Review Kimagure orange road summer's beginning

Kyosuke Kasuga is a fairly normal college age man with a fairly normal girlfriend, Modoka Ayakawa. One day though he is hit by a car and sent three years into the future. Why do you ask? Kyosuke and his family have psychic powers. So Kyosuke has to find a way back to his own time. During his stay in the future he finds out how is relationship with Ayakawa(he refers to her by her last name, a common occurance in Japan) develops and the future of their friend Hikaru.

Kimagure Orange road is made up of a television series of 48 episodes, a 12 episode Oav and two movies. Summer's beginning is the second of these two movies, and is more of an epilogue than anything else. Unfortunately, it is the first thing I have seen of the series as well. This is probably my biggest problem with the movie, it depends on the viewer's emotional investment in the characters, yet I have yet to build any. The rest of the series is available through animego (which means it isn't that avaiable unless you like to order through their website) while summer's beginning is available through ADV.

One thing to note about this movie is that there is a fair amount of talk about sex. As this is the end of the show it would be natural for Kyosuke and Madoka to take their relationship to the next level as a finale. Overall I found the way they handled the subject matter rather maturely, rather than use it as simple fanservice.

The animation for summer's beginning is good. If you have seen anything else from the series you will notice a definate improvement. The biggest improvement is the character design for Hikaru. As Kyosuke once said in the movie "She really grew up."

Kimagure Orange road, summer's beginning is a good movie just not a great one. I liked seeing the movie and I may rent it again if and when I see more of Kimagure Orange road. Maybe if you have seen more of the show you will find it more enjoyable. I give Kimagure Orange road, Summer's beginning 3.5 out of 5.

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