Anime: Orange

A typical shojo romance is predictable at best and forgettable at worst. Adding extra fuss to the romance is an easy way to make it seem different, but only when it changes the formula, instead of spicing the same old stuff. Orange is the perfect example of trying to pass as different, only to completely mess it up because it never tried to change something past the premise.

In today’s lesson of what not to do when writing a proper story, we have the tale of bland girl, who knows her future boyfriend is going to commit suicide and is given the chance to save his life. The reason she knows it, is because she received a letter from her future self, when she threw it in the Bermuda Triangle, which somehow acts as a time machine, and was then found by a postman, who delivered it to her past self… What? …

Basically, the premise makes absolutely no sense. It’s there just to make a shojo romance to stand out from the rest of the lot, and to its credit it succeeded. It was in the highest rated manga of all times while it was still published, and also one of the highest rated shows while it was airing. Obviously, it fell from grace very fast, once the audience awoke from the slumber of overly melodramatic nonsense and realized the plot is one of the same crap as any other shojo.

Instead of improving the overall, the time travel fuss only managed to point out how dumb everyone is. Knowing future events should normally make characters more self-aware, and thus smarter than the average specimen of the genre. Which is not what happens, since everyone kept acting the same way. Every single one of them remained a cookie-cutter archetype, and postponed the resolution up until the last minute. Nothing of importance happens in the meantime than can’t be summed up as a generic set up we have seen a million times.

The excuse is obviously because “we need to somehow fill an entire season with this needlessly dramatic premise” so everyone was written to act as socially inept as possible, even when they are not supposed to. Just like in any other shojo romance, they constantly hold back, are shy and are not willing to do the obvious as if something bad is going to happen if they save the guy’s life.

But as I said, it worked for a lot of plebs, who kept on watching because they really wanted to see the bland shojo heroine to save the life of the bland shojo boyfriend wannabe. It was a perpetual blue-balling, not that different from any other romance out there, fooling its audience to keep tolerating the ridiculously dense girls, in hopes of one day confessing their love, only to never happen before the very end.

What can I say about this one? It is not anything revolutionary. It is not the first to tell a tale about overcoming a burden of grief, and choosing between life and death and an overwhelming desire to travel in time to fix your own mistakes. We have read about it in “Norwegian Wood” and “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki”. We have seen it in “Konohana” and “Erased”.
However I did not find “Orange” bad or boring. Why? First, because it has a clear message: “Do not lock inside yourself, don’t be afraid to act and express your feelings. Pay attention to thoughts and feelings of those beside you”. I like this message. It is simple, yet powerful. It can make a real difference, if applied in real life.
Besides, those backgrounds are simply amazing. “If it draws you in, it is definitely good” – that’s my motto. While watching Orange I felt a strong desire to walk the streets, parks and mountains together with the characters. That’s why I want to praise the animators’ work, and that’s another reason why I like this anime.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ever make a decision that you regret? What if you could send a letter to your past self to act otherwise? Orange is a slice of life following a teenage girl, Naho, and her group of friends that encounter this exact scenario. Orange is about as unexpected a title as you can get for a show with a coming of age twist to the whole time travel category. However, it is also one of the most predictable shows once you get past the first episode.
The show comes across as something between Anohana and Ao Haru Ride. Though I don't see it nearly as favorably as the aforementioned shows, it's a nice departure from the wild sci-fi and fantasy shows that seem to be dominant these seasons. If you're looking for a show that explores character relationships a bit more naturally than Kiznaiver and don't mind the predictability, then this is a pretty good candidate.

Animation:
The show is nicely drawn overall with reasonably detailed backgrounds and modern, crisp lines. The show has a slightly unsaturated color palette, which is fitting given the somewhat apprehensive mood for the majority of the show. There is some occasional 3D CGI but it isn't particularly distracting. Animation-wise, two things bothered me about the show. First, the show is about notes from the future. Expect these notes to flash quickly across the screen, so fast that unless you're extremely well versed in Japanese you'll probably need to pause to fully digest the contents of the letter. The second thing that bothered me was the drawing style. Something about the eyes just doesn't mesh well, especially on the girls. It feels like they have doll eyes at times, thus somewhat killing emotional scenes (especially Naho). Furthermore, Kakeru's smile just looks wrong; I can't quite pin down what it is but it's just off-putting. Characters do get emotional quite often in this show, even the guys; just don't expect the same detail and authenticity that you get with P.A. Works.

This isn't an action based show, unless you count athletic meets as "action." There also isn't any ecchi though you do get some light romance.

Sound:
The show opens with a warm, slow guitar piece. I'm not a huge fan of the singer but the melody is decent. The ED has sad overtones and is sung by another guy. The BGM is standard-fare material, supportive but not memorable.

Honestly speaking, other than Kanahana and Ayane Sakura, the cast is relatively junior. Kanahana shows her experience, giving Naho a very fittingly shy and reserved voice. On the other hand, I have yet to find a role voiced by Seiichirou Yamashita that I like, and this show doesn't change that. Though only voicing a minor role, Yuu Asakawa deserves super kudos for her outstanding role as the English teacher; her intonations are almost passable as a native!

Story:
I'll admit that the premise of this show was particularly intriguing to me - the idea that one can influence their past self rather than forcefully take their earlier version's place like in so many other time-travel shows. How differently would you behave if you knew that someone would soon become intimately close with you? Of if you knew they would soon die? Furthermore, they play with the idea of regret, and whether choosing a different path really would reduce your future regret (by making yourself happier, doesn't it rob someone else of a chance to be happy, such as during a competition?).

The show is at heart a modified slice of life so the majority of the scenes revolve around school life. The atmosphere here is a bit complicated as everyone is trying to strike a familiar, friendly mood while knowing that disaster is looming on the horizon. Still, they manage to have many good times with a fair amount of comical and romantic scenes. The majority of the apprehension comes from the future scenes, where more mature versions of the protagonists look back with regret on their past.

There is a single main plot line that, while slow, eventually builds to an incredibly predictable climax and resolution. This is honestly one of the most predictable shows I've seen in a while. The whole time traveling letters thing and the impossibly photographic memory of all the future protagonists are pretty much glossed over to my disgust. However, despite these shortcomings, it's still a reasonable storyline, especially from a thematic perspective.

Character:
Whether this show works or not for you will strongly depend on how you perceive the characters. These are not your standard, bombastic anime characters that don't actually do anything. Instead, these are more realistic teenagers that show lots of hesitation in relationships, and often are caught up in trivial misunderstandings. These characters eventually start developing innocent relationships that form the backbone for a majority of the tension in the show. From that regard, this show is pretty strong for me. You can expect all the main protagonists to be dynamic characters, albeit perhaps a bit forced given the future letters.

There are two major detractors from this category. First is Kakeru. He definitely is a bit of a nutcase, making me wonder why everyone is so fixated on him. Furthermore, the show purposely makes it hard to get inside his head; really, he's the only thing that is rather unpredictable in the show - you never know whether he's going to accept something or go crazy and run off. Though there's an entire episode later on dedicated to explaining his past and thoughts, it doesn't help his relatability for the many previous episodes. Perhaps I just can't like a dude that smiles in such a fake way all the time. Second, I understand that these are very young characters but their reluctance to act or their inability to see the pitfall in actions that they take is all rather irritating; this will continue to occur throughout the entire show.

If you're looking for a show that really explores and grows character relationships, this show is a pretty decent candidate. I won't say it's as fulfilling as Kokoro Connect or as relatable as the characters in Nagi no Asuakara, but nonetheless it's quite a few steps up from many other shows out there. Just expect there to be lots and lots of crying.

Value:
I'm not a regular consumer of the shoujo genre, but compared to previous offerings I'd have to say that this one just doesn't feel as complete. I can't quite pin down whether it's the lack of relatability to the unstable Kakeru or statistical improbability of their letter plan actually working. In any case, I find myself at the weird crossroad of liking the character development and relationships yet also constantly being infuriated at the characters' actions or lack thereof. I'll still give credit to the interesting premise and amazing English teacher, but overall this is isn't a particularly strong shoujo show. That said, it still was a welcome deviation in terms of characterization and had an interesting premise.

The time traveling/time reset trend was the trend of 2016; Orange was the latest incarnation of its ilk. So, does this show stand out from the rest of its kind?

I highly doubt it.

The story begins with the main character Naho receiving a letter from her future self; the letter describes events that will happen to her and has instructions that will help her make the right choices, so that she won’t have any regrets. Using this letter, Naho tries to prevent a tragedy that will occur to the new transfer student that she is in love with, Kakeru. Throughout the show, Naho goes about trying to get in a relationship with Kakeru while attempting to also stop the tragedy that will befall him. The objective is weak because it makes the story revolves around just Naho and Kakeru and screws everyone else, just like what ruined Dragon Ball when the show became just about Goku and Vegeta. As a result, only the MC and her love interest matter; all the other characters mean nothing which makes you care less for them while also making the world of Orange small and insignificant. The problem with the letters is that if the future is constantly changing, then the letters won’t be of any use because the events described in the letters won’t occur. It feels that the letters are just there to forcefully progress the plot, giving the story no natural progression as well as giving the main character plot convenience to abuse. You’re wondering how the characters got these letters in the first place? Through the power of bullshit logic of course. Their future counterparts threw the letters in a black hole, which somehow allowed the letters to time travel back to the past, without getting shredded into nothing. This shows’ logic makes no sense at all and because of this, it makes Orange feel unrealistic which is ironic since the show was hyped for its realistic story and characters, lol. The story is therefore entirely forced with no natural progression, the objective is pathetic and illogical nonsense makes you care less.

Let’s talk about the wonderful, realistic characters that this show is so famous for...not really, because the characters were bland, one dimensional cardboard cutouts with little characterization and no character development:

• Naho is the main character of the show and her two defining features are…her Stupidity and Crying Quirks. She constantly needed help from her friends without ever managing to do anything by herself. She is completely dense and never becomes smarter or proactive; What a wonderful, fleshed out main character Naho is.

• Kakeru is the transfer student who cannot get over his mother’s death. He is constantly moaning about his mother’s death which is his only defining feature and worst of all his relationship with his late mother seems contrived for plot convenience so that we can feel pity for him, when in reality this felt forced. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t feel sad about it since we would all cry about the death of someone we hold dear, but when it is constantly shoved down our throats you start to care less.

• Suwa is…the only somewhat interesting character in the show. He is a leader archetype; good at sports, tall and handsome. He also has a crush on Naho. Suwa is the only character who received any semblance of characterization and some development that made him stand out. Unfortunately, Suwa is the rebound guy for Naho and Kakeru’s relationship which makes him shit.

• There are three more characters but they are bland with no characterization nor development and have no impact on the story whatsoever; Hagita is the nerd, Taka the tomboy and Azu the short girl.

The production values started out strong but nearing the end of the show, the art and animation flipped flopped from being decent to downright terrible. The character designs didn’t stand out either. As for the music, only the opening felt fitting while all the other music tracks were forgettable. The production values as a whole were inconsistent; starting out strong with good art and animation to being terrible at the end while the music was being bland consistently.

The theme of the show is about regret, but this regret is meaningless because Kakeru along with the other characters don’t reflect and move on in life. If the characters don’t move past their arctypes, then the theme of regret is meaningless and this causes the story of Orange to fail.

However, the biggest gripe I have with the show as well as its biggest flaw is that the characters were cheating. From my perspective, the letters were Gamesharks, you know, cheat codes. When you think about it, Naho along with Suwa, Hagita, Taka and Azu were using the letters to cheat; Naho essentially cheated to get into a relationship with Kakeru and force a happy ending. How am I supposed to consider them relatable, real people with real problems that require their own intuition to solve their conflicts when they cheat in life? This cheat factor also makes the show even more unrealistic than it already is; I doubt anyone of us received letters from the future to help us get rich quick or under the bed sheets. It doesn’t stop there; Naho and the gang decide to stop using the letters so that they can make their own choices…only to start relying on them again in the next episode. Orange is sending out a message that it is better and easier to cheat, which is a terrible message. What’s even worse is that the characters are in a school setting, which means that this show is telling you that it is alright to cheat in school and in whatever you do, meaning working hard, training hard and striving for a better living is next to nothing when you can simply cheat your way to the top without breaking a sweat.

What nonsense

Orange is just like the rest of its ilk; a terrible, over-dramatic tale. Orange has a badly written story, poorly written characters and nonsensical logic. Whatever Orange set out to do, failed miserably since none of the characters moved past their regrets and instead avoided their regrets rather than confronting them head on; as a result this made the show entirely pointless.