Orange

This week's anime falls under the drama romance category.

This 2016, 13 episode anime focuses on Naho, her group of friends, and new transfer student Kakeru. At the start of the show, Naho receives a letter from herself 10 years in the future--26 year old Naho to be exact. The letter tells her of events that happened throughout the course of those 10 years but more specifically, her and her friend's time in high school and Kakeru's tragic death.

At first she didn't believe the letter but as events described in the letter starting coming true, she decided to follow her future self's wishes. Naho realizes the letter is full of so much regret from her future self, wishing she could have saved Kakeru. So, current 16 year old Naho takes it upon herself to keep an eye on Kakeru and save him from dying.

The story continues to depict the adventures of the gang with Kakeru. Naho struggles to follow the letter's wishes so it does get a bit frustrating to watch as she fails to do what could literally save Kakeru's life. But she's a high schooler, nobody knows what they're doing at that age--even now being in my 20's, I feel just as confused.

The show does get better, I promise.

It is obvious throughout the show that Kakeru has feelings for Naho but again, Naho is a frustrating character at times. But her friends help her along the way, or at least try their best too. They all care about one another and want nothing but the best for one another. They support one another, even if two in the group might happen to like the same person.

As the show goes on, we learn more about what actually happened with Kakeru. His time in this show might not last very long, so every event affects his mental health severely. High school can be a pretty rough time for some people, so the show really focuses on the emotions people feel by the slightest interactions and occurrences.

There's a lot of revelations that happen throughout the show that you just have to watch for yourself--me telling you would just ruin the surprise. Everything leads up to the big ending of whether or not they saved him. And let me tell you, the dramatic conclusion left me in tears.

So if you're okay with watching a poor teenage boy's mental health deteriorate as he falls in love and tries to maintain the friendships he makes, then maybe this show could be interesting enough to watch?

Here is a quick trailer of what to expect:

And here is a link to watch in either English or Japanese.

As many anime made, this show was originally a manga, a best selling #1 book during its time. It's short but overall a heartwarming show that pulls on all the heartstrings. The anime does adapt entire manga and ends, so no season two. If you want a complete story with an emotional finale, this show could be the next anime you watch!

If you did watch this show or plan on it, let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Next week will finally be something more upbeat!