Category: Orange

Orange takes it very slowly this week, even slower than its standard. Indeed, we can summarize the plot of the first 15 minutes just by one sentence: After Kakeru dating with another girl, Naho feels brokenhearted and avoids Kakeru like a plague. Which actually makes sense. After all, the guy already had a girlfriend so if you are truly his best friend, it would be for their best interest just to avoid any close interaction like they used to, right? Except that both Naho and Kakeru feel very awkward with each other. Naho feels powerless that she can’t control the way she wants, so she bounds for another regret: What if she said to him face-to-face instead of sending letter? Or blaming her future-self for having it way too easy. Those feelings are genuine but it’s truly exhausted to follow her feeling. Ueda the new girlfriend sadly doesn’t shed enough light for her own character, and because we see Ueda through Naho’s and the group’s perspective, Ueda comes off more as a negative object (girlfriend who steal their best friend away) more than an actual person.

For the last few episodes, I always feel that the letters work more as a plot device. It is those letters that made Naho changing the future, but I like the fact that in this episode, it’s not those letters but the friends who actually encourage Naho to take action. Yes, this is a right step because, like she stated last couple episodes, those letters can’t change who she is, it is by the support of friends that she could make her effort. Furthermore, I can understand the change in attitude of Kakeru with Naho. Unlike their original timeline, the feeling of Kakeru towards Naho and his hesitant towards Ueda comes directly from her response “No” last week, because now he knows what she’s thinking. But still I can’t see how the friends know what she needs and support her this time, and not in the other timeline? Maybe because this time they sense that Naho is hiding something from them (the letters) so they can sense that she’s been depressed? Or the other way round? I don’t really see the link here.

And to save the best for last, let’s talk about the stand out elements of this episode: the technical aspects. Except from the present day when the group visits his house after 10 years, the rest of the episode feels really off. Now, to be frank, this episode is doomed to be a disaster. After all, making an entire episode basically about love despair with no main action until the very end of episode is not ideal, to say the least. In addition, the restrain of the budget is shown visibly here: so many still frames; our characters in long shots look so shabby. Instead the show tries to be different. There are many out of place elements in this episode that constantly put us off: The CGI part of the vending machine; the mixing of dialogues with montages; the heavily use of frog motifs (which I’m not sure what for); random conversations from other people, and most jarring, the use of rock music in a supposedly sad and melancholic episode. This episode just basically screws over the consistency Orange had built in their first 3 episodes. It’s a risk move, of course; because most of the time I’ve been wonder if I watched the same show. I remember certain episode from “From the New World” run with that very same idea and went all out with their own styles. All this for the service of the climax scene, and boy, it works wonderfully. The confrontation between our lovebirds in the end really pays off what come before. I like the Orange now. Orange’s still going strong, but our Naho won’t and thus our hearts will burst into flames along with her.

~SuperMario~

So this week we finally encounter a love rival. Of course with a romance drama show like Orange there had to be someone who would stand on their way right? Except there’s not much of a rival really since Naho never stands a chance against the new girl Ueda. As she learns hard and clear this week, some small incidents can be changed, Kakeru this time decided to join the football club, instead of quitting like last time; Naho had her chance to prepare lunch for him, something that her previous “timeline” couldn’t do. But those occurrences changed doesn’t mean that the core could be changed. Naho, with or without the support of the letters, could never bring herself to confess her love to Kakeru; and the fact the Kakeru will choose Ueda over her is something that will happen all over again, regardless of how many times she tries.

Immediately after watching this episode (yesterday), I quickly dismissed Kakeru’s closeness actions towards Naho in a beginning as a behavior of flirting; kind of like he opens himself more to Naho, a potential lover, until he sees a better opportunity from Ueda so he chooses Ueda instead. After all, no normal friend would expect other to cook lunch for them, you know. But today as I am somehow wiser than my own-yesterday self, I can see the reasons behind his actions towards Naho. Kakeru always looks at her as a female/mother figure, since he now lacks the real mother’s care. The way he suggests Naho to cook lunch for him, telling her that she behaving like a Mom, or tell her to alarm him at 5 in the morning, or even ask for her advice if he going to date Ueda; all these point towards his desire to have attention and to be taken care of by a female figure. All that to say there might not be any love interest towards Naho to begin with. Well we’ll know that for sure in future episodes.

As much as I enjoy Orange so far, I still have some concerns about Orange. Especially at the end of this episode where the adult cast read Kakeru’s letter, his comments on every member of the group feel strangely unconnected to me, since the majority of time we follow Kakeru – Naho relationship, the cast as a result don’t have any chance to develop. If I have to compare the cast of Orange with the cast of ReLife right now, ReLife has put much more attention to flesh out the cast. Except for Hiroto who is sensitive enough to know what’s going on and I love their natural interactions with each others, the rest of cast just simply too bland right now and I would expect much more from them in next episodes. All that said, three episodes in, Orange still maintains its slow but confident pacing and its very expressive, atmospheric art designs, and except for those teary eyes this last minutes, there is surprisingly less emotion outburst than I have expected. Keep it low like that Orange!

~SuperMario~

Let me say up front that I am not fond with either romance or melodrama. We usually mistaken romance for love but whenever I think about love I’d think of commitment. Melodrama don’t do well to me either as I always feel forced, like most of the time when the show goes big, emotional scenes, it often implies us what to feel and I feel manipulated instead. Orange, unfortunately go straight to these directions which naturally would put me away for good, but there’s something that keeps me hanging here, and that is the sense of regret. While I said before that I can feel for Naho’s behaviors and the way her shyness keeps her from doing what she should do that lead to her regrets later on, I can’t deny that Naho is NOT a well written character. It got even worse in this episode that she ends up as plain and unremarkable. And I don’t mean her introvert and shyness actions; yes, usually the main protagonist needs to actively carry the story but that’s not a point here; I mean that she’s so average that there’s nothing that makes her stand out. And that’s a problem. We see the story through her eyes, and if she’s unremarkable then it’s hard for us to identify with her. The rest of the cast, while they are natural with each other, still need more development to become full-fledge characters.

Regret is one of the big theme of this show, and it comes straight from the regrets of older Naho towards what she could do in the past for Kakeru and that feeling holds so much weight. The one thing that I really like from the premise of Orange is that this is the younger version of Naho who has to deal with it. Naho the 16-year-old is still immature, she’s still and will make lot of mistakes in her life and as one scene of the show nicely puts it, those letters tell her what to do to avoid regrets do not mean it will change her personality. She’s Naho and she will always be Naho. At least for those first 2 episodes she manages to do what her previous self didn’t have guts to do: to hit the final ball and to make Kaheru a proper lunch. All the details so far strongly foreshadow that Kaheru is going to die in a year’s time, even if Naho tries her best to prevent it. But it’s the actions that count. At least she tries and it’s the time that the group enjoying together that will be their most treasure moments, and that holds no more regret. There’s a real potential if the show ends like this.

Then again, it’s never a good sign that we can see how it would end up just after 2 episodes. This would be predictable and I really expect Orange would do something different to surprise us, or if they go that route they have to be very well executed. There are still more rooms for character’s development and I want to see more from Naho herself. Kakeru’s revelation about his mother committing suicide; for example, is a step in the right direction, because the detail gives us more light to Kakeru’s personality: the way he hides his emotions away and the way he yearns for a female figure. This is where Orange really shines and I expect more of this in coming episodes.

And I still hope they’d tone down the melodrama later on.

~SuperMario~