Midori no Hibi Review

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 8:23 am

Wow! I mean... wow! Its been so long, minna-san (everyone)! I get up off my lazy ass to bring you another quality review by me and hopefully, not too soon from now, a few more.

Midori no Hibi (Midori’s Days)...
... is a very, very strange 13 episode series created by Kazurou Inoue, a new comer to the manga and anime scene. The series focuses on the chemistry between delinquent Seiji Sawamura and the only girl to ever have a crush on him, Midori Kasugano. You thought "I, My, Me! Strawberry Eggs" was weird? Bah! That's nothing in comparison... okay, maybe they tie...

STORYLINE
High school student and delinquent Seiji Sawamura is a desperate fellow; he wants a girlfriend, and his social skills towards them aren’t exactly 'developed'. This is especially so after being rejected by all TWENTY girls he has asked out! He's afraid that he’ll end his life with his "right hand as my only companion..." says Seiji, a quote from the fansub by Anime-Empire.

Apparently that doesn't change when, one day, he awakens to find that his right hand has somehow miraculously morphed into a girl named Midori Kasugano, who confesses that she has had a crush on him for the last three years...!!

ANIMATION
Hehe. Okay, I know I've been away from the review business for a while, but the fact still remains that animation is still a trouble for me to judge... but this series' animation is easily classifiable under the term "cutesy". I mean that literally: Their drawn with the long necks, big heads, and skinny bodies that, for some reason, seem to fit with their overall appearances incredibly well. Almost, ALMOST, to the point where you don't notice it.

The fluidity of the animation is normal for your average anime these days, and the character designs are on the simple side, resembling a cross mutation between Escaflowne TV and DNAngel. This is indeed an interesting cross, but for some reason, after a while, it isn’t all that spectacular to your mind and things became seemingly repetitive to me about all of it.

Being from Studio Pierrot, who did such anime as Ayashi no Ceres and Fushigi Yuugi, you wouldn’t have thought this would happen, but it did and I was terribly disappointed.

MUSIC
One thing that was done good in this series was the music. Very, very good. Fluid to the animation, none of it really stood out of place, and it was just all around beautiful to the ears while watching. Another good thing was that neither the music or voice acting blocked one another out: Always a plus!

Sentimental by CooRie (OP)
Ahh! I’m telling you, this may sound like a funky song, but I believe it expresses the anime series in its purest form; hip, hop, and fun to funk to. There’s no dancing to this song, only funk. It’s a popular song on the Internet right now so you most likely could easily find an MP3 of it somewhere. However, I suggest you wait to hear it by buying the domestic, English version which was licensed by MediaBlasters (Rurouni Kenshin, Magic Knight Rayearth, and countless, very popular hentai).

Mou Sukoshi... Mou Sukoshi... by ? (ED)
My favorite of the two songs of this series. A friend of mine actually bought the single when it came out in Japan and I forced him by magical, internet gunpoint to burn me a copy and send it to me, which he miraculously did. I baked him brownies and then ate them out of appreciation for his wonderful deed. Possessing only the acoustic guitar, piano, drums, and sung by a goddess, it’s a must hear. It’s a very well choreographed song and I applaud whoever the hell the people were that both arranged and sung this song.

FINAL COMMENTS
I don’t have that much in the way of final comments. I think I've said what needed to be said in the above sections, so on with the score...

OVERALL SCORE: 6
I really, honestly wanted to give this anime a higher score, but I honestly couldn't fool myself enough to do that, and the music just can't save it this time around. It's a funny anime, with a stable plot, but there were a lot of things that bothered me about it:

For one, the above mention disappointment with Studio Perriot really turned me off of the series. I thought it was goona be another cool, Fushigi Yuugi or Ayashi no Ceres animation (my favorite kind), instead they switched detail with quick simplicity.

The story behind the series is great. It's a funny concept which the Sieyuu each pulled off very nicely and brought life to each of their roles, but the one, final thing that seriously gave this anime a low score in my eyes was the fact that it did not end as the manga did. They took a completely separate track and gave a while new ending... That was cold because the manga's ending was by far the better one.

The comedic attitude in this anime coupled with the cuteness and simplicity that it overall portayed may have seemed like a good idea at the time, and it lasted quite a while, but ultimately, in the very end, it floundered.

Jbrown · Post by **Jbrown** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:28 am

Great Review

Post by **Verence** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:32 pm

Only a 6? That's too bad, the concept was so wierd and cool.

Any really GOOD anime you've seen lately? Have you seen Gokusen yet? How is it compared to GTO?

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:42 pm

<shakes his head>

I haven't heard of Gokusen before, and I haven't been able to find DVDs of GTO (if its licensed, and I didn't watch the fansubs, I have to buy it; it's my morale code to help out the companies) in my local stores anywhere.

If I do get a chance to look at those anime, I'll be sure to make reviews of them sometime. Personally I'd like to hear more of other people's reviews on anime here. Give it a shot!

Post by **Verence** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:35 am

Yeah, get GTO if you ever get the chance. It comes in two 5-DVD box sets (the second to be released in Oct. I believe). GTO is about a motorcycle gang member who becomes a high school teacher. A classic.

Gokusen is similar from what I've heard, a female teacher at a school for troubled youths turns out to be the daughter of a famous yakuza boss. Hilarity ensues and all that.

Post by **Verence** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:36 am

I just got the Gokusen box set.

I likes it. Nothing revolutionary, but it made me laugh and cry as a good anime should, plus its easier on the wallet than most since its just 13 episodes. I reccomend it.

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:43 am

The score is actually an 8, not a 6. What animation studios do it directly copy the manga style drawings. Pierott did an absolutely superb job with it's animation. I'm just too lazy to update my opinions.

I still think there's something missing though. Especially since the ending was totally changed from the original manga (and the series was much shorter, too).

Post by **Verence** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:25 pm

Pierott usually does very good work. In fact, I can't think of any instance in which they did not.

Its always good to update opinions. I, for example, recently re-bought Kino's Journey after trading it in. I thought about it after six months and realized that I liked it more than I thought. ^_^