BLUE SPRING RIDE #1 -- Special Review

We’re sampling the summer season’s selection! Check out our other pilot write-up’s –

• ALDNOAH ZERO ** SWORD ART ONLINE II ** RAIL WARS ** YAMISHIBAI + AI-MAI-MI


• GLASSLIP ** AKAME GA KILL ** SAMURAI JAM ** PERSONA 4 ** DRAMAtical mURDER


• ARGEVOLLEN ** TOKYO GHOUL

Let me just say up front that the style in this show is really wonderful. The palette of each cell has a rich, granular quality which make every scene look like it was taken right out of a water colored art book. This is one of the few shows where you can probably frame any cell and appreciate its painterly gesture.

I’d also say that the premise is quite applicable. Adolescence is such a delicate time, and who hasn’t had a moment where they’ve liked a classmate, but couldn’t summon up the confidence to do anything about it until it was too late. Or they tried to reinvent themselves as somebody cooler in later grades, only to be conversely put off when an old friend is now acting too cool because they’ve done the same thing?

== TEASER ==

That’s all well and good, but it’s also applicable because it’s so basic, and the tricky thing about a show like this is that they’re sort-of criticism proof. I might say that this first episode was a little too slow, or that it didn’t have much of a hook by the end, or that none of the character’s personalities seemed distinct enough… but that’s really beside the point, right? As long it hits some basic points of the high school experience, it’s done its job.

I find these teenage romances to be a lot more amusing (and unintentionally so) as I get further and further away from high school. When you’re 16, it’s incredibly easy to put your crush on pedestal that’s so high up, he or she might as well be fictional character. This girl’s getting so out of sorts over this dude like he’s some super-cool mystery man, when it’s obvious that he’s just as much of an awkward doofus as she is.

On second thought, the fact that this pilot’s prompted such thoughts probably speaks to it having a little more going for it than a rote slice-of-life episode. It got me thinking. It got me feeling. What more could you ask for?

Watch "Page .1 " and decide for yourself.

from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1Az98xW