Back(b)logging: Natsu no Arashi!
nekosasu | June 29, 2009 | 6:15 pm
Natsu no Arashi!, or how to make me love reverse traps and DFC (even more).
Do you remember my first impressions of this show? I was pretty enthusiastic about it back then. The premise seemed somewhat interesting: time traveling, romance, slapstick comedy. Well… now, I’m not so happy with it anymore. It wasn’t what I thought it would be.
(And this is why I am prematurely reviewing this series without having watched the last three episodes. Note that this doesn’t mean I am dropping this anime. I will still watch it, but I feel like nothing is gonna change anyway. Good for you, you will not be spoiled on the ending!!)
Natsu no Arashi! is kind of a mixed bag of good and bad elements. And I guess all the good parts only appeared in the first episode, as if to lure the unwary viewer into a trap of mediocrity.
At first, one would expect this show to make extensive use of the time traveling feature to elaborate a little on its story while creating some funny/embarrassing situations. But soon, one realizes that this anime doesn’t really care about its story. Up to episode 9, there is still no clue why Arashi appears every Summer, and suddenly, Kanako (who never appeared since episode 1), attacks Arashi to steal her ethereal energy, to prolong her life. And up until this point, there have been no hints whatsoever of such a plot! It kind of feels like the producers wanted to make things a little more interesting in the last few episodes.
At some points it tries very hard to be serious (Arashi and Hajime trying to save people during WWII, Jun trying to convince Kaya to admit her love for that guy in the past), and to make those parts relevant to the story, but immediately after those attempts, it returns to something completely trivial, unrelated and exaggeratedly humorous. It simply is not consistent throughout the episodes.
Suddenly, srs fkn bsns! I suppose the Jun-Kaya eps are the most balanced ones, seriousness-wise.
The comedy part may have felt good in the first episode, but instead of focusing a little more on a possible story afterwards, it decided to engage into classic slapstick jokes, parodies and running gags. This is all well and good, there have been plenty of series like this in the past after all, but I obviously cannot find much enjoyment in stereotypical jokes and parodies I don’t know the meaning or source about.
At the end of every episode (occasionally at the beginning too), there is a dialogue between Kanako and Yayoi where the latter tells the story of a book she always seemed to forget the title of. Eventually, the main character of said book would have a catchphrase, which would be cut off just before it is entirely spoken out to make it less obvious. It could be nice, if only I knew all of the references! There is only one I ever found out, and that was the one of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (even before she yelled the unmistakable ZETSUBOUSHI-). For the rest, it just felt… random. Other shows did it more bluntly and clearly, like Pani Poni Dash! for instance, referencing more popular shows, etc.
The same randomness appears also in the running gags (not to say endlessly repetitive skits) within this anime. Like that guy in the store who keeps asking “Could you bring me some salt” hundreds of times only to be ignored, or the many images of random things (sunflowers, idols, etc) that appear intermittently in the middle of a long conversation, as if to make fun of the topic, or distract from the main point. And sometimes, the customers change too. Once, it’s the four protagonists from Hidamari Sketch, another time, it’s Yayoi et al. from the Idolm@ster series, and so on, etc. Especially episode 9 features plenty of those.
Just what is this obsession with Arashi’s belly button?? It is shown (or rather, focused on) numerous times in almost every episode.
Or, that one detective. He’s in his office, trying to find some food, finds cup ramen, only to realize that gas and water have been cut off because he’s broke. Then suddenly, water gushes out of the tap. …? Later in the show, he drinks a cart load of diet coke, then watches a show about the effects on mint gum on diet coke, and decides to eat one as well to see if it’s true. …???!? [1] Or, he gets a request to go shopping for pantsu, bras and pads. …???!?!??!
Beyond feeling desperately random and endlessly recycled, the jokes simply don’t amuse me. They sure make me laugh on a whim, but then I feel stupid for laughing, especially since I don’t even know what stereotype or reference I am laughing at.
Well, it would be a little too pretentious to say the whole wasn’t funny. I loved Jun’s tomboyish demeanor - ach, what am I saying, she’s a damn REVERSE TRAP! And the fun lies in the fact that Hajime, despite having seen her topless numerous times, still thinks Jun’s a boy (well, she’s a DFC :3). The culmination of this was the gender bender episode 8, where Hajime and Jun switch bodies, and Hajime claims “YOUR BALLS ARE MISSING!!!” And Jun trying to prevent Hajime from going to the bathroom, or touching her own DFC
Guess that striking pose is yet another reference to an anime I don’t know. -_-; All I know is: DFC! DFC!
Once again, story-wise, Natsu no Arashi! has little to offer, but it did offer interesting aspects into the whole time traveling genre. Within the anime, Hajime questions the logic of time traveling, and the fact of changing history by changing the past. And that got me thinking for a while.
Hajime claims that whenever an event is changed in the past, a new parallel dimension is created where the consequences of the changes will be included, in order to avoid time paradoxes. As such, the possibilities would be infinite. But while such scenario would be plausible in actual logical discourse, it is quite different in Natsu no Arashi!
Instead of a myriad of dimensions, there is only ONE: the present. The story is already written, and what the characters are living is unique and definite. Indeed, in the first episode already, the changes from the past and the future were all were included in the present. Here’s a few examples.
Past: Hajime is certain he created three strawberries, but there is only one in the morning. Gramps ate one, but then there should be two left. So, one strawberry was missing. Later in the day, Hajime and Arashi go back in time to get one strawberry. And that is the one that went missing!
Waxing philosophical with Hajime. Probably the most thought-provoking part of the anime so far.
Same method: sixty years ago, Kaya’s diary suddenly disappeared, even though Arashi was certain she left it on her school desk. Sixty years later, Arashi travels back in time to retrieve said diary into the present.
Future: while Hajime and Arashi are changing clothes in the back, they hear Kaya scream, and they think it’s because she has seen the idol. But at the end of the episode, we find out that it is actually the Kaya from the future that is screaming in the present, because she ate that Cutie Strawberry-chan. (And this in turn explains why the cake went missing afterwards.)
So in effect, no matter how they change the past, they will already have lived the consequences of it. It’s a definite story, it cannot be changed. …if only it was an interesting story, at least!
I don’t know, but I think that SHAFT went a little wrong in this series by trying to add excessive slapstick comedy to an adventure-ish slice-of-life-ish series, or vice-versa. It is an enjoyable watch, sure, but it is not what the first episode made me believe it to be, it didn’t meet my expectations. Rather than a summer storm, this was more like a soft summer breeze.
But at least I will let you off with Arashi’s radiant smile.
Well, at least I liked the originality of the Opening, which was slightly different every episode. The first episode started with “hajimete no natsu no koi wa” (my first summer love), the second went “nikaime no natsu no koi wa” (my second summer love), the third “sandome no koi wa”, etc. As such the strophes are different every episode. (The song on the single only contains two strophes though.) Nevertheless, it’s a pretty entertaining song and it’s probably the most memorable thing of this anime.
Footnotes (As if there wasn't enough text above already...)- By the way, Mythbusters proved that it will not react in the stomach, because most of the carbonic acid will already have been evacuated from the liquid by the time the Mentos lands in the stomach. Kind of like when you shake a coke, the gas disappears. [↩]
I love this show. Every aspect of it I find amusing and great. I will obviously need to cite examples, preferrably ones related to the post:
1. The Running Joke with the Salt. I admit, I was starting to get sick of this joke. But then they spiced it up a little bit, and instead of being ignored just when he asks to “pass the salt”, he is now ignored, but the dude right next to him is not. Thus, the joke is saved (for now).
2. I like when they take real life images and randomly put them in to the show. Like when the cafe was filled with soda (or something like that….I can’t even remember what episode that was, but I was so amused that I wrote a post about it).
3. The Time Travel aspect. At first, I was mad, because Hajime didn’t know shit about time travel (the explanation from the picture above), but then he realized he was wrong, and explained it correctly. Time travel makes anime better (generally).
4. I don’t know why, but Shaft always seems to sit well with me, especially when coupled with Akiyuki Shinbo (Moon Phase and Maria + Holic are exceptions….although even those weren’t really bad. And I’ve only watched 3 episodes of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase).
5. Slapstick = Awesome Always (although true, not on the level of Pani Poni Dash….I mean……what is?)
5. This comment is too long.
END
2. I found it a nice addition as well, but the three cases were all from the Cafe where it fell apart every time (flood @ ep 1, coffee @ ep… 4? (with the maid fuku), and blizzard @ ep… 7? (where Kaya tells a bad pun)). Wish they could expand it to other images or so.
4. I liked Tsukuyomi, though it’s been already ages ago since I last watched it.
5. Well… I like slapstick when it is complementary to a good story, but if it tries to pull of a solo, it better be good. Here, it’s so-so.
5. I like long comments. :)
“where Kaya tells a bad pun”
That was the highlight of the series. I LOVE puns. I LIVE for puns. They’re just so PUN to do! :)
Overall, I’m still liking this series, although I too, have yet to watch 11-13. I didn’t know that 12 and 13 had even come out, and I was waiting for like 3 weeks for them. Apparently I just missed the releases or something. Whatever.
What you are watching here is utter artistic bankrupcy of Jin Kobayashi, the very same that destroyed School Rumble, and attempts by Akayuki Shinbo et. al. to paper over it. In my opinion, not very successful. And now we’re getting more of the same.
And with that said, a second series is due to air this fall. Of course, since I can’t see this series here get a proper and meaningful conclusion in the last few eps. :/