Natsuyuki Rendezvous

It is unclear how old the main characters of Natsuyuki Rendezvous are but they are definitely not teenagers or young adults. My best guess is late twenties, early thirties and the characters are certainly exploring themes that maybe only people who have experienced a bit of life can relate to.

The story is about Rokka who, despite being very young, has given-up on love and seem to be set to spend the rest of her days as a widow, not wanting to move on from her husband who she believed lacked attachment. Not that she would think that if she knew that his ghost still haunts her.

However, she cannot see her husband's ghost. The only person who can is Ryosuke, a man who fell for Rokka, long before he knew anything about her beyond that she was a florist. He was passer-by who, upon becoming captivated by her, started stopping and buy something small from her. Yet he bought so frequently that his flat was nearly taken over by the greenery. Fortune smiled on him just in time and he was able to get a part-time job at Rokka's shop.

After a few months of working for her, he was invited to Rokka's apartment during the leave taking of another employee and this is where he first met the ghost of Rokka's husband and in due course, discovers a few things about him that Rokka herself would find shocking. I.e. he was attached enough to her to haunt her when during his life he had insisted that she should move on after his death.

Refreshingly, by the end of the first episode, Ryosuke had confessed to Rokka. So it seem that this will be an anime about Rokka's journey to finally move on from her husband and take another chance at love and not another anime where you have a person loving someone from afar and never getting-up the nerve to make a move. You could argue that it amounts to the same thing as both are about taking a chance but there is a difference between taking a chance at love once and plucking-up the courage to do it again.

From the little research I did on Wikipedia, it seems this anime is based on a manga that has concluded, which is good because I hate for this anime not to have a proper ending. The anime has beautiful graphics and the score is quite fitting. I will definitely be tuning back into see if/how love blossoms in the flower shop!

No tenía planeado ver esta serie, vi el capitulo 01 en portada y lo comencé a ver sin leer la sinopsis y sin siquiera prestar mucha atención al título. Mi primera impresión fue "Oh... un dorama animado", "Una serie para chicas"...

Al final no sé si es eso, pero lo que sí sé es que seguiré viéndola de ahora en adelante.
Al no ver la sinopsis me sorprendió mucho el saber la naturaleza del "esposo", y también me gustó mucho la narrativa que presenta en general la serie, la trama es interesante y la musicalización muy buena. El diseño de personajes no es de mi especial agrado, sin embargo no está mal.

En general; una serie sobria, tranquila, con un contenido bastante "serio" que la hace poco atractiva para el público joven. Probablemente los jóvenes que vean el primer capítulo lo noten aburrido, e comprensible, sin embargo considero que será una buena serie de temporada.

4 huellitas de este zorro para esta serie, en espera de su desarrollo.

Un capitulo que plantea el escenario y los personajes. Es intersante como se dejan ver los elemntos que jugaran en la trama sin revelar la manera en que se entretejerá la historia. Al mismo tiempo se revelan algunas caracteristicas de los personajes principales como Ryūsuke Hazuki pero al mismo tiempo algunos siguen cubiertos por el manto del misterios como Rokka Shimao y Atsushi Shimao.

En lo personal me ha gustado la originalidad de la historia de amor. Con personajes adultos pero al mismo tiempo con realismo de lo que a veces algunos hemos enfrentado o enfretaremos.

I have to admit, I have been falling for at least one of Noitamita shows every season for a while now (Mononoke, UN-GO, GC, Moyashimon, No. 6, Tsuritama, Kids on the Slope to name a few), and they did it again. I love Natsuyuki already.

I happened to listen to Noitamina radio that was released online after the Ep. 2 aired in Japan with Yuichi Nakamura (the voice of Hazuki) as the guest, and the radio show's host said "if there are animes like Natsuyuki available, we don't have a need for live action drama shows any more." I completely agree with his comment. The voice for Natsuyuki is always recorded with all the voice actors present and I definitely think you can hear it in the acting. Every dialogue is always connected and every expression is very very believable. It also helps to have exceptionally skillful actors to act. I noticed when a character intentionally hides facial expression for the actor to show pain, anxiety or love through a small tremble in the voice, or a sigh, or a statement that means completely opposite of what the character is actually feeling, all the subtle-ness is extremely effective in this show.

It is true that the subject is too mature for the younger audiences to catch up. But you know. They have the rest of the anime to enjoy. This is ours.

This one is off to a good start - it's still early going, but the characters feel like they have some "weight" to them and so far the little flower shop is hitting the slice of life theme pretty nicely. Aspects of it bear a striking resemblance to the timeless classic "Maison Ikkoku" - both feature a somewhat aloof protagonist who falls in love with an older widow who's still sorting through her emotional baggage.

Where this one will succeed (or fall apart) as the series progresses is how it handles the ghost. Will the ghost's character weave a compelling story of his own right, or will it all just degrade into slapstick and overdone supernatural quirkiness? Only time will tell, but after the first few episodes I'm optimistic that this one will stay on the right track.

It deals with many of the infinite questions of love: when should I move on; does love ever end; does loving again mean betraying a lost love? A really nice addition to the Crunchyroll menu for the adult viewers.

After watching the whole series I decided to make some editing to my review. Overall, NR is really pretty and romantic in a subtle and almost poetic way. Nevertheless, there are 3 episodes that seem to go nowhere, which gives the impression of an excessively slow-paced series. It is not. Many things happen for so few episodes. Give it a try if you are willing to breath and flow with a story of a different romance in an incredible and sometimes painful situation.

So I've only seen the first several episodes but I love this show. It's about a women who is unknowingly haunted by her dead husband. Hazuki is a younger man who falls in love with her. He, however, can see the ghost husband. The interactions between the men run the gamut between achingly sad or laugh out loud funny. The romance between Rokka and Hazuki is very sweet, while at the same time it is colored by her memories of Shimuo, who she is still trying to move on from. I really enjoy the adult characters, the writing is very good, and the animation is well done. It is such a nice change from the Shoujo high school stuff.

I typically love this genre, so maybe I had too high of expectations, but I found this show to be extremely slow, the plot line only so-so (and predictable), and none of the characters to be particularly 'likable'. The timeline of the story is weird too, where the dead husband gets far, far more airtime and background story than the guy who is supposedly the main character. Then, within the last 10 minutes of the entire series, it all kinda wraps up and you are left wondering... well...if that was how they wanted to tell the story, why not leave it at an OVA of 6 episodes?

I feel like the art probably pulls this up to a 2.5 star show, but in all honesty I went with only two stars because what two stars "stands for" is very fitting of my feelings on this show... "it was ok".

It's a nice short watch if you just want a well drawn, colorful story playing in the background, but I really think if you are into this genre, there are many other better picks... even right here on Crunchyroll (Chihayafuru or Kokoro Connect for older fans, or if the romance/drama/shojo style is more what you were looking for: Skip Beat, La Corda de Oro, just to name a few.) Unlike the above shows I listed, where I could barely wait to load the next episode, this one just didn't do it for me.