Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again

 Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again (じいさんばあさん若返る) is a 11 episode super natural comedy based on the manga of the same name by Araido Kagiri.  The anime originally aired during the Spring of 2024.

    Shozo and Ine Saito are well into the twilight of their lives.  They live a simple and peaceful existence as farmers in rural Aomori prefecture, surrounded by their children and grand children.  One day they notice a conspicuous golden apple growing from the tree they planted on their wedding day and decide to pick it and eat it to celebrate their lives together.  The following day they wake up to find their bodies have restored themselves to the look and vigor of their youths and it appears they have a brand new lease on their life together.  Shozo has always felt guilty about robbing Ine of a more glamorous life, being married to a poor farmer.  Ine had moved to their small town as a teenager, coming from Tokyo and he was concerned that he was never good enough for her, not even able to afford a proper honey moon.  Before too long Ine's health deteriorated and their lives focused solely on taking care of their farm and raising their children.  Now that they have this chance to do the things they couldn't accomplish int he past they don't want to squander their restored health.

    As they enjoy their time together they begin to suspect it won't last long.  They begin to have dreams about an hour glass and if the hourglass is flipped they wake up in their elderly bodies.  Their goal is to make the most of whatever time remains while their bodies allow them to do more than they have in decades.  Aside from their daughter, who lives in Tokyo with her family, their other children live nearby and the couple is close to them all.  In their renewed youth they largely go about their lives as they always have, but with out the fear of devastating injury while trying to maintain their rigid diets.  Even though they appear youthful they are still not able to connect with the modern world and struggle with technology and popular culture.  As the days and weeks and months pass they begin to understand that this is not a completely new lease on life and both understand that their days are short.  Instead of dwelling on their own mortality, they continue to live to the fullest, no longer burdened by the wear of the years and illness.

    There isn't a lot to say about this series as it flitted from day to day showing there loving elderly couple dealing with their unusual circumstances while remaining completely grounded.  Within their family and community they do little to conceal whats happened to them.  We find out later in the series there is a legend that talks about such circumstances, so at least with the older residents the idea of the old becoming young again lingers in their memories.  The Saito's don't run into much resistance to the reality of their predicament so very little time is wasted getting everyone onboard.  Much of the story bounces between the lovebirds butting up with a different view of the world around them, through their renewed youth.  They don't want to abandoned the world that they lived in before but with their renewed vigor, they are willing to be a little adventurous in their limited free time.

    The artwork is rather sub standard, with the character designs changing between detailed and cartoonish, usually to enhance the characters emotions.  While the story most focuses on the couple themselves, there is a fair amount of attention given to their closest grand children, cousins Shiori and Mino.  Both girls are high schoolers who don't exactly mesh well with each other but are absolutely devoted to their elderly grandparents.  The interactions between them and their progeny is endearing, comical and overall heart warming.  I was not prepared for how solemn the series ends.  Over all it was cute and enjoyable, a fun story that used a super natural element to explore the strong bonds between live long spouses and the love they have for their children.  Its was just a lovely is benign story.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.