Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Ramune – episode 1

November 13, 2005 on 9:57 pm | In Ramune | Comments Off on Ramune – episode 1

“The Hermit Crab and the Straw Hat”

If I continue to watch this, I’m not even going to bother writing about it. I’ll offer one image per episode and maybe a perfunctory statement of events (to be honest the hardest part of this site is the image preparation. When I know what I want to say, that’s damned easy).

The reasons I chose to watch Ramune (released as “Lamune”, but Ramune is my personal leaning) are threefold:

The drink ramune holds good memories for me.

I love Japanese summers as represented in anime and film.

I love the farming that sometimes goes on in such situations.

This is essentially about Kenji and Nanami, two students who have been neighbours for ten years. Nanami farms for her mother’s restaurant, and it’s clear that the two are supposed to get together … but along the way there are shots of girls who Kenji has never talked to in his life who you just know are going to try and claim his heart. This show is based on a “game”, after all.

It’s very slow, but I like the atmosphere; the ramune and summer island atmosphere was what I liked most about RahXephon. The sound is mixed incredibly poorly, the performances are lackluster and Kenji looks very bland.

If I really wanted to watch a summer anime, I’d watch NieA_7; if I really want to watch summer farming, I’d watch Only Yesterday; if I wanted to have my ramune memories, I’d go back to Melbourne.

Being Australian, November is the perfect time of year for me to be watching this; however, it’s Winter in Japan. What is with this scheduling? The atmosphere of Ramune may be ruined by improbable “romance”, but I’ll give it a little push.

Just don’t expect any effort on my part.