Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OVA ~Next Season~

Information of Anime

Haruka Suzumiya has been discharged from the hospital & is allowed to go home.  She will need to come to the hospital once a week for a daily check up.  Takayuki Narumi plans to devote most of his time to her to make up for lost time.  Misuki Hayase leaves town to allow them to be together.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OVA ~Next Season is a direct sequel to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.  But it's more of a lead on to the TV show's ending.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I have seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The story takes place after the TV show & just before its ending where time has passed.  This OVA starts before that ending where viewers get the chance to see what happened in between.  Takayuki sacrifices a lot of his time, such as work, to be with Haruka everyday.  This includes making up lost time together & recovering her mental state of fear of going outside near cars.  Although she knows that he's in love with Misuki, Haruka feels a little troubled about it.  She decides to break it off with him.

Meanwhile, Misuki goes to Tokyo to start a new life.  While trying to finding a place to stay, she ends up staying at her old high school swimming club member's place as a freeloader.  Here, Misuki tells her how she ended up with Takayuki & broke up with him.  Basically a recap of the TV show with a bit more detail on Misuki's side.  On Takayuki's side, he decides to commit his time to be with Haruka by living together with her.

Akane decides to do some investigating herself when she wonders why Takayuki stopped visiting & calling every night.  Her findings would lead to the truth as Haruka hides it from her.  Finding the real reason, Akane goes at it towards Haruka about how Takayuki is working hard for her.  The OVA ends with a cliffhanger as Haruka faints during her argument with Akane.

My Personal Review

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OVA ~Next Season~ was something that I didn't know that was coming out.  Since it's my top anime show of all time, I went ahead & watch it.  Since the title "Next Season" is a giveaway, it's recommended to watch the TV show first before this to understand the characters & situation.

Animation

The character designs look the same as the TV show.  There doesn't seem to be any improvements.  The girls look good & some are cute.  The male characters continue to be on the plain side due to flat one tone colours.

The colours seem to be duller than Kimi ga Nozomu Eien or at the same level.  But it still fits the series well for some reason.  Probably because the feeling from the TV show is still lingering in me.  The tones didn't clash with the characters & the backgrounds.

The backgrounds are good, but I think the colours make them stand out a bit too much.  It makes the look a bit fake than artsy.

The animation movements are quite natural, but there are some weird choppy movements. It's like some frames are missing in between where the animation looks too quick or recycles back to the first frame pretty hard

Sound

The sound effects are realistic.  No silly stuff here.  It keeps the real life drama of the series intact here.

The seiyuus here aren't too bad as they are the original ones from the TV show.  The performance level is still there even though the TV show was aired a long time ago.

The music is a mixture of new & old.  Some of the old songs are actually remixed a bit.  The genre is still contemporary.

Story

I like how the OVA fills in the missing parts before the TV's ending.  We get to see how the break up was handle properly & what happened between Takayuki, Haruka, & Mitsuki.  It builds more on the original storyline & expands it.  Thus, more room for character development & the relationship between Takayuki & Haruka.  However, it goes into the point of view of the three main girls: Haruka, Mitsuki, & Akane.  Although we do see some of Takayuki's view, the OVA heavily focuses on the three girls.

Watching the OVA, the episodes are broken down to parts.  In other words, each episode focuses on one girl.  Although I know what happens at the ends of the anime, the ending in the OVA has more room for continuation to build up to the TV's ending.  I was hoping it would lead & connect to that ending, but it doesn't.  Another OVA or TV season is possible based on the way it ended.

Overall Conclusion

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OVA ~Next Season~ maintains that strong drama feeling & impression that I had from the TV show.  If you like real life soap opera like drama, I recommend watching this.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OVA ~Next Season~ receives a grade of eight out of ten.  The OVA is how I remember the series & continues it real life drama approach.  However, the ending does leave you hanging a bit even though people that seen the TV show knows how it goes.

Last updated on September 8, 2008