It's true enough when they say that you never forget your first love. There are those lucky enough that the memory is nothing more than that, just a hazy recollection, a fond vagueness. For some, first loves are pangs, barely perceptible; the heart has forgotten how to beat to that rhythm. And then for some, a first love is as soft and fragile as a little flower.
This is the wealth presented in Aoi Hana, an anime adaptation of Shimura Takako's utterly genius manga series. The development of the manga is akin to watching a book read itself, learning and discovering things, and then reflecting that in its own progress. The anime does not get to reach this stage, as unfortunately it did not get the audience or attention it needed for another season. But to pass this series up is to deny yourself a great piece of literature in motion.
Manjoume Fumi moves back to her first hometown after ten years. Can you even call it her hometown? Wouldn't the place where she spent most of her life be considered "home"? It seems relative. Home for her is where her heart resides, where her mind wanders, where her bones grow. And it seems that that place has always been Kamakura. At home, there is Okudaira Akira, a best friend and first love.
Aoi Hana covers a few volumes of the manga series; the anime manages to capture the early stirrings of many things to come. It tries to come full circle right where some may say the manga is actually "beginning". Does it work? It really does.
With J.C. Staff's beautiful, clean artwork and a gentle acoustic-driven score, we are taken into the quiet town of Kamakura where even quieter dramas unfold. The minute troubles of everyday life tick away during the days, and the big problems end up as landmark moments in lives as they tend to do. The anime primarily focuses on the rekindled friendship between Fumi and Akira, and it extends to the interactions that these two have with others, including relatives, friends and lovers. Fumi goes to school at Matsuoka while Akira attends Fujigaya; the story unfolds giving us humorous, sweet, bitter moments of teenage lives.
Friendship seems natural and easy. It helps when Fumi is nothing but a sweet, gentle, though firmly resolved young woman. It's easy to love Akira's earnest soul. Here we have a series that suspends our expectations for the protagonists. Do they fall in love? Is this even about their love? In every way, yes. It's always been. Is there romance between them? That's for you to decide, as Aoi Hana respects Fumi and Akira's friendship and overall relationship enough to develop naturally, be it as best friends or as something other.
Throughout the anime, we meet other people whose presence give this show the warmth and life. This is a world populated with good people. That is one of the most important things to note about the characters in this series. Whereas other dramas will proceed to insert the most despicable villains, Aoi Hana has truly decent folk. Their intentions may be selfish, awful, manipulative and downright hurtful at times, and yet we can't ever fail to recognise that their hearts are good. Their flaws, as painful as they may be to themselves and others, can't ever take that away.
Two of the most complicated souls in this anime are Sugimoto Yasuko and Ikumi Kyouko. Sugimoto is a charming upperclassman that Fumi eventually dates; Kyouko is Akira's classmate. While it seems that they come into the story because of our protagonists, their tales are strong enough on their own. There is a parallel running between the two and the Wuthering Heights play which they perform; everything is embers, burning low, hiding somewhere in between polite smiles or bratty scowls. Who are these two girls who understand one another better than anyone else? What is this hopeless love that surrounds them both? Unrequited and mocked, one-sided and unfortunate. And yet there is love.
That is not to say these two overshadow Fumi and Akira in terms of the best characters that the anime offers. Everyone is rendered with respect and careful attention. Even the comic trio, Yassan, Pon-chan and Mogi, are downright lovable. Kyouko's cousin Kou is another individual who appears for brief segments in the series, but his small smiles tell us so much; he accepts his losses with dignity and strong shoulders.
And then we always go back to Fumi and Akira. Fumi, in spite of her crybaby ways, shows promise that someday she'll become a person whose tears show strength, not weakness. Akira's understanding of the people around her reveal that life is just budding for this girl; she has not yet begun maturing and in a way, this makes her the perfect ear and observer for messy situations. There is just a fierce magnificence about her as she takes care of things or sees how they work. If maturity means masking everything, then perhaps Akira's way of life should be given some consideration.
By the end of Aoi Hana, what you will have witnessed is one of the greatest contributions to yuri as well as the genres of slice of life and drama. It has intelligent characters with great depth, a solid story with strong development and not to mention, there's that rather pretty art framing everything. The concern at the end of it is not who gets together or what situations are resolved. At the end of it, we're left to chase after the meaning of a blue flower.
Sometimes love isn't enough. Other times it's more than you ever expect. Sometimes it disappoints us. And then there are moments when it doesn't let us down. But for now, it's a quiet little beat, drumming to a once-forgotten, now-remembered rhythm. Something carried in the wind, caught and preserved between the pages of an old photo album.
Original review (2009):
Do you remember your first love?
This is a question posed numerous times and is delicately answered in various ways throughout Aoi Hana. Sometimes we can remember but do not want to, and sometimes it escapes us despite truly wanting to know.
Aoi Hana is an anime that follows many firsts. Manjoume Fumi moves back to her old home town without any enthusiasm and starts her life as a high school freshman. She fatefully meets the best friend of her youth who she had almost forgotten, Okudaira Akira, and from there, the two girls rekindle their friendship and go through the trials that teenage girls face at that age. The anime primarily focusses on Fumi's perspective and the many bridges she crosses at that confusing and bittersweet time in her life.
Mostly we witness a coming of age and coming out story, and the way these two best friends support and stand by one another through the toughest of times. How do you tell your best friend a secret that's eating you up inside? How do you handle hearing a secret from your best friend that might make you think differently of them? Fortunately for us viewers, Aoi Hana features a story of growth and deep understanding with a cast of characters who are lovely, kind and wonderful people. This anime does not rely on fireworks and theatrics; it uses single actions and understatement to get its messages across.
Simplicity can work really well, and for an anime focussed on storytelling and characterisation, the art style of Aoi Hana proves suitable. The artwork and animation vacillates between being absolutely excellent to very inconsistent, but the one constant is the magnificent art direction. The minutest detail in a character's action (such as lightly thumbing the handle of a tea cup) or the slow, deliberate, and very subtle curling of a hand into a fist are illustrated. So small, so tiny are these actions, yet they contribute more to the story and reveal the inner tribulations of a character more than a litre of tears or ten minutes of hysterics could ever do.
The lighting is absolutely spectacular; sunlight filtering through a canopy of trees, splaying across skin, or gleaming through glass are some examples of the intricate and painstaking details given to this aspect. However, the character art suffers sometimes from lazy work and it shows, making the presentation less than perfect and sometimes really unacceptable. Despite this, the visual significance of certain close-ups, the controlled, contained actions, the almost unnoticeable movements that speak volumes more than words could, and the truly beautiful watercolour setting of the seaside town in which the story is set provide some quietly breath-taking sights. The soft palette and hand-painted backgrounds give this anime the look of gentility and peacefulness, making it very easy on the eyes.
The sound for this series is soft and acoustic, keeping in tone with the atmosphere and mood. The problem with a soundtrack so soothing is that it sometimes does not leave a lasting impression. The OP theme song truly is magnificent, providing a mature vocalisation rather than ear worm J Pop; 'Aoi Hana' by Kukikodan is a vocally driven, piano and guitar accentuated song that perfectly captures the spirit of the slice of life aspect of this series.
The voice acting may be hit or miss for a lot of listeners. Fumi's light, feminine voice and Akira's raspy though high-pitched voice may be considered entirely appropriate or annoying depending on the audience. This anime also has veterans like Horie Yui (voicing a character type to which she is not used, but she pulls it off well), and Noto Mamiko and Nakahara Mai taking back seats rather than leading. Surprisingly, these lead seiyuu show they can pull off supporting roles extremely well, bringing something a little different than what they usually do than when they voice main characters.
Aoi Hana has successfully utilised both the visuals and dialogue to develop and express the growth and personality of the characters. The characters prove to have chemistry and maturity to them that so many school dramas lack. There is nothing loud or blatant about their interactions. Their conversations are heavy with double meaning, clever quips, deep insight and the expectant youthful naivete that personify teenagers. Aoi Hana never treats the characters' ignorance as something exploitative, but uses it as a means for them to look within themselves and develop gradually. The conflict of growing up is accurately presented by these girls.
Surely some of the issues such as sexual orientation and arranged marriages will not be common for everyone, but the other important themes presented are things anyone growing up would understand: forming friendships, dating, jealousy, self-denial and self-acceptance, and emotional responsibilities to yourself and to others. The characters each have the sensibilities and rationalities of girls their age (mind you, intelligent girls their age), and it is utterly refreshing to see an anime not where irritating fools fall in love, but where deserving characters form fulfilling and plausible relationships whether they are healthy or not.
While the protagonists Fumi and Akira appear to be standard archetypes, as the plot unfolds, they show us that they are so much more than that and rise above our pre-conceived notions of them. Fumi is not just a shy crybaby; she is extremely sensible albeit emotional. Her inner fortitude is utterly inspiring at moments without her seeming like pillar of strength--she is a fragile person, after all. She does not cry because she is weak and wants to complain. She cries because she accepts the inevitability of life, and knows that it makes no sense mulling over these problems and wishing for something else--life will continue, and so she must as well. Is it wrong to let someone who accepts her problems cry a little over them? Not at all. Akira is not just energetic and supportive, but she is also perceptive and naive. In fact, while she starts off as the typical Messianic character, we come to understand that Akira cannot help but insert herself into people's lives. While she tries not to meddle, her overwhelming desire to protect her friends overrides her rational side, but she does not act rashly or stupidly. Also, despite appearing to be inexperienced in life and love, Akira proves to be the most understanding and astute character of the lot.
The most important relationship in this anime is shared between Fumi and Akira. Whether it be instantly forgetting about her much-searched after crayons to run to Fumi's aid or absent-mindedly banging her knees against a table to rush to her friend's side and comfort her, Aoi Hana skilfully shows us that not only words are necessary to express how much Akira cares for Fumi. And it is all too clear to us just how important Akira is to Fumi. The depiction of such a wonderful friendship is actually quite warming.
Aoi Hana's second group of protagonists consists of Sugimoto Yasuko, a dashing older student with an understated though evident charm (and a mean, selfish side that people are not aware of), and Ikumi Kyoko, a headstrong, stubborn though graceful girl who seems to forget her pride when it comes to matters of the heart. Some of the anime's best scenes take place between Yasuko and Kyoko, and the most mature and brutally honest conversations occur between them as well; they have smart and clever discussions without ever once sounding unrealistically wiser beyond their years. The comic trio Pon-chan, Yassan and Mogi, and Akira's extremely over-protective brother Shinobu provide humour to the anime. And there is the utterly sympathetic Kou, Kyoko's fiancé, who is quietly determined to get Kyoko to return his feelings.
Aoi Hana is all about subtlety and graceful presentation; you get drama without melodrama and romance without sap. This is an anime made for those who can sit back and just let the story and the characters soak into their bones. It is something to mull over lightly with some tea. You will not get tense drama, but you will get reasonable drama. You will not get fairy tale romances here. You will get real ones. The characters will not snap and change--they will grow, and you will witness that slow and satisfying growth. If excitement is what you enjoy, then you will not enjoy this anime. This is not an anime about grandeur. It is about the quiet aspects of life and love. And of course, of all those first times that one can possibly experience.
A first love is always the one you hold closest to your memories and you think of it fondly, sometimes painfully. Aoi Hana reflects on the first loves that have come and gone, first loves that are yet to happen, and long time loves that are preserved safely like a fragile memory of sweet blue flowers in our hearts.
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