H2O: Footprints in the Sand
H2O ~FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND~Takuma Hirose is a blind young male high school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. In order to heal his medical condition, he is sent to live in a village with his uncle. There, he meets several girls, three of which stand out more than any of the others. They are Hayami Kohinata, Hinata Kangura, and Otoha. Otoha temporarily heals his blindness and Hirose uses his sight to help others. He finds out that, for some reason, Hayami Kohinata is hated in the village, and he tries his best to help her out. Meanwhile, many sad secrets unfold in the village...
Reviews
harber.mariana - 2013-03-18 22:51:55
Forgive my amateurish review. My thoughts? H2O: Footprints in the Sand is like a less-popular Clannad.Potential Spoilers may follow. Level of spoilers is medium-low.Story - 7:Sometimes hard to understand. I spent a few episodes wondering what they were really doing. Basically, Hirose is a transfer student living with his uncle. He's been blind for…forever, imagine, and needs to depend on everyone to help him. One day, he meets a girl called Kohinata Hayami, who is ostracised and bullied by everyone in the town. He befriends her despite this, but ends up falling over when she is taken away for a thorough beating. Otoha, the spirit of time (what, magic?), grants him sight, and from there, he uses his newfound ability to help people in order to prove that he isn't helpless and use his life for good. Through the series, we meet many characters who help to form an expectation. The backstory of the two female leads is slowly developed in literally 5-second flashbacks every few episodes, and isn't discussed often. Instead, the show focuses on the relationships between the main characters and hints at something greater midway through. The story of this anime came in little bites, but could've been handed to us faster to make more sense. It was like they tried to add more horrible pasts to characters to make it more interesting. Art - 7: Throughout the series, the art style seems to change a little. Not in the way the characters are drawn, but in some of the direction of them. At the start, it was all sharp fringes and everyone looked very similar. In some of the episodes, the characters were standing in late afternoon light, and softer colours and lines appeared. There's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's not so bad. Animation is also smooth. Sound - 7:Giving the series a seven for sound. I didn't really like the opening theme, and always quit the show when it ended. The songs don't really stick in my memory, but they weren't bad, I just wasn't interested. There was one, though, about episode 6-ish where Hinata is having a flashback. That was a good song.Character - 8:In this anime, we have six important characters, but only three of those are the main focus--Kohinata, Hinata and Hirose. These characters are quite well developed, but I found issue in how the protagonist behaves. Hirose was blind his entire life, and feels helpless to fight back. However, when he is given the chance to fight back and stand up for his friends, he squanders it by allowing himself to be dominated by the rest of the girls in the group. "Don't talk to the cockroach, or you will be cockroach Hirose!" (paraphrasing) Hirose struggles to be a stronger person and help, as (I imagine), years of blindness has rendered him dependent on everyone else. In any case, Hirose was a good protagonist for a short series like this.Hayami is a strong character (and my favourite) because she has had to endure endless hardships from every member of the town. She takes everything as it comes and has completely accepted who she is. When the chance for change, appears, we see that Hayami still has the capacity to hope and experience happiness. Unfortunately, when she was happy, she ended up being like all the other girls in her behaviour. As the series progresses, she accepts Hirose's friendship, but still turns out to be a serious girl who is considerate and introverted. Finally, Hinata was well developed throughout the anime. She starts as a model student, but out of school, she is quite controlling. We see how she is led by her family's words, and how she resorts to increasingly desperate measures to stop Hirose from helping the outcast. As hard as she tries, she cannot stop being submissive and her desperation overflows. As much as they all fight it, the main characters of the series have a strong sense of justice and together form strong bonds through friendship. Enjoyment - 8:Nobody can deny the ease of watching a series only 12 episodes in length. It's simple, quick and the episodes just flow into one another. I enjoyed traipsing through each episode, and craved the scenes where Kohinata showed up.Overall - ~7:This anime was okay. I didn't like the fanservice -- honestly that was unnecessary in an anime that feels like it's darker under the surface. Music wasn't catchy, story was stilted, but the animation and characterisation were developed well.