2014-12-26

Sasameki Koto - anime

Sasameki Koto (ささめきこと) is the 13 episode adaptation of the slice of life romance manga by the same name from Ikeda Takashi.  It originally aired in Japan during the Fall of 2009.

    Murasame Kazuki is in love with her best friend and classmate Kazama Ushio.  Ushio is open about her love of girls, but Murasame hasn't told anyone her feelings or preference.  Murasame has a few problems to overcome before she can decide if she wants to let her best friend know her true feelings.  Kazama has a penchant for cute girly girls and Murasame is a tom boy.  On top of that she has to deal with the problem of threatening her most important relationship for the possibility of her feelings being reciprocated.

    After reading the manga I wanted to watch the anime to see how it translated, especially given its creation halfway through the series.  It was both disappointing and enjoyable.  The animation and voice acting seemed pretty sub par.  Yet, the length and portion of the manga it dealt with made the story significantly better than the source material.  Where the manga was filled with story lines I thought were pointless the anime cuts to the chase and has the love story of the two main characters as its sole focus.  I liked that.  As stated earlier what I didn't like was the animation. it was cheap.  The anime version also made it seem like the series was really made to be a shojo-ai dojinshi of Azumanga Daioh.  That was a bit weird to think about...  The manga didn't give off that vibe though.  So I think in the end...even with the lower quality artwork of the anime, given the cleanness of the story compared to the manga, the anime is the better choice out of the two.  It keeps everything to the point and delivers the feels in a good way.  If only more shojo-ai stories could be more about the emotions instead of the ecchi.  Although...the anime doesn't put a defining conclusion to the relationship of the main characters like the manga does.  Perhaps they were hoping for a continuation once the manga was completed.  Given the age of both I don't think that's going to happen.

    The anime is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll.  It has not been made available on disc in North America.


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