Blue Spring Ride

I wish I could say I enjoyed this series more, but sadly I ended up underwhelmed. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it. With Production I.G. doing another Shoujo and a very similar art style to Kimi ni Todoke, I was hoping for something close to that, but this fell far short. Most of the cast were okay but I thought it was very clunky and somewhat unconvincing how their friendships were established. Very little was done to flesh some of them out either, although I suppose that can be difficult with only 12 episodes. My main problem was with the main couple though. Whilst I didn't mind Futaba after she eventually grew a spine and started realising that she didn't have to live a "fake" lifestyle, for the vast majority of the series I absolutely couldn't stand Kou. I understand that the intention was to show that he had changed in the years they had been apart and had become a distant and aloof person, but they went way too far in my few and a lot of the time he was just being a total asshole, at times being outright abuse to Futaba. Of course later on it's revealed as to why he ended up this way but I still don't think it justified even half of his dickish behaviour. He got better towards the end but for a lot of the series he was just a total prick and it made it very hard for me to enjoy the series. Quite a let down overall.

I liked it and found it cute, but I wish it ended with them getting together or at least a confession