Lamune

Information of Anime

Kenji Tomosaka & Nanami Kokonoe are old childhood friends that have been living as neighbours even since Kenji moved to this town as a small boy.  Their rooms are so close to each other that they can jump out their room windows to visit one another.  Currently, summer has come as Kenji, Nanami & their friends enjoy their time together.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've 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.

There isn't a lot to see in terms of storylines.  Lot of the episodes shows each girl in detail about their character & relationship with Kenji.  There are bits of elements in the show that has Kenji & Nanami acting like a couple & some of the supporting characters are trying to get them together or prevent breaking them up.

In the beginning of each episode, we see Kenji & Nanami's childhood years.  These memories help build the story of the episode.  At times, a new character would pop in.  They are usually girls that would be talked about in the episode.

Most of the time, we see Kenji & Nanami being together in her family's farm or school.  They have little arguments & happy times.  As the show progresses, we see that relationship develop deeper.  However, it's not lovers but beyond being friends.

Around the tenth episode mark, the show makes some dramatic turns.  Nanami has a physical medical condition & is seriously in pain.  What's worse is that Kenji needs to take her to the hospital through a heavy typhoon.  As Nanami is recovering in the hospital, Kenji takes his time in repairing her field.  Just as Nanami is being discharged from the hospital, Kenji bites the dust as the mountain road gives way & he gets slammed around after falling off his bike.  Now, he's hospitalized with a coma.

In his coma, Nanami visits Kenji everyday for almost a year.  She fails & need repeat a year in school as well as Kenji since he's hospitalized.  As he is in a deep sleep, Nanami makes a lot of promises & loans to him since they still have do their 100 loans thing since childhood.  Hearing her crying voice finally, Kenji wakes up.  From here, they confess their love.  The show ends by showing what's everyone doing now during the credit roll.  At the end of the credits, it shows Kenji & Nanami relaxing at the beach like lovers.

My Personal Review

Lamune is a dating game made by nekoneko soft.  I think it's an ero-game.

Lamune is really a slow pace series where you just relax.  Although there are some comedy bits in the show, it's heavily drama-based.  This show is geared towards a mature audience & isn't for everyone.  Even older people may not like it because it feels slow.

Animation

The drawings are okay.  It wasn't any fancy or bad.  I found that all of the female characters look exactly alike in terms of their face structure, mouth, nose, & eye size.  What made them different from the others were their clothing, eye colour, personality, & hairstyle.  I didn't have any girl that I liked based on their appearance since there were all too similar.  The male characters have some distinction, but it's very little.  However, they stand out differently in the crowd.

The backgrounds are so-so as well.  The show shows a lot of the ocean, trees, & clouds in the sky.  However. they look too fake.  The sceneries wasn't breathtaking & didn't give me the impression that I was actually there.  It felt like the studio wasn't spending a lot of their budget on those sceneries or they had a small budget to play with since it's only 12 episodes long.

The animation movements are quite natural at times, but mostly poor.  The movement of the characters running is weird & they don't seem to cover a lot of distance when they go at top speed.  The other movements, such as arms & hands, are natural.  There are no silly actions in it such as hitting someone' on the back of the head & causing him/her to fall on his/her face.

Sound

The sound effect are ok.  It sounded pretty poor, but I felt there was no need for improvement for them.  It has that anime feel to it, not some kid's cartoon.  The volume level was perfect, but yet soft.

The voices can cause bleeding to some people's ears.  If you didn't like the main heroine's voice in Mizuiro, then you won't like Nanami's voice.  It's because it's done by the same seiyuu, Murata Ayumi.  I heard that a lot of people didn't like her voice in Mizuiro because it's so annoying, squeaky, & high pitched.  It's the same for Nanami.  Personally, I have been bearing with it for a long time already since I heard Ayumi's work since Mizuiro.  I think I'm very close to my limit now.  The other girls' voice are also pretty bad, but bearable.  The male characters are alright.

The music was ok, but it didn't set much of a mood.  Also, there wasn't a lot of background music.  The opening theme was catchy but a bit too cute for my taste.  The ending theme is done by Murata Ayumi, which is a turn off to some people.

Story

It's doesn't have a strong storyline really.  It's mostly about the relationship between Kenji & Nanami.  But it goes at a slow rate.  I understand that this story is about the strong bond they share since childhood.  The viewers aren't directly told about this.  You have to see this bond carefully as Nanami tends to stick around Kenji a lot & has concerns about him being with other girls.  Because Kenji doesn't show this "love bond" with Nanami, you can hardly see the bond between the two.  It's a "more that friends, but not yet lovers" situation.  It's only after the ten episodes or so that we start seeing this bond very clearly as Nanami confesses her feelings during Kenji's coma.

Overall Conclusion

Lamune isn't for everyone.  It's very slow paced & a bit repetitive.  Lamune fans may enjoy this, but I'm not guaranteeing on that since I never played it before.  I would recommend watching this show if you like light hearted drama with a slow pace.

Lamune gets a 6.5/10 from me.  The story's on the slow side & the plot is a bit complex to follow.  You need a lot of patience to watch it.  When I watch this show, I'm usually not excited about it.  But yet, it feels calm at the same time.  Personally, it's not the type of show for me.  It may be suitable for people that played the game or wants something that's calm & flowing.  It's almost something you can relate to in your childhood years.

Last updated on January 9, 2008