Shelf Life

Psychic Reading

Ryosuke is some poor schmuck 20-something dude who's fallen in love with a florist named Rokka. He's bought so many plants as an excuse to talk to her that his apartment is beginning to look like a greenhouse. He gets a part time job at the flower shop to be closer to Rokka, and confesses his crush in the first episode, refreshingly preventing the sort of endless-wait, unsure-about-our-feelings teenage romances you may remember from shows such as Kimi Ni Todoke.

Unfortunately Rokka's got baggage. She's eight years older than Ryosuke, and it happens that she's a widow. Severely complicating matters, her late husband's ghost, Atsushi, haunts the flower shop, but strangely only Ryosuke can see him. At first, I wondered if the ghost was just symbolic, or just inside Ryosuke's head, but it's quickly obvious that Atsushi is really there, and honestly messing with Ryosuke to stop him from getting together with his wife. .

First of all, it's straight-up shocking that a show like this could get made, especially as an animated series. Anime fans often lament the lack of shojo titles, yet this is based on josei manga. I cannot imagine a world where a series for twenty-something ladies would be animated in America, but I guess that's where Noitamina comes in.

Second, it was gut-wrenching to watch this with my husband. After every episode he turned to me and said, “promise me you'll never die” (I can't promise that!). There are a lot of flashback scenes to Rokka's relationship with Atsushi while he was in and out of the hospital over the course of his brief life. Perhaps nothing pulls on one's heart strings more than putting oneself in the shoes of the characters in that situation (i.e., visiting your fatally ill spouse in the hospital).

Having recently reviewed Ano Hana, I want to put out there that this is a totally different sort of show, despite the similar premise. Menma was a little too precious, but Natsuyuki Rendezvous has no such treacly characters. To boot, Natsuyuki Rendezvous happily avoids most anime clichés (however, episode eight flashes back to a time when Atsushi lamented he couldn't travel to an exotic locale, which reminded me of the drama series Crying Out Love in the Center of the World).

In episode five the story takes a crazy turn as Ryosuke goes on a spiritual journey with a tiny Rokka. Cute and funny things continue to happen, but it's a lot less cute and funny than the first few episodes. The series also ramps up the art, with some innovative sketchbook drawings as backgrounds.

I had an idea early on of writing this review as if I were reviewing a Scooby Doo episode, joking that Atsushi was just dressing up as a ghost to scare people away from the flower shop; that and I wanted to harp on his incessant spectral cockblocking. Ultimately I think that kind of humor is just my coping mechanism for getting me through Natsuyuki Rendezvous' emotional wringer. The show is so weighty that I'm confident I'll reach some kind of Aristotelian catharsis by the end.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous is a mature series for slightly older people that is certainly worth watching, if only for it's uniqueness among animated works (even if you don't reach catharsis).[TOP]

Chihayafuru fans will know the “Hundred Poems” from the karuta game they play in that show. For the rest of us, the hundred poems were written by poets around 1000 years ago during the Heian period to decorate the walls of a rich nobleman's mountain villa. Chōyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi, as a narrator explains in the beginning, tells the stories behind the love poems, which make up about 40% of the Hundred Poems. As such, I think a good alternate title would be “Saucy Poems from History” (somebody get Kate Beaton on the phone).

The episodes cover one or two poems each at first, making the series seem episodic. However, characters eventually start reoccurring, giving the series a loose continuity. I was going to write this review entirely in haiku, but I was short on time this week (besides, my preferred poetry form is the double dactyl).

Truly, this is a show for Japanese literature majors if there ever was one. I'll also extend my recommendation to Japanese history majors, poetry enthusiasts, and fans of The Pillow Book, as episode nine focuses on Sei Shōnagon. Every episode gives historical details about the politics of the day as well as enough background information on the players involved to build a strong narrative around each short poem.

I'm not much of a poetry fan, so I was drawn in by the artwork at first. The characters have kimono patterns done with a sort of cut-out animation a little like in Gankutsuou, but it's not used as frequently and isn't nearly as dizzying. A lot of scenes have a thick black outline around characters, adding a kind of storybook-like effect. Many of the introductory segments are set in the present, and convey Heian era history facts through present day media formats, like showing tabloid newspaper headlines, interviewing characters on daytime talk shows, and other fun “camera” set-ups.

I feel like I'm learning a lot about Heian Japan on an anthropological level while watching this show. For example, I've learned that dudes courted ladies back then by sitting on the other side of a thin bamboo curtain while the chicks hid their faces with fans. But this is no dry PBS documentary, you know things are really getting saucy if the couple holds hands under the curtain!

In all seriousness, I think Uta Koi does a good job of bringing the problems of past couples into the present day. Several couples struggle with whether or not they should get together and settle down or let the lady involved go work in the palace, which is a great career move but a cold shower for the gentleman caller (career or family? Can women truly “have it all?” Definitely not in the Heian era!). Great romance stories find believable ways to keep couples apart, and I totally believed the romantic tension in Uta Koi.

It's worth mentioning that episode six is extremely silly. The 95% anachronistic episode involves a YuGiOh-like card battle between and about classic poets. I couldn't follow it, but I bet if you're familiar with the poets it's wet-your-pants hilarious.

It's safe to say that not all anime fans are going to dig historical romance about classical poetry, but if that sounds appealing to you in the least, don't miss Uta Koi.[TOP]