s2 would be a Japanese cover of Santana's "Stormy", which has a jazzy latin flavor similar to the original opener and of course has the perfect title for the series, but looks like I'm out of luck.

The animation revels in unusual lighting and shading, often using shadows and silhouettes to lend a mysterious, sinister air to a situation that is otherwise humorous such as the mahjong game in ep 2 (15th overall). The animation styles are also eclectic, jumping from shadowy horror-style creepiness, to the clean well-lighted place of the cafe with stops at super-deformed and chibi character designs along the way. Combined with the quirky character designs, the use of visuals to subert or enhance the tone of each scene is one of the most original parts of this anime.

The characters are like a family in the cafe, and one of the things that's weaker this time around is the character-driven suspense of the first season. Sure there's some developing romantic tension between the two young'uns, but without time travel we don't have the threats to people's lives and sanity that we had in the first season. Nothing a few plot twists in later episodes can't solve, but for right now it feels like they're playing up the anime cliches with the onsen and beach episode without much going on behind the scenes.

All in all, it's still a very watchable show, and while it has dipped a bit from season 1, it's nothing that can't be recovered with a few creepy twists to the plot for a 3 or 4 episode story arc. This is definitely a cut above many second season anime seeking to cash in on the popularity of the first season, such as Nogizaka Haruka or Shugo Chara party (which is technically a 5th season if you count in 26 episode blocks). I'll definitely be following these guys as the episodes roll out for remainder of season two.

I'd have to admit, when I began watching this series, I really didn't have much of an interest in it, other than the fact that Arashi was voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi. The graphics are sort of random and all over the place, and the characters (particularly that salt-seeking guy) are quite wierd. Though from watching it through to the end of the season, I don't really regret it.

The storyline of magical time-travelling girls is sort of unoriginal... but I still found this storyline where both Hajime and Arashi (from past and present) need to work together in order to change the past and, indirectly, the future to be different from others that I have seen.

I'm not really a fan of the type of music used in this anime, but because it was Ryoko Shiraishi singing the endings, I had to listen to them anyways x3 I began to realize, after time, that maybe I was a little too stereotypical towards this type of music after all. The anime openings and endings all have a very original tune that is quite different from generic anime opening songs.

The characters of the show are okay, but not really the 'spectacular' that I was looking for. I like their character designs, but they are quite similar to others that I have seen.

I'm not quite sure as to what 'animation' really refers to, but from my point of view I take it as the way the scenes look, character movement, etc. If I look at that, the style of animation where a million things flash over the screen in the course of a 5 minute character dialogue is kind of... well I personally didn't like that much because it made the anime seem messier than it really was, but I suppose there are others who could claim that they really love it.

When I first started watching this series, it was a bit slow for me and I wasn't really sure what was going on. BTW, What's up with the salt dude? But, it started to grab my attention with the introduction of Kaya and Jun. I was a bit confused about Jun but was shocked to find out the truth about him/her! ha ha ha! And it seems Kaya has a story just like everyone else. There's something about her that I can't quite figure out yet.

I love the spunkiness and attitude of the owner of Arc! She reminds me of NYers! :)