Oh no… it’s another romantic comedy! This time, it’s about a tall girl falling for a short boy at school. What could be so different about that? Apart from this one fact, should I have expected anything different?The Expression/Thoughts:
Animation: What really struck me about the animation was the exaggerated perception of height between Koizumi and Otani. Koizumi is definitely tall, but she looks more like a photographic example of a model. I know that most Japanese women aren’t this tall (they’re probably 155-165cm), but it looked totally unrealistic when we find out she really is only 172 cm tall. On the other hand, Otani is ‘only’ 156cm and it felt at times like he really was much shorter. I know it’s only an animated show and that the Toei Animation Co. were trying to illustrate the huge difference in height, but they didn’t have to go so far as totally exaggerate the height discrepancy. Apart from that, the animation was really vibrant and colorful with quite a number of beautifully drawn scenes. Some of the facial expressions of Koizumi were just hilarious.
Story: Interestingly, this story is set in the Osaka/Kansai region and it was refreshing to hear a different regional accent (other than the commonly used Edo/Tokyo accent). Getting back on track however, there isn’t really all that much that is strikingly different about this show, other than the height discrepancies between the two main stars. Again, we see a lot of the story through the eyes of the giraffe-like Koizumi as she dreams of turning her unrequited love for Otani into something more reciprocal. There were some really funny moments that I really enjoyed. So much so, that I consider this more of a comedy than a romance. Story-wise, they turned an otherwise unoriginal, and commonly used romance theme on its head, into something much more entertaining and watchable.
Characters: What made it incredibly entertaining was the ‘friendly hostility’ between the little and large characters of Otani and Koizumi. As friends you could see just how comfortable they were with each other. Once things start to get more emotional, you can actually start to feel the awkwardness of their stuttering relationship. Even though the comedy duo were mostly about laughs and jokes, there was a depth to their personality that made it such an addictive joy to watch. There wasn’t all that much focused on the peripheral characters, but I felt that didn’t detract at all from the show. Again, I was surprisingly impressed with the character development here.
Music: Nice mix of J-pop here. The 4 different OP and ED were all very catchy tunes that really added to the mood of the show. I think it’s best to describe the music and score as a whole as ‘fun’.
Summary: I was overall very surprised by what I had seen. Upon reading the synopsis, I was sighing with dread ‘oh no… not another one of those comedies.’ After finishing the first two episodes, I was glad I had been proven wrong. This definitely was a lot of fun and is in my eyes, a strong recommendation to those who love their romantic comedies.
Information to interested viewers:
* Anime series of episodes : 24
* Manga chapters : -
* Author : -
* Genre : Shoujo - Romance - Comedy
* Watch Online : Email to prishlc@hotmail.com for episode links
