2013-10-23

Kimi no Iru Machi - the anime

Kimi No Iru Machi (A Town Where You Live) is an anime based on the manga of the same name from manga-ka Kouji Seo who also created Suzuka.  This 12 episode series aired over the summer off-season in 2013 in Japan.

                The anime is split between two different story lines.  The first deals with the main character, Haruto Kirishima moving from Hiroshima to Tokyo in the middle of high school to chase after his long distant girl friend, Yuzuki Eba.  Previously, Yuzuki had moved from Tokyo to live with Haruto’s parents in order to escape her aggressive younger step sister.  Haruto is resistant at first due Yuzuki’s clingy and needy habits.  But as they spend more time together he begins to have feelings for her and eventually they begin dating.  The relationship doesn’t last as Yuzuki inexplicably returns to Tokyo and eventually cuts off all contact with Haruto.  Hence why Haruto has decided to move to the big city and live with his older sister.  Through his sister, Haruto is introduced and becomes friends with fellow classmates Asuka Mishima and Kyosuke Kazama.  Asuka is Haruto’s sisters’ neighbor and is initially gruff towards Haruto but soon enough they become friendly and you can sense some growing affection for him.  Kyosuke on the other hand is more than happy to have a guy he can hang out with and quickly takes him under his wing.  Eventually both of his new friends find out his purpose for moving abruptly and try to help him find his lost love.  Haruto does track down Yuzuki, who has become cold towards him and tells him she has started to date someone from her past.  Unknown to everyone, that boyfriend is Kyosuke.  When the truth is told and everyone realizes what’s going on Haruto challenges Kyosuke for Yuzuki’s hand.

                The second part of the anime jumps into the future a year and a half.  We find Haruto and Asuka as a happy and comfortable couple, both attending college and somewhat planning a life together, one step at a time.  Trouble for the happy couple starts to brew when Yuzuki's step sister, Rin, all of sudden decides to try and hook Haruto back up with Yuzuki…through nefarious means.  At first Haruto is honest with Asuka about what’s transpiring, but as he begins to examine his dormant feelings for Yuzuki he starts to rethink his current relationship.

                OK…way back in 2009 I had started reading the manga due to my enjoyment of the Suzuka anime and manga.  It was ok, not too bad, but at some point I had stopped reading it…and I can’t recall why.  From the hazy memory of what I read some of the information and events in the anime were familiar.  The manga is still ongoing, and about 250 or so issues into the story.   Something tells me that the anime ultimately diverges from the manga or only covers two small story arcs.  Either way I should probably get back to reading it to find out what’s up.

                That said the anime kind of pissed me off.  The first half, while mostly familiar from the manga, seemed rushed and haphazard.  Plenty of things were left out, like Rin being Yuzuki’s step sister.  The second part of the anime started off really nice.  It was good to see Haruto apparently mature and comfortable with his situation.  Then Rin steps in and starts to mess shit up.  For a while it still went smooth; characters having honest and upfront dialog with each other is something that doesn’t happen frequently in romantic drama anime.  But as the story wrapped up it started to fall into the usual patterns of deceit, self pity and lack of compassion.  The very end of the 11th episode was awesome though and had me hoping for a really dramatic finish.  Lo, the final episode was a bit flat…with the tease of possibly more to come.  There is a 2 part OAV set that came out which is unrelated to the series in general and deals with a secondary story line from before Haruto moved to Tokyo.  I have yet to view it but may write a review on that as well.

                Anyways, the series was disappointing; far from the quality I found in Suzuka and seemed to diverge a bit from the manga.  Perhaps the anime can redeem its self in the future, or this may be an omen about how the manga rolls.

                Neither the manga, nor the anime, have been licensed for release yet in North America.

1 comment:

BellGold said...

Kimi no Iru Machi :3