ORANGE Orange is an anime that was highly anticipated when it was released. It looked from afar like a rather exciting anime and potential new classic shojo anime with a rather odd premise for a Shojo. I tried to watch it...and failed. To be honest, I wanted to watch it many times but couldn't get past the first few episodes. But for this review, I put all my determination to break that barrier, and so today, I bring you the review of Orange! When 16-year-old Naho Takamiya receives a letter from the person who claims to be her future self (a 26-year-old Naho), her life changes completely. Her letters accurately predict every single thing that is about to happen to her. The first letter explains how a new transfer student named Naruse Kakeru will arrive in her class; her future Naho warns her to keep an eye on him. Why? Naho must decide whether to heed the letter's cryptic warning or not and what it would mean not only for her future but for Kakeru's as well. Ignoring the letter's warning, Naho invites the new boy who has just arrived from Tokyo, Kakeru, to go out with her friends after school. But something terrible happens to Kakeru that day. Something that might not have happened if he had returned home earlier. Knowing this, Naho decides to start following the instructions she receives from a future world where Kakeru no longer exists. But facing the present without leaving room for regret is not as easy as it should be. The plot of their world begins to unfold, slowly but surely. At first, the premise is quite interesting because, in shojos, it is not very common to find anything related to time travel and time paradoxes. Orange uses its strange travel mechanics to bring up the central question of the plot "If you could time travel, what would you change?" while the protagonist's future self tries to stop her past self from making what she considers mistakes she wishes she could change. At the same time, it raises the dilemma of whether there are things that should not be altered or are impossible to change. These are probably questions that for those who have already seen an anime that contains time travel are well known. But in the case of Orange, we are presented with the obvious (and not often shown in other anime) situations where no matter what you do, a specific decision will be inevitable to make. Naho will not be able to change everything that her future self surrounded by "what ifs" considers imaginably possible to change. There was a point in the series where events began to happen that were not listed in the letters or were happening in slightly different ways. By making small decisions, Naho had managed to slightly change the future, showing that even the most minor things can significantly impact both future choices and the people around you. These differences make Naho put aside the letters because they are no longer helpful to a certain extent. She now has to rely on her power and be confident that her choices are the right ones. On the other hand, the main reasoning behind the letters that came to them from the future was that they were sent through a possible black hole in the center of the Bermuda Triangle. Honestly, this seemed a bit out of place, but I understand that it was necessary to put a reason for time travel and the concept of parallel worlds. But I would have been just as happy with a magical time-traveling mailbox in a lake house, mainly because time travel wasn’t the central focus of the anime. However, I can't say that I felt utterly hooked by the proposal despite how interesting it may sound. It's worth noting that my problem with not getting past the first few episodes the first few times I tried to watch it wasn't exactly the plot but the main characters. I cannot put up with submissive, bland, shojo heroines who seem to take too long to connect obvious dots. And Naho is a cliché with legs. Likewise, Kakeru doesn't bring anything new to the table either. That's why I couldn't care less about their couple. Whether or not they ended up together didn't particularly thrill me. However, as the episodes go on, the other characters start to get involved, and, in that way, what looked like a sad love story begins to transform into the friendship story that it really is. On the other hand, by developing Kakeru more, one ends up understanding his instability and even empathizing with him. Although the characters, in general, are charismatic, the only ones who get some real growth and a lot of screen-time are the main ones, unfortunately. However, the real reason for my love/hate feeling towards the anime is what they do with Suwa. This guy is the friend of the year, the nicest and selfless of them all. And the savior of the plot with all the letters and in every way. I think he deserved a better closure to his story. The character designs are not unpleasant, but I have a problem with some of the facial expressions; they don't quite fit. Also, the static shots (I don't know what they're technically called) made me uncomfortable in many moments. Apart from that, the animation is quite nice. What it lacked was the budget to make a sound, good animation. In the beginning, it's good, and then the animation quality starts to drop a lot. The music is also good, but nothing too memorable. In broad strokes, Orange is not too bad. The whole theme of regrets and reflections for me has been a good point in favor, despite being somewhat predictable and not at all wonderful, with not the most original and best-developed characters. More towards the end, it entertains quite a bit. I think it's finally a matter of taste, so it wouldn't be wrong to give it a chance. 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