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Note: There is only one spoiler in this review, but it is a big one. This anime stands out a bit for being quite mature and relaxed with its subject matter, and because of its visuals. It’s otherwise nothing special in terms of plot.
I originally watched this title back in 2017, and just like Amanchu!, which I also revisited this year, I’m glad I rewatched it because I had a different idea in my mind of how the anime actually is.
For example, I remembered Aoi Hana to be just drama, yet there are quite a lot of comical moments in it. Comical, yet not funny, I don’t think anyone will exactly laugh with the light moments in it, since what it got from me was a smile at best. With that said, I rarely laugh when watching anime, so there’s that.
Anyways, this series belongs in the early 00s trend of having yuri anime inside girls only catholic schools, what with their own chapels and stuff, a rich girl, and a tall and petite girl, usually black haired and with brownish/red head respectively, as the main characters, typical stuff.
A trend that was quite the rave back then for its novelty, but was pretty much forgotten by now and kind of infamous even then, because the relationships of the main couples in said anime were often toxic, manipulative, sometimes even abusing.
Aoi Hana stands out from the norm thanks to two things. One, it is not like that, and two, and this is a big spoiler, but I just have to say it, the main characters are not the main couple. The first thing that has to be clarified about this title is that, despite having the main girls together in the posters and opening and ending song, both of which with lyrics from one character speaking directly to the other, the romance does not revolve around them as girlfriends.
In fact, despite being tagged as romance, the series is more of an anti-romance, it belong in the same category as 5 Centimeters per Second in that regard, in the sense that it’s not exactly about the progress or conflicts of any particular relationship, as it is more about people hurt because of unrequited love, so it’s more of a drama than anything else.
Although there are definitely characters in this show that are more questionable than others, no one can be exactly labeled as a plain awful person, they hurt others not out of intention but because they themselves don’t realize how they truly feel and how much they are really affected because of those feelings. So a big part of the show is to explore the backdrops of them and make them grow a little by realizing that.
With that said, only Fumi, the main girl and protagonist of the series, is the one to fully reach that level of catharsis, not even much of a development. And I have to say said conclusion was kind of a mixed bag, her whole conflict was starting out a relationship because of her hurt heart after her unrequited first love, which she remembers at the last moment that it actually wasn’t the first. Despite that, she has the best scene of the whole show as she calls out on someone else’s bullshit. The rest come to a realization but there’s no progress for them besides that, as the anime just ends with a quite open and incomplete ending, making you go to read the manga if you want to know the true finale.
Aside from that, Aoi Hana is not exaggerated and corny nor unrealistic as the romance genre usually is at least in anime, mostly thanks to those sensible characters, who in some cases are in love with the same person yet don’t take it on the other, don’t overreact, and even when they cry about it, the scenes are not presented in an overly dramatic way. No hysterical characters, no yelling, no running after someone, no awkward confessions in front of everyone else. This is not one of those emotionally manipulative tearjerkers.
At the same time, the differences in its execution are more present in its presentation rather than its plot or characters, which at the end of the day are still typical, simple, slow moving and kind of uneventful, nothing that would please or caught the attention of a critical audience or someone that isn’t a super fan of the genre to begin with.
Visually, Aoi Hana has quite a distinctive identity thanks to its polished artwork and beautiful and atypical seemingly hand drawn backgrounds, closer to either paintings or drawings made with crayons at times. The downside is how simple and typical the character figures are, even with some facial repetition here and there, and even more so because as soon as it ended, the adaptation of Sasameki Koto aired, another work from the same mangaka with very similar character designs. Also, given the nature of the show, it is very limited and not very good in terms of movements. An initial issue with the visuals that goes away later on is how bright the anime is in the beginning, something that still happens to this day with some titles for some reason, I don’t know why. There were times that I had to get farther away from the screen to even see what was happening, but fortunately that doesn’t happen from the mid to late point of the series. Oh, and I have to point this out, there is very limited CGI, and yet it was very well integrated within the rest of the elements, a rare case in the medium and overall a rare win in the visual department for J.C. Staff.
The sound is nothing special however, serviceable sound effects, good relaxing and melancholic piano pieces that reflects the overall vibe of the show quite well and yet they are easy to forget. The same thing can be said about the opening and endings, they are fine for what the show is about but nothing to remember unless you hear them regularly. The voice acting is odd, as most of the cast is composed of minor names, with only two or three big voice actresses in it, some of them sound realistic, mature and atypical for the kind of anime this is, some of them, the more comical ones, give the exact opposite impression.
The distinctive visuals, the mature presentation and tone and the sensible characters is what makes Aoi Hana better than most of its counterparts that I’ve read or watched or know of on a critical level, but it’s still a fairly slow paced, simple, kind of uneventful and incomplete show for anyone outside the target audience.
And even within said target audience, the series has the issue of being for a very specific taste, one that likes high school dramas and romances, yet also wants a different and mature presentation, things that rarely go together, as the two genres were always conceived as something to work more on an emotional level and not so much on a critical one. The cheesiness, the petty characters, their emotional breakdowns, the conflicts, the overdramatic reactions and soundtrack that go along with them, all of that is fine for an audience that consumes this type of stories just for a quick easy watch, knowing well that what they watch or read is otherwise not very good in terms of substance and writing. Aoi Hana presents itself as an oddity that gives them the same content with a slower pacing, a much lower energy, teenage characters that act so reasonably to the point of feeling less human as they should for being appealing within the genre, and even for how they would react in real life, and a kind of incomplete ending, given the promotional material, that makes them go to get the manga, which from what I read on comments and reviews, is a bit different, in the sense that does include some exaggerated an even quite nasty scenes, and it still ends with an unsatisfying conclusion. It ranks among the better yuri I have consumed, but it can also result in a very dull and forgettable watch for most people, because of the same aforementioned reasons that give it some level of quality.
5/10
