Orange

Title:Orange
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Naho Takamiya is a timid 16-year-old girl. One day, she receives a letter from her future self detailing actions she must take to prevent Kakeru Naruse, the new transfer student, from sinking into depression and taking his own life.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


Summer 2016 anime that premiered on July 3, 2016.
Animated by TMS Entertainment.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 7 6 7 6 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:3216#1552]
Orange is a romantic drama focused on high school student Naho who receive letters from the future informing them of events yet to come with one of her classmates, Kakeru, committing suicide. Throughout the series, Naho finds herself trying to befriend the boy and understand the circumstances that lead to his death and receiving more letters from the future that detail on the changes that take effect from Naho influencing future events she becomes aware of. While enough is fleshed out of Naho and Kakeru to have the audience care for the problems both have with developing their relationship, the same can't be said for their circle of friends who eventually get entangled into our main couple's developments as they try pushing along the relationship and eventually learn of Kakeru's situaton. This is a major issue I have with the series as a whole since the group of Naho and Kakeru's friends get little in the way of fleshing out and felt tossed into the main conflict just to try pumping out more melodrama for it in a superficial way. Maybe if there was more fleshing out on the group of friends, I could have cared more for them being entangled in the developments of Naho and Kakeru's relationship. But as they are, they are a major crutch to the quality of the series as it otherwise had the development of Naho and Kakeru's relationship being a convincing one as Kakeru gradually breaks down his emotional walls to reveal his inner problems to Naho and the two gradually develop a romantic relationship with one another. While Orange is still a decent entry in the romance drama genre of anime, it could have been much better as a whole if it gave me more reason to care for Naho and Kakeru's friends or just left them out and focused entirely on the couple's relationship developments.

Last updated Sunday, September 25 2016. Created Sunday, September 25 2016.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3216#628]
(Four episodes watched):

Well, based on the synopsis above I was expecting episode one to lay out the basic problem: that Kakeru is seriously depressed and will kill himself unless Naho somehow prevents it. But that didn't happen; about all that did happen was that we learn that somehow Naho gets a letter, supposedly sent to her by herself, ten years from now, warning her to keep an eye on Kakeru but not giving any specifics about what his problem is. There is no explanation about this postal time travel; perhaps there never will be, and we are just supposed to go with it without asking questions. Psychologically, Kakeru seems perfectly well, smiling at times, and there is no sign of trouble, so I wonder if he is hiding his depression or it has yet to begin. I wonder if the depiction of his emotional troubles will be realistic and believable at all. Basically, not a whole lot to see here. I was expecting a shocker at the very end of the episode, like Naho reads from the letter 'you must do this or Kakeru will die', but that didn't happen either. It was too soon to pass judgment, and while I was a little frustrated by the slow pace of the story, otherwise it seemed good enough that I decided to continue watching.

This show is perplexing, in the sense that it has a fairly likeable cast placed in a bizarre situation--yet I found myself becoming bored with it. I guess the problem is that not much is being done with the intriguing communication-over-time premise. The thought 'How the f--- am I getting letters from myself in the future?' never seems to occur to Naho. Wouldn't that be at least as mind-blowing as the notion that a friend may die without her help? She's convinced that the messages are indeed coming from the future, but never seems to wonder how. Are we going to reach the point, ten years from now, in which there are two Nahos, one a decade older than the other? Or will they be separated in two alternate realities? I would be trying to make sense of this if the same thing happened to me. Naho can't bring herself to do much of anything; again and again, she is too anxious to do anything daring and as a result time marches onward towards the disastrous fate that apparently lies in store for Kakeru. Surely the problem can't be solved all in one episode, but if only there was at least some progress. Something finally happens in episode four, but it is far from thrilling. I decided that I was paying too high a price for the modest entertainment that I was getting out of Orange, and dropped it.

Last updated Saturday, September 17 2016. Created Monday, July 04 2016.

Other Sites
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Official Japanese Series Web Site http://orange-anime.com/

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