neko's thinkbox

And there I thought I had only watched one series last season, but no, there was actually a second one! Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~. It’s not really a review (or perhaps it is?), so bear with my random blurbs and what-not. I hope I got this one short enough this time.

I did watch the first Mahou Tsukai series quite a few years ago, and I remember I liked it, especially the ending theme (Under the Blue Sky by The Indigo). However… I don’t remember much of it. A friend of mine said it had a rather sad ending, and no relation to Natsu no Sora either. I’ll have to rewatch it again one of these days…

About Natsu no Sora. I didn’t realize it immediately, but in effect, I had been watching it all along, but only indirectly through translating. (Well, not really… only translation check this time. QQ And yes, we’re slow as heck, but we are noone’s slaves :P) The problem with that is, when I TL/TC, I tend to forget the details pretty quickly. I think the main reason is because I usually start my task right away instead of watching the episode first, so I concentrate on giving a correct translation more than anything. And once I’m done, I usually am fed up and don’t spend any further thoughts on it. However, I can pretty much remember all events in this anime, perhaps also because there are almost no events at all.

Natsu no Sora is one of the purest Slice of Life series out there, and that is the reason why it is boring uneventful… even more than ARIA, for that matter. Roughly put, we have young people from all over the country going to a magic school in Tokyo to improve their magic as well as become licensed mages to fulfill people’s requests. Two people fall in love, everyone graduates. The end.

Granted, this sounds like a waste of time. But it definitely isn’t. This anime has a special charm, which is traditional simplicity. It already begins with the character design and animation: both are awfully simple, especially if you compare them to the overly photorealistic backgrounds in the anime. (Speaking of which, sometimes they just feel like photos which a paint-effect filter has been slapped on, so they don’t look as awesome as Makoto Shinkai’s drawings by a mile.)

I am convinced that effect was intentional though, to create an artistic contrast between the fantasy characters and the real world, and, most importantly, not to distract our attention from the slice of life we are witnessing. This is great, since everything looks “bland” enough to erase any hints of fanservice. Character, not bodily features. A high note in my books.

However, despite their plain appearance, the characters still look pretty cute. I liked Yamabuki Hiyori the best (red hair, yay!), although the last few episodes really made me fond of Suzuki Sora.

Now, the simplicity spreads into the “story” (I hesitate to say plot), which is our characters’ path to graduation. Sora leaves her home town Biei to spend her time in Tokyo to hone her magic skills at the magic school, staying at a host family with another magic student, Midorikawa Gouta. He’s a pretty laid-back guy, loves surfing and is convinced he doesn’t have any magic powers at all (which he will slowly discover later on).

Their daily routine: from a random day at school and at the client’s homes to put the apprentice’s magic to practice, over to searching for a lost child, shopping at a huge shopping mall, encountering personal problems, love woes, etc etc. – in a nutshell, they all experience events and problems we encounter in our everyday lives as well.

The magic used in this anime is definitely not the kind of magic that makes cute girls transform into those ultra cute mahou shoujos with their sophisticated magic wands, to fight the EVUL POWAAZ – not at all. Here too, it ranges from basic lock unlocking skills, to memory recovery, repairing things, cleaning up – pretty simple stuff here too, although there are occasions where some more impressive magic like making it snow or even stopping time occurs. And even so, it’s nothing flashy at all either.

And almost every day, that street girl YASUKO (voiced by micc) with her sweet guitar melodies sings her lovely songs on the street. Those soft tones, with the few equally mellow background music songs, are also a great addition to the simple and traditional feel of the anime. The Opening feels pretty great, I like the freshness of that song, it’s full of of life. The Ending is good too, although I keep remembering the ED of the first season and I keep telling myself “darn, a song by The Indigo would have been so much better”.

What I found particularly interesting was how life was portrayed in this anime, the most memorable example being in episode 9. A kiss between the main characters, usually dominating the screen in other animes to emphasize the importance of the scene, doesn’t happen in the foreground here, but in the background. It is, in fact, at the same level as the joyful child dragging his father behind him – none are less important. While life happens, life goes on elsewhere. There are plentiful of examples in this anime, if you pay attention to it.

Another more trivial example which happens more often is during a regular conversation between people. In any other anime (or in other works), either both characters are shown together in the picture talking, or they are shown alternatively as it is their turn to speak. However, in Natsu no Sora, the camera often only shows, say, Sora’s face while someone else is talking off-screen. As if it was more important to see Sora’s immediate reaction rather than watching the counterpart speak. It is indeed a bit unsettling, but interesting and original at once.

It always felt as if this anime was passing by, like just another series, but in the end, it left a big impression on me. Okay, saying “I’d never have thought such a light series would have this kind of effect on me” would now be hypocrisy (see my emotion-laden ARIA reviews), but I still am surprised at how much I got attached to the characters. Especially the last episode left me a bit torn apart, because that person, who was such a bright and happy person, who loved life more than anything and who was looking forward to the future, absolutely did not deserve to end like that.

And yet… despite this unfortunate turn of events, life goes on, yet again. No sugarcoating, no denying, nothing: it happened, and people will have to overcome their grief, and live with that. And I think this message came through pretty well.

On a scale of 10, I would give it a 8. Call me biased for liking Slice of Life shows. Perhaps I am giving it too much credit for what it’s worth, but that’s up to you to decide if you are going to watch it.

I would recommend it to anyone who likes very light entertainment with not only a slice, but an entire chunk of untainted, delightful life.

(~1200 words, I’m improving. Hope the “quality” didn’t suffer, though.)