Sasameki Koto
Another anime? Why yes :) This one was suggested by a few people when I was watching Aoi Hana. Around that time I downloaded one ep... and downloaded the rest soon after haha
This anime is also yuri/shoujo ai. At first I was thinking "this is aoi hana all over again" In part because Murasume's character design looks a loooooooot like Fumi from Aoi Hana.. I mean look...
In the First Ep it seems like Murasume is the straight girl who deals with Kazama's crazy girl loving ways.. Sound familiar? ok Fumi isnt girl crazy but it did have a similar theme of one lesbian friend and one straight friend. It looked a lot like Aoi Hana just the opposite characters being lesbian/straight.. and boy was I wrong... I warn you I'm going to talk about this first ep and a little of the series. But don't worry no spoilers in here except for maybe the first ep. ok.. ready now?
In the first ep we are taken through Kazama's crush on a girl, her library coworker /sempai . Through her rollercoaster of emotions around this girl, you are given many views of Murasume's reactions... and that's when it differs from Aoi Hana a lot... both characters are gay. Just one is out of the closet and the other isnt.
This anime does suffer a bit from the "OMG we are just super close friends! Not really lesbians!" "I like girls because they are cute! thats it" =p I'f you've watched enough yuri.. hell enough anime you know what I am talking about. Thankfully the series does admit to its own lesbianism in later episodes and doesn't look back. Although the "Girls who love girl's club" is still a bit odd. At the beginning the characters have a lot of potential but... Murasume (the main character) especially seems a bit dry, and she can't get the spotlight away from Kazama. Eventually her personality develops more... Even with her moments of flat affect she does show to be a complex and interesting person.
One MAJOR Difference from more shoujo ai anime is that the characters are sexual...yes really. Even though Aoi Hana has THIS in the opening!
If you saw Aoi Hana, you know that series was not sexual at all (which may be why I still prefer it...) but for those not like me you will love the fact that in Sasameki Koto Murasuma has SEXUAL thoughts of Kazama. She has desire, want etc So although it lacks in realistic drama, because it focuses more on comedy and hijinks (like those seen in Kare Kano not those seen in Best Student Council ugh...) It is realistic in the sense that the characters actually want each other in the way most teenagers would. Aoi hana really focused on the emotions of the characters and longing unlike Sasameki Koto which focuses on desire and frustration haha.
I think I'll stop now and I hope that I've convinced you to at least try it out. I will give you one last warning.. if you saw Aoi Hana and saw the ending... this ending is similar in it's unendingness. Where Aoi Hana shows this person did___ and that person seems to be doing ___ Sasameki Koto has none of that but rather and emotional ending for the two main characters (I'm to saying if they get together or not I'm saying that emotionally things are oddly resolved). Because of that I felt more satisfied with it.
Either way both series' have a possibility of getting a second season... if we don't hear about this soon I'll end up turning to the manga which if you guys want I can eventually post both of those here too. (I would psot them when I'm reading them not before =p)
I realize most of my review is a comparison to Aoi Hana.. but being they came out so closely together and I saw one aftetr the other I really can't help it. I hope this is still helpful to you who havent seen Aoi Hana yet.
Episodes: Sorry all episodes are MKV I couldnt find the whole series in any other format... if you have trouble playing these please let me know.
The opening is very pretty... don't skip it EVER! I will know >=[
.... I'm just kidding.. or am I? 0_0?
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7 If you, like me... love Akemiya-kun You will love this ep.
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
If there are typos here let me know.. I'm writing this really late at night...
PS for you English speakers.. and I assume all of you are... This anime had more and more random English words as it goes on. Very hilarious for us non japanese hehe
For all older updates.... http://mysticeden.livejournal.com/262454.html