Aoi Hana – 03



At the moment, there is no doubt for me that Aoi Hana is the best series to debut this summer season, and this episode only reinforced this. From the very beginning, it’s been a consistently excellent yuri series with believable and charming characters. I’m also really glad to see that the great animation wasn’t just something of the first two episodes: this episode yet again looked great, with detailed animated shots and some great artwork, despite the down to earth character-designs.

This episode also surprised me with how the two lead characters didn’t become a couple. Instead, Fumi started dating the captain of the basketball club, while Akira had simply been going out with her friends and is still looking. But then again, this is anime. Has there ever been a romance story in which two childhood friends did not fall in love with each other at some point?

I’m curious as to how many episodes there are going to be. Unfortunately, the episode page of ANN is completely messed up in this case, so there is no way of telling whether there are actually going to be 11 episodes, or whether there are going to be more. Interestingly, the manga this is based on only has two volumes. That’s pretty short for a manga, and yet it feels perfect for a short story like this one.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very nice romantic developments, especially for Fumi.

13 thoughts on “Aoi Hana – 03

  1. I’ve been wondering:
    If this series were shounen ai, would the males following it still be following it? I mean no offense to anyone, but I know I wouldn’t…

  2. Perrin: actually, I enjoyed Junjo Romantica for what it was, until it became horribly paced and a downright cheese-fest.

    I think that one thing that’s wrong with shounen ai series that yuri shows manage to avoid is that they always make their characers way too feminine in order to attract fangirls, even though most gays are perfectly normal human beings.

    Yuri shows lack these exaggerated stereotypes. We have harems for that one.

  3. I saw one episode of Junjou Romantica and when the guy just started to lick the other guy’s foot I closed the episode.

    I think I’d watch a very well executed shounen ai, but that seems to be a very rare phenomenon indeed.

  4. Okay, so that’s the last time I’m going to use ANN as a source for the amount of episodes/volumes of a series. And to be honest, MAL is an even worse source in that matter: they just go with the number that seems the most likely, without backing it up whatsoever. Not sure whether Mahou is reliable or not.

  5. lol it’s like they all of a sudden just decided turn up the animation quality. Reminds me of what J.C. Staff did with Kimikiss.

    But yeah, I agree on your comment that Aoi Hana is the best series to debut this summer season. Kenichi Kasai manages to do some of the best manga adapations I’ve seen.

    But my only problem is, did Akira feel jealousy when she saw Fumi with Yasuko? If that was the case then that seems a bit too forced and sudden (though it might just have been shocking to Akira).

  6. @ Tracer “did Akira feel jealousy when she saw Fumi with Yasuko? If that was the case then that seems a bit too forced and sudden (though it might just have been shocking to Akira). ”

    She was just shocked. It’s still too early for Akira to develop any romantic feelings (for anyone). She’s extremely immature in that regard (that’s also the reason she was that surprised to see Fumi and Yasuko being so chummy with each other).

  7. It’s Fuji TV. Nowadays, they only approve 11 episodes for most noitaminA and NOISE shows. DVD release information at CDJapan also confirms the episode count.

    As for BL, bear in mind that the genre is aimed squarely at fangirls and not the gay community. Indeed, the appeal is one of feminism (one partner may be weak, degraded, and submissive, but it’ll never be a woman in that position) and not an embracing of male homosexuality. That’s why certain characters are very effeminate – the writers want the relationship to resemble a heterosexual one (albeit with the loss of gender imbalances) as best as possible.

    On the other hand, Aoi Hana is directly aimed at lesbians.

  8. Dropped. Probably wouldn’t have bothered watching at all if I had know that it was a yuri shows.

    This along with the harm genre is probably my least favourite kinds of anime.

    give me more honey x clover or nodame cantabile please or something that can match up to them.

  9. Loving this series too. ^^

    Actually feel they did bump up the animation quality a notch, I mean just look at how intricately they animated Fumi and Akira’s hair in some scenes this week.

    What I love in this series is the contrast between Akira and Fumi. Akira is more outgoing, bold and worldly in some aspects but about romantic love she still doesn’t seem to have grown enough to even feel such emotions. Fumi on the other hand is meek, shy and easily impressionable but she’s had her heart broken and isn’t unwilling to dive into another romantic relationship, emotional and physical.

    Curious to see where this will lead to.

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