Type: Television Show
Episodes: 13 (Containing Suspected OVA)
Rating: Teen (Male), Any Age (Female)
Runtime Per Episode: 24 min
Director: Kobayashi Tsuneo
Produced By Bandai and others
Year Produced: 2004
... Otherwise known as Midori Days, Midori no Hibi was inspired by the manga of the same name by the mangaka (God, woot); Inoue Kazurou, who is also the author of some of my personal favorites (in case you couldn't tell) like Aoi Destruction and Ai Kora, and a couple others that look interesting, but I am too lazy to translate for myself.
Either way, this anime is the first that I am doing that was (more of less) directly translated from the manga.
And... it held up really well!
I don't know if Inoue Kazurou consulted on this or not (since it didn't credit him or anything), but it was still really funny (to me, there were apparently a lot of complaints about Aoi Destruction, but then again, it might be either an acquired sense of humor... or just inspired lunacy).
I'm not sure how to tell this without spoiling it, but the story's essentially a slice-of-life comedy about a delinquent (with a good heart, obviously) who's reputation has built itself around his "Devil's Right Hand". The man's name is... Sawamura Seiji.
Surprisingly accurate depiction of a beginner...
... 20?
As you can tell, Seiji has been having some "Lady Problems"... he can't get one (that's about the worst Lady Problem). Girls are afraid of him because... well... he might pull a shiv and shank them. Either way, it is his fate, no, his curse never to have a girlfriend... ever.
Teens
Twenties
Thirties
Retirement Home
Little does he know that there is a girl out there who understands his poor, tortured soul... well, not for long.
How rude.
Yes, you've seen it now, the secret behind the whole story. He finally got himself a girlfriend! And she's always close at hand, literally!
I hope you'll excuse the poor joke/pun/whatever, but it's true, a dream come true! He should be happy, right? Well... maybe not, but still, what a turn of events! Just thinking about it, you shouldn't have been able to see this one coming!
Now Seiji has to get used to having a girl (Kasugano Midori) who's totally into him... as his right hand.
What'll happen to his delinquent life?! Well, it'll have to keep going because he's built up such a reputation that everyone wants a piece of him now! An unfortunate situation, you might say.
The slice-of-life comes from the fact that the anime is mostly about their daily life together, but with the underlying main story of trying to get Midori back into her original body (which is sitting in bed all this time with a mysterious illness), and trying to get Seiji better understood by his classmates, with some classic Inoue twists, turns, fan service, and plenty of...
Full...
Frontal...
Nudity.
... I am so getting banned.
... Um... Yeah, okay, could you... stop staring and let's... get back to the re... view...
... Okay!
Since I read the manga before the anime (as I am want to do, whatever this means, since the literal translation does not make any sense), I had a hard time figuring out how to write about the character development. It was... good?
The characters remained true to the manga, I can say that much without a doubt. Each character was allowed enough flash-back time to make their point, and the relationship between Seiji and Midori was integrated into their characters over the course of the show.
The art style was awesome, as a huge fan of Inoue Kazurou, I also came to appreciate his classics.
And my friend's personal favorite...
Okay, granted. The second one isn't exactly and original, but it's still a classic and funny as hell.
The animation was smooth and flowed well, there were even a couple of fight sequences that were pretty good.
More importantly, there were also some sequences that weren't technically action, but rather random mayhem, which I can't display here because I don't have the skill. Basically, most of them are in the first episode during house-call by the gangsta' girls (is this in correct form?).
There's also an epic car-punching sequence in there.
The Japanese version of this anime was really good, and the English one wasn't so hot, as usual. Actually, you should probably just stick to listening to the Japanese acting exclusively unless I tell you that the English version is worth a try, which isn't very often.
The music wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite to my tastes. I'm more into rock music than what appears to be the norm for anime intro and outro music.
To put it as simply as I can, watch this anime, and then read the manga... or the other way around. Inoue Kazurou is awesome at what he does, plain and simple, and even if it is a take-off of Love Hina, Ai Kora is the best manga I've read in a while. Too bad nobody's WORKING ON IT!
I'm pretty sure that I still like the manga better, but the best thing about this anime is that it didn't hurt my view of the manga at all, and it actually brought up some stuff that I never thought about before I watched the anime, cool, yeah?
Oh, and this is one of the main reasons that still I like the manga better...
Something gets lost in translation, I'm afraid.
If you've agreed with anything that I've written here, then you should check it out... even if you're an adult who doesn't give a crap about anime and manga and shit for teenagers like that, you should still read it.
Just do it!
Midori no Hibi Minitheatre
Coming up next!
Mugen no Juuin!
The animation was smooth and flowed well, there were even a couple of fight sequences that were pretty good.
There's also an epic car-punching sequence in there.
The Japanese version of this anime was really good, and the English one wasn't so hot, as usual. Actually, you should probably just stick to listening to the Japanese acting exclusively unless I tell you that the English version is worth a try, which isn't very often.
The music wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite to my tastes. I'm more into rock music than what appears to be the norm for anime intro and outro music.
To put it as simply as I can, watch this anime, and then read the manga... or the other way around. Inoue Kazurou is awesome at what he does, plain and simple, and even if it is a take-off of Love Hina, Ai Kora is the best manga I've read in a while. Too bad nobody's WORKING ON IT!
I'm pretty sure that I still like the manga better, but the best thing about this anime is that it didn't hurt my view of the manga at all, and it actually brought up some stuff that I never thought about before I watched the anime, cool, yeah?
Oh, and this is one of the main reasons that still I like the manga better...
'Nuff said, x2.
Something gets lost in translation, I'm afraid.
If you've agreed with anything that I've written here, then you should check it out... even if you're an adult who doesn't give a crap about anime and manga and shit for teenagers like that, you should still read it.
Just do it!
Midori no Hibi Minitheatre
Coming up next!
Mugen no Juuin!
