neko's thinkbox

So! Kicking off on our new domain, here’s some Aoi Hana to talk and muse about!

When I first started watching Aoi Hana, I was pretty excited. As someone with absolutely no experience in Shoujo Ai anime, I kept wondering what kind of story I would discover here, and to what extent the love element would be pushed. You know, preconceptions and exaggerated depictions here and there of homosexual women biased me a little. Either way, I was pretty much threading on new grounds.

What struck me at the beginning was the light aura, the tranquil ambience that this anime emanated. Ever since the first episode, the soft watercolor/pastel-like colors were very soothing to the eye, and I just relaxed, a little more with every episode; but at the same time picking up interest in what turned out to be a very complicated love/friendship pattern.
 

The story

The story itself was pretty short. Basically, it is all about Fumi’s search for love, and how thorny it can be, especially for a homosexual. We witness her as she goes through a very complicated period of her life, torn by an unrequited love. That’s when she meets a mysterious senpai whom she immediately falls in love with, and it seems as if this feeling is reciprocal, but… I don’t really know how to summarize it all without going too much in detail, since it is pretty complicated (as is the custom for love polygons). Let’s just put it like this: it’s beautiful and sweet, but not necessarily what the opening makes it look like.

Despite the opening’s long exposition on Akira, which actually made me believe that Akira was a vital character, the story barely placed her in the middle of all concerns. In fact, this story only came about with the introduction of Sugimoto Yasuko, which raises the question, why wasn’t Yasuko featured in the OP at all? At the same time, why was there so little development between Fumi and Akira?

One can't go back and redo the past; what's done is done. We have to accept it, and move on.

One can’t go back and redo the past; what’s done is done. We have to accept it, and move on.

I understand how Akira played a great role in Fumi’s life, having been her childhood friend, mental support and much more, but, she only realized the latter it in the last part. The fine line between friendship and love, where is it? Between Fumi and Yasuko, it was pretty much love in a sexual meaning; but between Akira and Fumi, it was love in a strictly friendly meaning. During the series, I actually wondered whether Fumi ever considered making out with Akira (considering her uncommon preference), but I was mistaken.
Similarly, Akira never really expressed any feelings of love towards Fumi in a possessive, sexual way. She did consider all the angsty girl love around her during the camp, but she extrapolated it into the possibility of her ever falling in love with someone (which ever gender this might imply). However, all things considered, I really don’t see Akira pairing up with Fumi, let alone start swinging that way. Fumi might had that epiphany at the very end and, in the worst of cases, start approaching Akira differently, but even then, I do believe that Akira would prefer to just stay best friends.

Yes, the ending could have needed a little more time to develop. There is this huge question mark: why was there so little development between Fumi and Akira? I wish J.C. Staff had done a better job with that, and I would be inclined to compare it to a similarly rushed series by them: Toradora. They managed to build up for the great finale, and suddenly crashed everything down. But I’m not sure if it was the same with Aoi Hana. Perhaps it’s because the expectations during the anime were not the same? The thing between Yasuko and Fumi ended peacefully, everyone learnt their lesson, and Fumi realized what’s really important to her.

That was basically the plan. And in this plot, Akira pretty much felt like a support character that has been overrated by the OP/expectations of the viewer. It might not have jumped to the eye immediately after the series finished, though, since it was not part of the main plot, but with some distance, it is noticeable how something is lacking, how there is a gap between the premise and the end result. It is a little regrettable indeed, but not necessarily a massive disappointment, since it was pretty much left with an open ending, so, who knows… Can we write it off as yet another shortcoming of 11-episode anime series?^[1] Perhaps our avid manga readers could elucidate us on this matter.

Akira, the ever underappreciated sidekick.

Akira, the ever underappreciated sidekick, and the most down-to-earth character in this series.

Sounds pretty negative, doesn’t it? But the bottom line is that I actually liked it despite all of the above. The reason being – and I praise J.C. Staff for this – that it was very, very satisfying to see how such cliché situations as accidental touches causing massively embarrassing scenes, overused deredere blushes, or any other sort of slapstick-ish worst-case misunderstandings were actually avoided in this anime. And the expected sexual innuendos that this kind of series inspire and are inspired by (cf. Saki) were totally left out. If anything, I could love Aoi Hana just for these two facts. The progression of the story, the character development, the very emotions felt a lot more natural like this. Sometimes, beauty does lie in simplicity. Or is it subtlety, after all?

 
The characters

Since the beginning, I liked Fumi. I found her wallflower-like appearance cute, but, I don’t know why, perhaps it is just my protective instinct that is gearing for her since she was so naive, so weak, so simple-minded^[2]. I just felt like comforting and hugging her all the time. She did a fair lot of self-development, and I was massively surprised by the way she told Sugimoto off in the end.

Kyouko was acceptable. I don’t think her “love” for Sugimoto was real, despite the lengths she has gone for her. I believe it was just an extreme form of admiration she had for her senpai, which she couldn’t find any other explanation for than just carnal love. But she’s young and immature, and I think that she will learn to accept many things once she grows up and realizes her foolish mistakes of youth. Most importantly, she will realize how much she has neglected Kouri, who cared so much and waited patiently for her, and eventually accept him. That’s how I think Kyouko would evolve after the story.

But who I eventually liked the best was Akira. She knew very well that she was at risk of becoming a lesbian^[3] too, but she remained compassionate without becoming too friendly. Especially in such emotional situations as Fumi and Kyouko have been in, it would have been too easy and tempting for her to just give in and comfort them with pity love (in a sexual sense), which might have been the worst thing to do since it is very likely to mess up entire relationships. I appreciated how Akira gauged and accepted the situation, and kept her distances where applicable.

In the same vein, I like the way she thinks about her own feelings as well, like when she realized she may become as uncertain as Fumi et al., should she ever be in love with someone too. …I suppose I just identify with her too much. Story of my life, or something.^[4] But then again I never had a stalker siscon oniichan, so it’s definitely not the same, heh.

Friends, best friends, or even more?

Friends, best friends, or even more?

And you can imagine, yes I hated Yasuko… a little. At first, I just thought she was a confused girl who always wanted to be a boy (which would explain her tomboyish looks and behavior). But then I found out that actually, she’s just a confused girl who could never get over the fact that her love was unrequited, and the fact that beloved teacher married her sister, adding insult to injury.
Still, I absolutely didn’t like her selfish, manipulative ways. She knew she was a popular type, so she took advantage of her status, and swayed Kyouko and Fumi in her desperation. She knew very well that she was suppressing her frustration, trying to forget about that teacher, running away from the truth.
I fully understand where she’s coming from. All she ever needed (or wanted) was someone dear to her to tell her to move on, just like Fumi did in the end. But still, the whole fishing around, in my opinion, was not a necessary evil. She just needed a friend. Not a girlfriend, but a friend. Just like Akira is a friend to Fumi.

…wow, I am actually surprised how little I actually thought about the fact that there was “girls love” involved. The whole bias train actually stopped long ago in the first few episodes, where this anime managed to make me look at these protagonists not as “females” (from a gender point of view), but as simple human beings looking for pure, untainted love, much beyond the moral restrictions of society. It did a great job at unbiasing me.
Such a comment coming from someone who actually thinks of himself as extremely tolerant of homosexual persons… I realize how much of a hypocrite I used to be.
 

The rest

The OP song was sweet, it fit the mood perfectly, although once again, the animation was a little too bare, and pretty misleading. The ED, I can’t really tell, because I always skipped it. The first seconds sounded good though. I should give the single a listen.

The character design was lovely, without all the fancy moe shenanigans like ahoges, Super Deformed visuals, and the likes. The facial design was a little disconcerting at times, especially looking at the noses from the profile. The tip of their noses looked so round and… elevated? A little odd indeed. Though eventually, I came to like it. It just needs getting used to, as is usually the case with the more unconventional designs out there (see Cross Game) that don’t correspond with the metric clucktons of ZOMGAR or ZOMGMOE we’re being served every new season.

Some minor nitpicking I could point out is that, while the overall ambiance and design was superb, the animation wasn’t really. Especially moving objects like cars or trains were a little CG-ishly odd. But since all the rest was good, I don’t really care about such minor issues.

Holding hands, a whole system of symbolisms.

Holding hands, a whole system of symbolisms.

The verdict

All in all, I am simply sated and satisfied. Everything was pretty well balanced. It might not have been a 100% perfect series, or the best series of this summer for this matter, but it was good enough to leave me with a large smile on my face.
At the same time, it was a nice introduction to the Shoujo Ai genre. Guess I’m open enough to give Maria-sama ga Miteiru a try now.

If I had to put it in numbers, let’s say, I’d give it a x,x out of xx, which is a pretty high average.^[5]

Now get thee to read thy manga, I heard it’s a lot better.

1. Incidentally, is there a special denomination for these? [↩]
2. in a positive sense, not saying she’s shallow, stupid or anything [↩]
3. I know this word has some kind of negative connotation… I definitely don’t mean it like that [↩]
4. Oh Freud, flagellate me. [↩]
5. As always, fill in the numbers yourself. :P [↩]