AnimeEmily: So, truth be told I actually ended up watching Blue Spring Ride‘s first episode twice. The first time, I came away annoyed and mildly frustrated. I wanted to strangle Futaba. I wasn’t really feeling Kou. I was annoyed with the drama. The second time around, though, my attitude softened a bit. I tried harder to sympathize with Futaba and to let Kou grow on me. I tried to let the sappy shoujo-ness of the episode bring forth that “fluffy” feeling that comes along with shoujo, and, you know what? It kind of worked. But, when it comes down to it, I really wasn’t a fan. Sure the episode looked nice and I liked some bits and I’m even sure that the anime will gradually come to grow on me, but I think I’ve simply lost the ability to really care about this type of shoujo, especially since I dropped the manga feeling less than happy with just about everything.
The basic storyline is that Yoshioka Futaba and Kou Mabuchi (formerly Tanaka) meet again after almost having a thing in middle school. Unfortunately, the two have changed a great deal over the years and come to see that neither is the person that they fell in love with as first years in middle school. While Kou has become a bit rougher around the edges, Futaba, in order to avoid isolation, works to be as “unfeminine” as possible, forging a couple shallow friendships with people who embrace the person she pretends to be. While Futaba expresses mild sorrow and frustration over their current incompatibility, Kou wastes no time in pointing out the “cheapness” of her current self and relationships, prompting Futaba to start evaluating them herself.
For a shoujo, the storyline actually isn’t half bad. Though I think it was a bit annoying to listen to Futuaba’s constant mumbling about how great the past was and how confused she is about Kou being different, her own dilemma about being true to herself versus trying to blend in has potential to allow her to grow in interesting ways. In fact, both she and Kou are relatively sympathetic characters once you learn more about them.
On one hand, because this is a shoujo, some aspects of the storyline have significantly less potential for enjoyment. For instance, Futaba’s current “friends”. My god, I cannot wait until they go away. Every minute they spent on screen being a-holes was one more minute spent trying my patience and ability to wait for decent human beings to show up. Though there wasn’t a whole lot of it in this episode, the drama was also pretty meh for me, mostly I think because I’m unable to really get behind Futaba. I understand why she is what she is, but I, honest to God, can’t bring myself to really like her.
On the other hand, I do actually like Kou at the moment. I like his blunt honesty with Futaba, especially when he called her out on being cheap, and find him more entertaining to watch in general. In regards to the inevitable romance that will bloom between the two, I think it’s off to an interesting start. They actually liked each other and almost went out at one point, but now have to deal with getting to know each other again and recognize the changes that have happened over the last couple of years. All worries about crappy endings and dumb drama aside, I’m interested to see how much of the manga the anime crams into this adaption and how close they are to hooking up when the show ends.
On a more positive note, Blue Spring Ride looks pretty nice. I was especially a fan of the scenes that had a sort of watercolor feel to them in terms of the background. The character designs are relatively good looking. The blushes are kind of cute. Everyone moves fine. It effectively pulls off a shoujo look and feel without going all Kimi ni Todoke with sparkles and bubbles flying everywhere.
If this show was around a couple years ago, I know I would have been head over heels in love with it. Unfortunately, Blue Spring Ride is the manga that made realize I don’t have the patience for stupid drama prolonging the inevitable. I’ll keep watching Blue Spring Ride to see where how it decides to end after 12 episodes, but I have a feeling, deep down, that the time has long passed for me to get caught up in all the drama and dumb will-they-won’t-they. That stuff is fine now, but at some point, it crosses the line of helping to develop a story I care about to simply prolonging the inevitable just for kicks.
Says who? Oh, right, gender expectations
Ben: Blue Spring Ride is the only shoujo anime airing this season that I had any particular interest in, and like many other shows I find myself talking about, it’s adapted from a manga that I have not read. Regardless of that, it was one of the more interesting shows of the season to me.
The basic story revolves around first year high school student Futaba and her relationship with a boy she knew in middle school three years ago, Tanaka. However, her relationship with him comes to a halt when he unexpectedly leaves without a word or a trace. Years later in high school, Futaba has now branded herself as a very unconventional girl who defies her gender expectations in order to not alienate all of the other girls in her class. However, while at school, she meets Tanaka by chance, now going under the name Mabuchi.
As for a first episode, Blue Spring Ride started off pretty rocky with the rushed backstory on our two main characters’ interactions, but eventually became more enjoyable as the story slowed down and became more focused. I liked the interactions between Futaba and her two friends, and the story is nice and realistic. I specifically like how Futaba does everything within her power to act outside of her gender expectation in an attempt to not draw the attention of guys or make all the girls despise her. This gives her an actual character that stands out from all other shoujo leads because she’s trying not to be everything that a standard shoujo lead character would be. That was a refreshing change of pace.
Some of the events of the episode were completely forced, though. The scene where Futaba was accused of stealing food was needless, and the conversations between Futaba and Mabuchi aren’t exactly interesting. However, the character development from these two has potential, each with a different situation. I just want to see Mabuchi get more of his mysterious past revealed, and I’d like to see him be less aloof and less seemingly angry at everything. Come on, this shouldn’t be the male lead if he acts this way because this whole act seems too forced.
Really? You loved her when you were in middle school? Dude, you were like 11 then
One aspect of the series to note is that the character design in nice, and the art style is quite pleasing. This style is diverse and easy on the eyes, and because the pacing is laid back, it gives the possibility of creating an atmosphere to compliment the art style.
Blue Spring Ride is a shoujo anime. This means that if you’ve seen one shoujo anime, you’ve probably seen this one as well. Most of these shows seem to follow a similar, familiar pattern, only rarely producing a work that becomes truly unique. I don’t think that Blue Spring Ride will be that unique anime that the genre deserves, but I don’t think it’ll be a bad watch either. I’ll stay on this one to get my weekly dose of high school drama.
Manjiorin: I got something a little different than what I expected from the first episode of Blue Spring Ride, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Yoshioka Futaba has been in love once, back in junior high. with the quiet Tanaka. She could never confess her feelings though, and after a misunderstanding before what would have been their first date, Tanaka suddenly switches schools. Now in high school, Futaba wants to change her image and tone down her “feminine-appeal” that earned her the ire of her middle school peers. One day she runs across a boy that looks strangely like Tanaka, but now he goes by the name Mabuchi…
I started this show sort of expecting something like Kimi ni Todoke, and indeed the initial scene at the shrine made me sigh a bit, thinking we were already seeing the fumbling blushing girl and the quiet nice guy confession. Except we didn’t get that, and Futaba essentially misses her chance and seems to be well aware of it. Soon Tanaka is Mabuchi, having gone through his parents’ divorce and changed his name, and Futaba is using all her extra money on snacks in an effort to not draw the attention of boys and reset her high school life.
What a charmer.
What’s interesting so far about this first episode is not the characters potential as far as getting together — we already get a confession of sorts, so we know the feelings were mutual at one point — but rather, how time has changed both Mabuchi and Futaba individually and how that will affect their relationship now. Futaba is obviously nostalgic for the past, Mabuchi less so. Even so, Futaba still recognizes a warmth in him. Admittedly at the end of the episode, when Futaba is wrongly accused of not paying for her armload of daily snacks, Mabuchi jumping to her defense is cliched (especially when Futaba could have simply confirmed with the lady she originally paid, as Mabuchi did for her), but it proves the point that Mabuchi still cares.
I like Blue Spring Ride, but it could really go either way for me. What I’m hoping for is a show about two people coming to terms with who they were before individually, who they are now individually, and how potentially being together could change that. I’m all for innocent shoujo romances, but I’d really like to see more about Futaba and Mabuchi coming to terms with who they are now and why they are who they are. I expect the cast to expand a bit too, but hopefully not too much. Overall the show has a warm nostalgic feeling that I like (with watercolor-esque backgrounds to match) so I’m willing to see where this goes over the next few episodes.
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AnimeEmily
I'm a shy, lazy, easily impressed person who loves anime and manga. I've been seriously watching since about the summer of the sixth grade and have been in love since. I'm pretty much an amateur when it comes to anime and am somewhat still in that starry-eyed phase, but as I continue to watch more, I have become more critical, I suppose one could say.
Latest posts by AnimeEmily (see all)
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