Asia

Animation for Everyone – 12 Days of Anime(tion)

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I’ve been an anime fan for just about all of my life.

The first anime I can remember seeing that was presented “as anime” was Ranma ½. One day when I was 6 or 7 my older sister let me watch fansubbed copies of the first few episodes as long as I promised to not tell our mom and it was pretty much all downhill from there.

So why the personal history lesson?

Around 2011 or so I found myself losing interest in anime for the first time and ended up taking a break that lasted several years. For me personally, digging through various shorts from Minna no Uta played a major part in giving me a new window into appreciating animation.

Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora

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Before talking about the show with any depth I think two disclaimers are probably in order, one major and one minor. The minor disclaimer is that I am not familiar with Osamu Kobayashi’s work as a whole and with how personal this project is I’m certain a more complete look would include his history as an artist.

The major disclaimer is that I watched this series in Japanese, a language I am far from fluent in. While I am confident I picked up the major beats of the story I doubtlessly missed a fair bit of nuance and I think people should take that into account and decide for themselves what my opinion is worth.

I honestly didn’t expect to even watch this show when I hit play. I certainly didn’t expect to end up loving it.