klein.jovany - 2017-01-30 17:29:43

I think this anime is fairly underrated and has gone largely unnoticed by the anime community. Of course, it’s quite hard to sell an anime about making a dictionary - most people would probably be turned off by the concept and assume it would be something terribly boring. But it really isn’t. I thought this was a very thoughtful, thought-provoking, unique and enjoyable show.

The story is coherent and flows nicely. The pace never feels rushed or too tedious - however, my one negative comment about the story itself is the time skip. I understand why it was there. But it feels a bit like we miss a lot of development of the characters and their lives, which is, at base, what the anime focuses on. Other than that, it’s heartwarming and emotional in all the right ways, with little/no melodrama.

For me, though, I think the characters carried the story. It’s not an exciting, pacy story - instead the character drama is key, so really that works very nicely for this show. We have serious (‘majime’) Majime Mitsuya, and his foil, Nishioka Masashi. The two have a sort of ‘buddy cop’ relationship within the department, but without feeling too forced. Nishioka is always trying to encourage and help the awkward and shy Majime, and it’s just beautiful to watch them. Other than these two, there are several side characters which all bring fun, tears or pure joy to the story and main characters. Nobody feels unnecessary.

I loved the soundtrack to this show. It’s gentle and breezy but keeps the atmosphere of the anime intact for the viewer. Not much else to say here.

The art is fairly standard, but very well done. I love the character designs, their movement never looks awkward and I like the fairly muted colour palette because it highlights the character drama nature of the show, and doesn’t try to make it too cheerful or cutesy.

Overall, Fune wo Amu is a must-try for anyone who likes mature character drama with great characters, a unique setting, great production and lots of emotional moments.

hettinger.jerome - 2016-12-24 19:02:19

I went in expecting nothing much. I went out by finishing a great Anime.

Story 7.5/10
The story was great and quite unique. It always punched hard right in the feels when it should have. The only thing holding this story back is the timeskip. For me I would have liked more episodes before the timeskip. I would have liked to see our main character deal with romantic problems or something like that. If there had to be a timeskip I would have preffered a lot of little ones rather than one big one.

Animation 7.5/10
Another great part of the show. While an Anime like this doesnt really need great animation the show stays consistently good in that aspect. What helps spice up the show are the visual representations of situations or the dreams that our main character has. Overall the animation was quite solid.

Sound 7/10
One of the weeker parts of the show. Its still good, dont get me wrong, however there was no piece of music that I would listen to on its own. The soundtrack just went really well with the show. Both the opening and the ending of the show were good.

Overall this is a good show. While I do think it needed to be somewhere around 20 episodes long to completely flesh out the characters and the story, the show still manages to do a lot in the short time it has.