Asatte no Houkou.

This is a story of amends and of redemption. It is a tribute to the age-old aphorism, "Maturity comes with experience, not age." But most importantly, Asatte no Houkou shows that you can craft an alright drama with any trope, even the most tired or comedic. Such are the main merits of an anime with a ridiculous premise. In this case, our protagonist, Karada, is a 12 year old girl who is insecure about her young age. Tiny and always feeling left out, she makes a wish in frustration to a local altar—a wish to become an adult. To her dismay, this rash wish ismysteriously granted, swapping Karada's age with that of her older brother's ex-girlfriend, Shouko, and vice versa. The problem? Karada and Shouko loathe each other, yet they're left to work together in secrecy. Or so it goes for a little while. Here is where execution saves the day. The story, not once played for laughs or thrills, takes itself completely seriously. Unlike a lot of similar dramas, this focuses on how the supernatural element affects every character's life in one way or another, no matter how minor. It follows the reparation and strengthening of these interpersonal relationships throughout this group of friends, and in that sense, its small scale is a double-edged sword. It provides enough for character development, but limits the scope of a potentially vast story. This all roughly balances out in the end, but it's still very disappointing to think of what it could have been. Meanwhile, Karada has to focus on what being an adult really entails, whether it's through buying new clothes or finding a job, and Shouko needs to outgrow her apathetic tendencies. The scenes detailing these conflicts are some of the best the storyline has to offer, giving a great insight into what each character is struggling with the most. There is a strange sense of terror that comes with either of the two being put in danger, and that privilege isn't abused; since it's only invoked a couple of times, it manages to stay fresh and intimidating without becoming contrived, although Karada's thou-must-cry backstory cuts it close. Audiovisually, it's as conflicted as the story. While the art is soft and somewhat refreshing, it's awfully plain (albeit acceptable) overall. The animation itself is a little more mediocre, with mouths refusing to move in some scenes, and shading done almost haphazardly. Thankfully, it's all redeemed by some of the best audial presentation I've experienced in the medium. Aside from dialogue cutting through, it is almost like an ambient soundscape at times. There are layers upon layers of unobtrusive sound effects, accompanied by the occasional acoustic music when necessary. Never too much or annoying, it balances this harmony of atmosphere and song flawlessly, and definitely knows when to be quiet. My only gripe was that I could fall asleep to it. Even though Asatte no Houkou is by no means the greatest anime you'll ever see, it is definitely a one-of-a-kind experience. Or an inconsistent treat, if that's more up your alley. Memorable for the fact that none of it takes place in a school or on a battleground, but memorable nonetheless. It's cute at its worst and compelling at its best, so what's there to lose—a few years?

I watch all of this anime as it was coming out, and I was not entirely pleased by it. The graphics worked, but I wasn't impressed. They seemed rather drab and uninviting. The characters also seemed to blend into one, with only a few of the secondary characters actually standing out. They all had the same set of emotions which consisted primarily of feeling bad for him or herself. Whether about the past, present, or future, all they did was look off in the distance and sigh. It was a bit slow, but it was only twelve episodes, so it was not unbearable. If theystretched the series out any longer, I probably would have bailed half-way through. My major gripe with the anime is the direction they took it in. The main plot revolved around an older woman turning into a child, and a child turning into an older woman. Now, with a plot like this, it sounds like a great opening for a comedy. Originally, that's what I was looking forward to. Instead, we are given an anime that shovels on lame drama about the two struggling to hide themselves away from everyone, and generally complaining about their state. I was ashamed of the series. They could have put in so many laughs. The reason I watched the anime the whole way through is not because I loved it, but because the story was gripping. You wanted to find out what happened as you watched it, but that was about the only reason I hung on. If you are into dramas, great. You might find Asatte no Houkou enjoyable; but stay away if you are looking for a light-hearted comedic romp.

I'm not usually into the whole twelve episode thing, I normally don't think it's enough time to tell a good story, but did this prove me wrong. Asatte no Houkou is an extremely emotionally complex anime and I was seriously taken by surprise when I learned that by the second episode, because it starts you off making it seem like it just might be a loli anime, but if you keep watching, which thank goodness, I did, you'll learn that not only is she no longer a child after the first episode, but this entire anime is about everyone, including the adults, learning tobehave like adults. Anyway, Asatte no Houkou is about a twelve year old girl, named Karada Iokawa. She's unusually upbeat considering all the crap she's been through over the past four or five years. At least, it seems like she's upbeat. When she was eight seven or eight, she learned that her parents and older brother are not biologically her family, we never learn what happened to her real parents, we assume they're dead, but a year later, her adoptive parents die. Shortly after, her older adoptive brother comes from America to take care of her. Unfortunately, Karada is extremely bright for her age and knows her brother is in a lot of pain over everything he left behind while he was in America to come take care of her. Over the next four years, the guild of her brother having to take care of her all the time and having to work so hard to do so, torments her. Eventually, she meets a woman whom was a friend of her brother in America, but the woman, Shoko Nogami, is very cold to her to Karada and treats Karada like a child so much, Karada runs away. Feeling guilty, with Karada's brother angry at her, she looks for Karada and finds her at a wishing stone near the woods. When Shouko sees Karada praying at the stone, she asks if she can wish too, and sits down next to her. As they sit together, the two wish for what they desire most. And, this is the part that got me to keep watching, When they opened their eyes, Karada had taken on the body of a 20-26 year old girl and Shoko a 9-12 year old girl. I know that this has been done before tons of times, like with the thirty remakes of freaky Friday and all that stuff, but it was really interesting to see the direction they took it where they didn't switch bodies, just ages. From there on, the anime is surprisingly real. Like if that were to actually happen to someone, everything that followed was exactly like what you would expect in real life. So the two of them hide out for a while and everyone thinks they've gone missing. The police aren't involved, since they think Karada's with Shouko, but still, everyone looks for her. the anime is all about Karada learning how to appreciate her childhood and Shouko learning how childish she behaved as an adualt. Shoko learns that she was jealous of Karada, for having taken her boyfriend away, Karada's brother, and Karada learns that even if she is an adult, her brother will always want to be in her life and that she's not holding him back from anything. There’s also a character, Tetsumasa Amino, who is Karada's friend from school. He's huge for his age and looks like he could be in his late teens to early twenties, which makes him look really bad since Karada was extremely undeveloped for her age and looked six at the age of twelve. But anyway, he's really cool. He and Karada are in love and he spends nearly the entire series looking for her, even though he meets her on a number of accounts he doesn't recognize her. He and older Karada spend some time together in the last few episodes of the series and he confesses his love for the younger Karada. Just to spoil some stuff, everyone finds about and comes to believe that Karada and Shouko had swapped ages, which is really cool since usually in those age swapping movies no one knows but them and there's a cute ending that isn't the least bit corny, which made me very happy since I was expecting a very cheesy ending. All in all, it was pretty flawless for what it was going for. I can't really think of anything they did wrong other than in real life the police probably would have gotten involved. But again, it's a very real anime and that's why I probably appreciate it so much.

Source: Region 1 DVD Why this series: I have a deep love for Ikuko Itoh. This was one of the only series she was heavily involved with that I hadn't seen, so I decided to marathon it. Animation/Music: The overall look to the show is very pleasing to the eye. The art and animation are nicely done and remain consistent from start to finish. The animators chose to go with a muted color palette giving the show a very gentle and sweet appearance. The character designs are top notch as to be expected since they are the work of Ikuko Itoh. The only design that didn't reallyjibe with me was Hiro, who for some reason looked like a homeless person! He needed a haircut so bad it was driving me crazy. He finally gets one in the end, thank goodness. The music is nice but nothing about it stood out to me. The OP and ED themes as well as the BGM all have a very soothing and relaxing quality that compliment the show. The songs grew on me a bit over time, but I personally wouldn't choose to listen to them on their own. Story/Characters: The story has a good mix of drama and romance. There is a good enough amount of mystery to keep the viewer hooked. It has a strong first half and then it dips a bit and picks back up again at the end. The characters are for the most part very likable but had some annoying quirks. My favorite character being Shoko. I thought she was the most empathetic and for the most part ended up with the short end of the stick. Karada is very sweet and almost too perfect. The poor girl managed to go through two sets of parents by the time she was eight years old which is pretty insane! Her best friend Amino is adorable but he tries too hard almost to the point of obsession. Hiro is the worst character. Dude, I understand that your parents died, but do you have to be a complete jerk all the time? I don't understand why anyone in the show likes him, since he's selfish and boring. Some of the choices he made confused me. I was also concerned the show was going to go into creepy territory with him developing feelings for the grown up Karada. She's only 12 years old and he's 28, gross! The last episode resolves everything, so you don't have to worry about a sloppy ending. Overall: The show is definitely worth the watch. It's not a huge time investment and it has enough originality and eye candy to put up with some of it's slight annoyances. It's not perfect, but not much is. If you are looking for a sweet romance then check this out!

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