Name: End of Summer OVA (90.00% in 3 votes)
Type: ACT
Platform: VHS/VCD
Company: PinkPineApple
Release date: 1994
Reviewed by: Mike
Hi all,
Mike Thomas back again, this time with a review of the OVA End of Summer. (Go easy on me as this is amongst the first times I've reviewed an anime).
End of Summer is based on the Doukyuusei PC game by Elf, and Pink Pineapple used it as a basis for this OVA. SoftCel (AD Visions Adult Branch) professionally subtitled this anime, and brought it over into the States. My review is based on the SoftCel liscenced story.
Overview:
End of Summer is a very mature and intamatly-told romantic drama. This anime is a 4 part series. End of Summer has episodes 1 and 2 on it, and End of Summer 2 has episodes 3 and 4 on it. The story centers around the main character, named Wataru, and his driving goal to make a summer memory with the girl of his dreams, Mai. However, as with any good romantic story, this goal isn't as easy to accomplish as he originally thought.
In his path are his other female friends who come to him for help and Mai's parents, who want Mai to have nothing to do with Wataru.
Review:
To put it bluntly, this 4-part series is awesome. I am so pleased that SoftCel brought this over. They did a fantastic job. So did Pink Pineapple in the actual creation of this movie. The animation is fluid, the characers well drawn, the music great, and the story very well done. It is a very good translation of the PC game to an anime.
And, SoftCel did a terrific job on the subtitles. No lines were "Americanized", nor does the translation seem loose. The font size and color they used was also easy to read, small enough not to block what was going on, and it was timed well too.
The Seiyuu, all of them, were great. Each put a lot of personality into their characters, and fit who they were perfectly. From meek and timid Karumi, to caustic Satomi, to tomboyish Misa, all the Seiyuu did a perfect job of capturing what their charcters are reall like.
As to the story itself, it tells a very mature and intamate drama about Wataru's goal to be with Mai. It starts out with Wataru being infatuated with Mai (as Mai is the class princess that everyone wants to date). He makes it his summer goal to make a sweet memory with Mai before the summer is over. Hence the name of the series. However, as I said in the overview, this isn't that easy.
First is Misa. Misa wants very much to be a track star, but no one (including her parents) feels she should be. They keep telling her to give up her dreams, and to act more lady-like. Except Wataru. Wataru convinces Misa to follow her heart, regardless. And when Misa gets injured, Wataru helps her, and keeps her from making her injury worse.
Secondly all, Mai's image is very much that of a debutant. So Wataru has to start his quest by observing her from afar. When he helps her get a book at the library he finds that she's reading a racy romantic novel (the kind where the poor guy on the cover can't aford to buy a shirt ;) ) which isn't the type of book you would expect a very cultured girl to be reading.
So, Wataru quotes from this book to her, and convinces her to go on a date with him. Yeah! Our hero has won the heart of our heroine... or has he. As he waits for Mai at the amusement park, she never shows up. On his way home Wataru sees Mai and the class playboy driving out of a "Love hotel"... with a very shocked and frightened look on Mai's face.
Meanwhile, Satomi (one of Wataru's female friends) is having boyfriend trouble, and is dumped very brutally by him (the same playboy that was driving away from the love hotel with Mai). So, Satomi goes to Wataru for help because she fells worthless and ugly as a person and as a girl. And she knows that with Wataru, it'll be okay.
And this is just from the first tape! The 2nd tape goes further into the relationship between Wataru and Karumi, and Wataru and Mai, and it shows that Mai is very pure-hearted, strong, and intellegent (not to mention that the class playboy was purposely trying to get Mai in trouble with Wataru and that nothing happened). Wataru gets to the wall, but it is Mai who overcomes it. I'd go into more detail about the 2nd set of episodes, but this review is getting kinda long as it is.
Now, yes, these do have adult scenes in them. But nothing that you wouldn't see in any good Hollywood romantic drama. And, it is all very tastefully done and intamate. It's the kind where you can tell these characters feel very deeply about each other. If you listen to the conversations the characters have during the intamate scenes, and you can tell that these are very important moments for these charcters, and it's not a "slam-bam-thank-you-maam" for either character. And, honestly, I'd much rather have my children watch these movies than something like Dragon Ball Z.
One of the non-story things I really liked about this series was that all the players had different outfits. I mean some anime skimps on drawing different clothes for different days (*ahem* pokemon). However, in End of Summer each character as a number of different outfits from what they wear to school, to what they wear on the weekend, to the clothes they wear at work. This sort of attention to detail really impressess me.
After the credits of End of Summer is a character sketch galery, very similar to what you would see in a perfect book. It has a goodly number of sketches of the differet characters in their different outfits.
So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and get yourself this great anime. I highly recommend this series.
Animation: 8
Story: 10
Characters: 9
Seiyuu: 10
Subtitling: 10
Music: 9
Extras: 10
Re-watchability: 10
Overall: 9.5
Any questions? Feel free to email me.
Mike
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