Review: Orange E.02

It's been a while since I last viewed a full-length episode so I thought it might be interesting to revisit one of the summer line-ups: Orange. Okay, so I was hesitant to resume watching Orange admittedly because of the weak impression it left on me after the first episode. It's not produced by the same company as Ao Haru Ride, but the artwork’s resemblance to Ao Haru Ride is uncanny. While the plot lines differ, the characters are stereotypical of the shoujo romance genre. However, the major reason for why I was so against watching this series was because of Hatsukoi Monster. As many of you may or may not know, Hatsukoi Monster is shoujo-romcom one of a kind; it's conventional in some ways and unconventional in others. It's pretty artwork coupled with it's crazy, eccentric, endearing yet hilarious characters is truly the icing on the cake. Let's just say watching Hatsukoi Monster has raised my standards for other shoujo romance anime shows. That's not to say that I know every other shoujo-romcom airing or just finished airing, I'm just looking for something a bit more unique. To be honest the only thing I felt Orange had going for it was the time travel aspect of the show. The show tells the story of high school student, Naho Takamiya, who receives a letter from her (10 year's into the future) future self-recounting all the incidents that are soon to occur in the present Naho Takamiya's life. One of the first pivotal events that the future Naho divulges is the arrival of the transfer student, Kakeru Naruse, into her class. Future Naho reveals all her past regrets in hopes of fixing her mistakes. She tells the present Naho to keep an eye on Kakeru Naruse, as he will no longer be with her and her friends in the future.

This episode focuses on one of the regrets that future Naho states in the letter that is not making a bento for Kakeru. Suwa, a classmate of Naho and Kakeru (Naho's future husband revealed in episode 1), persuades Kakeru to join the soccer club. At first, Kakeru is reluctant to join but after much persuasion decides to join on a provisional basis. It's during soccer practice that Kakeru, after hearing what a great 'mum' Naho is due to that fact that she makes her own lunch,  jokingly requests Naho to make him lunch. The rest of the episode was laborious; all I kept wondering was when she was going to give him the lunch box. To my surprise...not, she didn't give him the bento until school, and his soccer practice had ended. We learn that Kakeru's mum committed suicide the day of the opening ceremony and that Kakeru dies in an accident, DUN DUN DUN!!!

All in all, nothing remarkable or interesting happened in this episode. I doubt I'll watch the rest of the series, but we'll see.

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Orange E.02

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