Episodes: 1
Aired: Jan 26, 2012
Runtime: 10 mins
Producers: Studio Izena
This OVA was bundled with the special version of the Otome Nadeshiko Love Story 2 light novel and it follows the story of a young girl falling in love in Japan's Taishou Period (1912-1926). I usually don't go for historical things, unless you count the special arc in Air, but something about the simplicity of this intrigued me and I'm somewhat looking forward to how a romance would blossom and what etiquette would be.
Runtime: 10 mins
Producers: Studio Izena
This OVA was bundled with the special version of the Otome Nadeshiko Love Story 2 light novel and it follows the story of a young girl falling in love in Japan's Taishou Period (1912-1926). I usually don't go for historical things, unless you count the special arc in Air, but something about the simplicity of this intrigued me and I'm somewhat looking forward to how a romance would blossom and what etiquette would be.
Synopsis:
A young girl who is an outcast in the house she lives in finds solace and happiness in the morose pictures by an artist in the Monthly Girls Magazine, she may be the only one.
Plot:
Director: Hijiri Sanpei
The OVA begins as the school day ends, Chizuru stays behind to eat her lunch and her friend Ranko comes to talk with her while she does so. Chizuru's adoptive father has asked her to run an errant to collect some money after school. She takes the train and follows the directions written for her.
Meanwhile Sougetsu's employer Nakane is trying to convince him to start drawing something happier once in a while, jesting that he may have to look elsewhere for employment. Sougetsu goes to water his garden and by chance the two are brought together as Chizuru's directions are blown by a strong gust into his garden. The twos eyes meet. Little do they know who each other are.
Director: Hijiri Sanpei
Meanwhile Sougetsu's employer Nakane is trying to convince him to start drawing something happier once in a while, jesting that he may have to look elsewhere for employment. Sougetsu goes to water his garden and by chance the two are brought together as Chizuru's directions are blown by a strong gust into his garden. The twos eyes meet. Little do they know who each other are.
Characters:
Character Design: Rei Touma
Designs are simple and elegant but some are slightly outlandish for the time it is set in- I highly doubt there would have been many people with hair colours outside of dark brown, though that being said I don't know the backgrounds of these characters and some may be of foreign descent.
Chizuru Toguu (Akiko Kawase)
A young girl who was adopted into a prolific, rich family. She's very much viewed as an outsider and as such prefers to spend time away from the house. She likes to live in a way that's honest to her nature, but is still refined and lady-like. She loves the drawings done by Sougetsu.
Sougetsu Suzumoto/ Ootsuki Toshi (Takeuchi Eiji)
A lonely man who seems to spend most of his time in his room, drawing pictures of sad girls, which is all he swears he will ever draw, even at the risk of unemployment. He was scolded for his "untalented art" when he was younger and it seems this may be the reason he has regressed to only drawing the same kind of thing.
Ranko Otobe (Sudou Saori)
Friend of Chizuru, she seems well attuned to her and the two are able to talk in a frank way. She has a sense of humour about life and deeply values Chizuru's friendship.
Saiyo Arimura (Ishhiki Mayu)
Nothing much is ascertained about this character aside from her being quiet and polite and an acquaintance of Chizuru and Ranko.
Mikiya Nakane (Yoshimoto Yasuhiro)
Editor of the local girls' monthly publication, he has known/worked with Sougetsu for 10 years and is trying to find a way for him to find happiness and start to draw happier things. He's going as far as to skip employing people who can draw brighter things that would appeal more to his readers, but is also gentle enough to not push the matter.
Character Design: Rei Touma
Designs are simple and elegant but some are slightly outlandish for the time it is set in- I highly doubt there would have been many people with hair colours outside of dark brown, though that being said I don't know the backgrounds of these characters and some may be of foreign descent.
A young girl who was adopted into a prolific, rich family. She's very much viewed as an outsider and as such prefers to spend time away from the house. She likes to live in a way that's honest to her nature, but is still refined and lady-like. She loves the drawings done by Sougetsu.
A lonely man who seems to spend most of his time in his room, drawing pictures of sad girls, which is all he swears he will ever draw, even at the risk of unemployment. He was scolded for his "untalented art" when he was younger and it seems this may be the reason he has regressed to only drawing the same kind of thing.
Friend of Chizuru, she seems well attuned to her and the two are able to talk in a frank way. She has a sense of humour about life and deeply values Chizuru's friendship.
Nothing much is ascertained about this character aside from her being quiet and polite and an acquaintance of Chizuru and Ranko.
Editor of the local girls' monthly publication, he has known/worked with Sougetsu for 10 years and is trying to find a way for him to find happiness and start to draw happier things. He's going as far as to skip employing people who can draw brighter things that would appeal more to his readers, but is also gentle enough to not push the matter.
Animation/art:
Art Director: Kazuhiro Arai
Animation Producer: Nakamura Kunio
Animation Producer: Nakamura Kunio
I have to say the quality of this OVA is incredible.. if you look at the above picture it can easily fool the eye into thinking it's a photograph. Backgrounds are meticulously painted, really fitting for a title that has an artist at the centre
BGM, Songs and SFX:
Sound Director: 神戸コータ
All recordings; sound, music and voices was very crisp, almost deafening during solid dialogue however it was a nice change to constant BGM which tends to try to influence a viewer's feelings. The language used was quite modern, which I feel took away a lot of flavour, though I can understand why as not a lot of people could comfortably listen to and understand older Japanese (myself included).
The overall feeling given was very natural and helped you immerse yourself in viewing.
All recordings; sound, music and voices was very crisp, almost deafening during solid dialogue however it was a nice change to constant BGM which tends to try to influence a viewer's feelings. The language used was quite modern, which I feel took away a lot of flavour, though I can understand why as not a lot of people could comfortably listen to and understand older Japanese (myself included).
The overall feeling given was very natural and helped you immerse yourself in viewing.
Final Thought:
Original Creator: Kunoe Miyama
A fairly simple but incredibly beautiful look into a kind of love story we've not seen before. This would have been perfect as a teaser for an actual series!
If you want to feast your eyes on some beautiful animation, you can watch the OVA by clicking this link (a short ad will play first).
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