Final Impressions: Natsuiro Kiseki

July 27, 2012
Posted by DarrenW

Hello readers!

Yes, what must be going on in your mind now is "WHY U NO POST?". Well, to be frank, right now would be the most tiring period of the year. Yes, I am currently studying for the last stretch of my "A" Level Examinations. What is "A" Levels? Click here. Studying from 8am - 10pm in school every day of the weeek is no easy feat, and thats why computer usage, let alone watching anime is very little.

Finishing my anime list was not easy.

So today, I'll be wrapping up an anime which I avidly followed since episode 1, called "Natsuiro Kiseki"!

Basically, the story starts off with your most normal setting (Slice Of Life), 4 high-school girls who are childhood best friends, based in the nice countryside of Shimoda in the midst of summer.

Let me introduce them to you. They are:

Natsumi Aizawa. Sporty, outgoing, and easy to get along, You can say she's quite mature, and stubborn in her ways, but is very compassionate.

Saki Mizukoshi, probably the most adult-ish, mature and also very very pessimistic. However, she does disregard her reasoning to support her friends.

Yuka Hanaki, your supportive and important cheerful friend, who is always super hyperactive and gets everybody's hopes up.

And lastly, Rinko Tamaki, who is basically, very calm, collected, and follows what everybody else asks her to do. She lives at the local shrine.

The anime starts of with a unusual but normal row between Natsumi and Saki, as Natsumi is furious with Saki for not telling the other three about her decision to move to Tokyo. don't get along and they formally end their friendship.

As Yuka forces the four to meet round the wishing rock behind the shrine where they once stood many years ago, they make a surprising but unexpected wish. To fly...

And of course, they DID.

It is suddenly aparrent that the rock they had always wished upon contained supernatural powers of helping people grant their wishes. However, there is one but one condition: They must all wish together as one.

Since young, the four had always wished they wanted to be idols. Will they finally live their dream ambitions?

However, that wasn't the main theme of the anime, not by a longshot. It was only near the end that the idea of being idols came into play.

As the summer holidays begin, the four suddenly realise that at the end of it all, Saki would have to move, to a small island near Japan, leaving them forever.

And so, the idea was to spend their final time together as the complete four, before she finally leaves. And so the chain of events begin.

Just a list, dont want to elaborate and spoil the fun

Wishes (What happened)

1: The four of them fly in the air.
2: Natsumi and Saki stick together, literally, for a whole day
3: Yuka switches bodies with Saki, and the anime becomes EPIC for an episode.
4: Natsumi is cloned, and there are two of her.
5: Saki becomes INVISIBLE for an entire episode.
6: The four of the past become present in the future.
7: Summer vacation extends itself.

Basically, this anime does not really focus on the plot, though it is very clear that there is one. Most of the content in the anime are the four girls getting along, doing wacky activities together thanks to the magical stone.

It focuses on the theme, of which is very clear and strong in this anime. Near the end, the unfinished dreams and wants by the four were completed in the end, and that the summer-coloured miracle, a magic filled summer, was put to a close. The wishes that the rock granted the four, were all wishes that created a miracle for them, to accept that Saki is moving, to move on, to say final farewells, and to remember that friendships never end. The fact that you've met, shared great memories together, laughed, felt pain together, or anything of the like, does not make you strangers once you decide to leave your friends.

There are also a lot of other themes, such as looking back on your past and maturing, FRIENDSHIP, accepting decisions made by others, crafting memories, remembering your past, ups and downs of life, etc. It is a very pleasant anime to watch, both in the emotions going around in the anime, and that of the well-made humour in it. You really get the real-life no bs kind of scenarios, of which you can really relate if your best friend was really moving far away to live the rest of his/her life. As the anime progresses you can also feel closer towards the main characters, as their different personalities are expressed. very vividly in the anime.

Somehow I can resonate with such a scenario, because over the past 10 years, a similar thing happened to me. My childhood friend, after knowing him for over 8 years, finally did move, quite far away at that.

They made things interesting with the rock granting special wishes for the four girls, otherwise it would have really been a real-real-life anime. Sadly, the final plot did not really move me to tears nor set my heart racing (maybe I was just tired), though it was disappointing that in the end, Saki still had to move. I thought the miracle was that they all became idols. Guess it was something more important than that.

Ah, of course, there are some things that don't happen in real life, like a supernatural rock, or espers (YET).

The OP, which was the best sounding OP for this season, until I watched Hyouka (LOL), I would give 4/5 stars for the awesome transitions and music.

The art was above average, and I really liked it, it was very detailed.

Natsuiro Kiseki premiered from April 6th, 2012 to June 20, 2012, and was fansubbed by rori and Tasty-Anmitsu.

Enjoy relaxing.

Hint: MMORPG
DarrenW
Edited by FayeA