Natsuiro Kiseki 1

Most anime fans have a genre that appeals to them more than anything else. Most times this genre tends to be shoujo, but sometimes it can be horror, mystery, or god forbid, ecchi. Slice of life is my genre, out of the 142 series that I've completed, Slice of life makes up about 97% of them, so of course the latest Slice of life anime from Sunrise grabbed my attention...okay, already I have a confession to make, what really drew me into this show was the shiny logo, LOOK AT THAT LOGO! That thing is amazing. It's one of my dark anime secrets, I always get sucked into shows with shiny logos, B Gata H Kei trapped me with it's beautiful pink and blue, hopefully this trap is worth it.

Natsuiro Kiseki, or Summer-Colored Miracle, is an anime about 4 high school girls.

Aizawa Natsumi is in front there with the red hair, she's a member of her school's tennis club and is an overall stubborn girl.

Hanaki Yuka is to her left with the green hair (might be a little hard to see in the pic but it is indeed green). She's kinda spunky and obsesses over the fictional idol group, Four Seasons.

Mizukoshi, Saki is to Natsumi's right, she's also in the tennis club with Natsumi, her dream was to enter the tennis championships along with her.

Tamaki, Rinko Is located to Natsumi's far left, and has some funky light pink hair...? She's the shy girl of the group, she also works as a shrine maiden where the main point of this story is located.

Aizawa wakes up and grasps what has to be THE WORST CELL PHONE I'VE EVER SEEN, seriously, this thing is ugly as hell.

Aizawa proceeds to send a message to Saki before heading out, I'm sure Saki has the same crappy phone as her, right? ...Right?

OH COME ON!

Anyway, the message says "You'd better come to practice today!"  AW SNAPZ, AIZAWA LAYIN DOWN THE LAW! Flash forward to school...

Saki does not, and is instead content to have Four Seasons merchandise shoved in her face, great choice there Saki.

Badass Aizawa isn't having any of this, and intends to take Saki by force, she resists, but is eventually dragged down to the tennis court...

 Where shit instantly gets real, you do NOT drop a tennis racket in Natsuiro Kiseki, a show that's not even about tennis.

Saki then quits the tennis club, Aizawa proclaims that they will not be friends anymore if she does (because tennis rackets are serious shit), Saki is okay with this and storms off, and there's your mandatory drama.

Later on in the episode we learn that Saki is actually moving, providing a possible reason for her sudden disinterest in tennis, END DRAMA?

Nope, now the problem is that Saki never told them that she was moving, Saki then informs Aizawa that she doesn't remember promising to get to the Nationals together, Aizawa responds by running out of the room in tears.

A little later on, thanks to the scheming of Yuka and Rinko, they meet up at "The Big Rock" Now back when these girls were kids they thought this rock had magical powers and would grant their wishes, typical adorable kid stuff, anyway they decide to wish for the same thing that always wished for, to be idols, but nothing happens.

Saki went into complete bitch mode after this and started bashing the idea of a "magical rock" driving Yuka, who believed in it more than anyone, to tears. This led to another Aizawa/Saki cagem- I mean argument.

During this, Rinko looks up at the sky, and says 4 simple words "The sky is blue"

The fighting stops, the crying stops, and all 4 girls look up at the sky together. Their minds and hearts are in sync for a second, and Rinko makes a wish.

"I wish I could fly"

 A blue, pulsating energy comes out of the rock like something out of Pokemon Heroes, taking the girls by surprise.

And the next thing they know...

They are indeed flying, they're taken by surprise for a bit, but once they get their wits about them, they slowly land after a beautiful scene with them looking over the city. And since they're peaceful around each other now...END DRAMA?

Oh goddammit, Saki storms off, this argument is still going on, so I guess this argument will continue, the rock was probably a one time thing, and I'm sure nobody saw them flying right?

...Right?



Overall the episode was nice, the animation was very fluid except for a few lazy spots, the energy from the rock was a nice example of the great animation this show can bring, But like most Slice of life shows, the drama is annoyingly forced and ridiculous, but then again that's the genre in a nutshell. This show could go places, it certainly has the potential to be a hit among Japan, it's got the formula, and depending on where they go character wise, they could make an amazing show, I'm not expecting too much out of a 12 episode show, but with shows like Ano Hana out there, nothing would surprise me anymore.