dfeil - 2015-08-14 11:08:05

9/10

Would cry again.

heaney.laura - 2015-01-04 12:32:55

angel75 - 2014-12-06 02:01:15

Friends are what many consider to be one of the most important parts of life. They are there to have fun with you when you’re in a good mood and there to build you up again when you’re feeling down, but what if you don’t know anything about your friends anymore? What will cheer you up? What will get you to have fun? Ladies and Gentlemen! Today’s topic deals with exactly this scenario! Today’s topic shall be Isshuukan Friends!

Story:Isshuukan Friends follows Hase Yuuki, a rather average middle school student, that really doesn’t have anything special about himself. After seeing one girl in his class, Fujimiya Kaori, being constantly alone, he makes the decision to try to be friends with her. He follows her around and tries to approach her several times, but keeps getting rejected until one time she explains to him, that her memories of all friends she made vanish after only one week. From there on Hase tries every week again and again to be friends with Fujimiya Kaori.

The main concept behind Isshuukan Friends certainly is something worth getting hyped for! It may not be the most original of settings and certainly is something that has been done in a very similar way, but it had the potential to be something really moving and the first episodes definitely reached that goal! From the Soundtrack to the introduction of the characters, to the way the setting itself got introduced, everything felt really well crafted and honestly got me really emotional during the last few minutes of both episodes and while a lot of things were still left undeveloped and unexplained, they did have enough time to get that right within the following episodes. Something they unfortunately did not do. From a certain point on, the story started getting really repetitive. The episodes were built exactly the same way again and again, leading to them becoming predictable and in the end even straight up boring and sometimes even annoying. The show didn’t even seem to try to build upon the already existing potential it had, but instead seemed to be thinking the setting itself was enough to keep it’s viewers engaged. It comes to a point where every bit of Drama that is created feels incredibly forced and artificial, making it really hard to care for anything that is currently happening! That said however, I do not hate the show for that. It had enough moments that I thought to be incredibly cute and what kept me hoping the show would move on to a point where the Drama would actually work in it’s favor, but it was not enough to get me to forget how bored I was during some parts of the episodes.  The show does break away from this repetitive episodic concept later on in the series, but at a point, where it is already too late to just forget that boredom existed and where it moves towards really is not the best they could have chosen either. The Drama is still just as badly executed for the most part and while the repetitive structure of the middle part is gone, so are most of the incredibly cute scenes that I thought made the show worth continuing to watch. There are of course still points, where the show is enjoyable and the Drama is actually somewhat well done, mostly because they don’t have one thing it did before almost every time….both main characters on the screen….

Characters:It’s two main characters were probably the worst part about Isshuukan Friends. While at first, like the rest of the show, looking like something that had the potential to be outstanding, it quickly crystallized that they were way too static to really go anywhere.
We have our main character Hase. A middle school student that really is nothing out of the ordinary. He is your typical slice of life protagonist at the beginning, slowly working towards a goal (being friends with his classmate Fujimiya Kaori) and that’s completely fine for the first few episodes, as the potential for more character depth and development to be added is there for the rest of the show, but as soon as we get to know a little more of the character, the show seems to stop caring about the character in itself. He gets no more attention, meaning no more additional depth or development. His character is completely static for the whole latter half of the series, which is made even worse by the fact that what he seems to be stuck at is incredibly frustrating to watch. He gets jealous really easily, making him the center of almost every bit of Drama. Something I really wouldn’t mind, if the show didn’t use it every 5 minutes to create new Drama, that only feels just as forced as the previous one. This jealousy he shows also makes him the most annoying and unlikeable character of the series. It is really hard to care for him, which makes it even harder to care for the Drama that keeps getting built up around him, suddenly making the show a lot less enjoyable.
Our other main character Fujimiya Kaori isn’t even close as frustrating to watch as Hase, but still has her own fair deal of flaws. For a character that gets her memories reset every week it is actually quite surprising how much the character of Fujimiya develops. However the development and depth are this time not the problem I have with the character, but the way she is used. Just as her counterpart Hase, she often enough gets used solely for the purpose of creating Drama, which is something main characters really shouldn’t be used for. Still, she is a likeable enough character in itself and can be really cute from time to time, but the show fails again and again to really use that in the right way and except for the rather lighthearted episodes, this is one of the many factors that made the show rather disappointing to me.

Of course not everything about the characters was terrible, in fact I completely fell in love with the side characters. Both Kiryuu and Saki, who both get a lot more important as the show progresses. Kiryuu is the seemingly coldhearted but actually really helpful best friend and is easily the best written character of the show! He’s a lot of fun to watch whenever he is on screen and he made the show a whole lot entertaining just by purely being there and not even having that big of a role. The other side character is Saki. She gets introduced later on in the series and probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen….(well maybe not ever but I swear to god she comes close!). She is the cute airhead character that, ironically, keeps forgetting everything. Her interactions with mostly Kiryuu and Fujimiya made for some of the most entertaining scenes in the Anime, mostly because of how cute she is.

Art:The Art style for Isshuukan Friends is rather simple. The backgrounds aren’t to detailed, but they really don’t need to be for this kind of show. The character designs are cute and  a perfect fit for Isshuukan Friends. They transmit the emotions they are supposed to transmit perfectly fine. They really aren’t very detailed, but as with the backgrounds they really don’t need to be. The Animation itself is decent,  but much like the rest of the Art is nothing special. It gets it’s job done while not looking jarring and not a lot more than that.

Sound:
The Soundtrack for Isshuukan Friends was composed by debutant Irone Toda. Even though not having worked on any other Anime before, he did a pretty good job for this particular OST. It’s very calm and nothing too special, but complements the scenes it’s used in very well. Especially the rather dramatic bits of the OST, mostly used in the second half of the series, stood out to me as particularly memorable. It is a type of Soundtrack that you can even listen to when outside of the anime. It is nice and calming and works really well as a background for working on something. Back to the original topic though. The Opening for Isshuukan Friends was ok. It was a rather typical one, but nothing that really stood out. While the Visuals did look quite nice, I didn’t particularly enjoy the song. The ending however, serves for a great closure after every episode. It’s a really nice song and while the animation is nothing special, the song makes more than up that. It fits the atmosphere of the show really well and makes for a great end to every episode.

In total Isshuukan Friends was a disappointment, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it was a terrible show! While there certainly were a lot of parts that felt incredibly forced, I don’t think the show was unbelievably bad, but just could’ve done a lot more with what it had as it’s original concept and that unfortunately also shows in the enjoyment. While I did certainly enjoy the more relaxing and cute parts of it, it was the really dramatic parts that I sometimes even found to be cringe worthy I did unfortunately enjoy the show a lot less due to the rather high expectations I had. It was extremely frustrating for me to see a show I wanted to succeed so badly, just ended up failing at exactly that I thought was gonna be it’s strongest side, regardless of how relaxing and cute some other parts were.

In the end I would recommend Isshuukan Friends to people who are really interested in it or are looking for something cute just to relax after a hard day but I would not recommend it on it’s own! The forced drama is just overwhelming and doesn’t feel natural at all, with even the characters sometimes acting out of character just to create more of it! Of course it’s not all bad and there certainly was quite a good chunk of it I did really enjoy but it was not enough to make me recommend it to more people than just a few.

dejah07 - 2014-08-10 12:34:36

Isshuukan Friends is a simple slice of life anime that will leave a smile on your face whenever you watch it. Here’s a short and spoiler-free review of this anime. 

STORY – 3/5

The story of Isshuukan Friends is quite simple. The girl forgets her friends and happy memories every week. Despite that, a boy befriends her and tries to help her address the problem.

The story may not be that special nor something new, but they certainly took the concept of “memory loss” to a different level. The pacing was just right for me, so much so that I can only recall a few if not zero, boring scenes throughout the series.

Every episode ends with either a plot twist or a heart warming scene which will make you look forward to watch the next one. Also, I like how they were able to pull off deep feels without taking it to the extreme.

CHARACTERS – 3.5/5

The characters are well uhm, characters? Kidding. I don’t know what to say. It’s just that they are your typical set of characters with different personalities. We didn’t really get to know them very well except of course for the memory loss girl Kaori Fujimiya, as the show revolves around her. 

The interaction between the characters, on the other hand is something worth noting. Their friendship stood out among anything else. Maybe the reason why we didn’t get any back story and information about each of them is because they focused to much developing their relationships to each other.

ANIMATION – 3/5

The anime is so bright and colorful! I love how they animated the landscape, sunsets, and just the different places on the show. It’s like watching a gorgeous painting alive.

The characters are well animated as well, at least for their bodies and movement. Some people may have a hard time getting used to their face because one, they look weird and they only have 2 or 3 facial expressions. Also they’re always blushing like 100% of the time, which sort of distracts me during moments of emotional turmoils. Lastly, avoid looking at their mouth for it will remind you of those old American cartoons (You’ll get what I mean when you watch the show).

SOUND – 4.5/5

Isshuukan Friends is one of those shows where I felt that there is actually a background music somewhere there. The piano and violin combination as background music gave me eargasm all the time! I also think that maybe one of the reasons why I didn’t get bored at all is because of the sound track which made every scene more special.

Just so you know, I download opening and ending songs for anime when they are either really really good or the anime got a place in my heart that I need to get a copy of its sound tracks as token. And yes, I downloaded Ishhuukan Friends’ opening song since it’s really good and relaxing to listen to.

The voice actors were not that bad but not that good either. However, I didn’t really notice them that much because the good visuals and sound track took my attention already.

ENJOYMENT – 4/5

If you actually read and understood everything that I wrote above, then you can probably tell by now that I, without a doubt enjoyed this series. This was one of the spring 2014 anime that I was looking forward to every week. The ending was satisfying and I missed it so much, days after finishing the whole series.

Overall Score – 3.5/5Check out some anime screencaps for an overview of this series.

marlen.jaskolski - 2014-07-30 14:44:21

In Depth Anime Review: Isshuukan Friends (Plot Spoiler Free!)

First A Little Context...

For me, the Spring 2014 season had very few slice of life anime worth watching. I found myself in the midst of many action and supernatural as well as three mecha anime. After the wreck that was Golden Time last season and the not bad, but not amazing Nagi no Asukara, I was really looking for something to reel me back into the genre. Nothing really caught my eye at first. I remember reading over the description of Isshuukan Friends and thinking... "OH GREAT MORE STUPID AMNESIA" but luckily a friend who was familiar with it told me to give it a shot. Read on if you're interested in why I'm glad I did.

Story 85/100

Isshuukan Friends, like most other slice of life anime, is almost solely about the characters. There is no really plot line other than the everyday life specific to these characters. That's not to say it's bad in any way. It is the proper course that all slice of life should end up taking. Life is a hassle. There are just as many challenges in life as there are in say a war or the defensive of earth. These maybe completely different in what's at stake, getting along with someone vs. millions of lives, but these challenges can be on equal ground depending on how they are presented. The magnitude of the challenges that these characters face determines the quality and can range from underwhelming to forced and over dramatic. Isshukan Friends presented the challenges of these particular lives in a way that felt very realistic. Characters that were affected by their flaws, their problems, their traumas, their challenges, yet they did not let those things consume them allowing for real progression and a nice pacing, never really feeling rushed or too slow. 

Even the smallest things in this anime felt like a great triumph given the situation and the set backs... well they really hurt, almost to the point of hopelessness. Isshukan Friends's story was one that you could really get invested in. Even though at heart it is just another slice of life with a modifier that makes it unique (the forgetting of friends every week), even though many can say there are a lot of things that seem familiar about this anime, not much feels cliched or tacked on. Isshukan Friends presents a cohesive and progressive character driven story line.

Characters 85/100

As I previously mentioned, Isshuukan Friends had characters that were affected by their flaws, their problems, their traumas, their challenges, yet they did not let those things consume them allowing for real progression and a nice pacing. Having active characters will allow for an active story. Hase Yuuki, our male protagonist is an active character. Although he can become very nervous, he also takes more initiative than many characters in slice of life anime. His resolve and pure hearted intentions for a real friendship with our main female, Fujimiya Kaori, allows for a consistent and dedicated progression of not only the plot, but their characters and friendship, as well. His pure hearted intentions are also the cause of a few apprehensions that I won't get into to avoid spoilers, but this is the mark of a good character. Not only does Hase-Kun's character create progression, it also creates tension and complexity as not everything in life is so straight forward, especially something so sensitive as Fujimiya's condition. 

Fujimiya is just as well written, and even though she is your typical shy and feminine slice of life female, at the same time she's not. She has her own desires, dreams, wishes, goals, and her condition has injected enough self sufficiency and maturity into her character for me to absolutely love the multiple dimensions... I feel hard pressed to not say much about Fujimiya because she is truly the focus of the anime's plot, but as you watch I would suggest to pay close attention to how she deals with things and how she must feel, how difficult life must be for her with her condition.

The two supporting characters Shougo Kiryuu and Yamagishi Saki round out the group of four very nicely. They create a dynamic which enhances the plot at draws out some thought provoking moments in our two mains. They each support the mains in their own unique ways, but both allow the mains to really think about situations outside of their own trains of thought. Shougo being the type to put things bluntly allowed for the harder questions to be asked. Many would see him as a cold character, but his intentions were always just to kick the characters in the right direction. Although his character is depicted as somewhat wise and calculating, even he doesn't have the answer to everything and he gets some side development that is very well done, albeit pretty much left open.

Yamagishi contributes in a bit of a clueless way, asking questions that no one would think of, yet when she does get a handle on something, she can be quite mischievous, suggesting and pushing in a direction that she believes would help. Most times she can't even really help herself and is mostly looked at as a pretty moe character.

Shougo and Yamagishi are both pretty well done for their roles, I believe. Shougo supports Hase mostly, and Yamagishi supports Fujimiya, but as they become a close group of friends, the interactions never felt limited and the characters meshed well all around. I would've liked for the supporting characters to be a little more developed but I think we can over look that... people generally want more of a good thing anyways...

Art 95/100

The art is absolutely spectacular. I can't get over the style. It's like nothing I've ever seen before and is probably one of the first things that really hooked me on episode one. It has such a soft and heart warming feel to it which is a welcome change from the super high contrast and high detail that I've been seeing in a lot of action anime. I feel it's particularly amazing because of how fitting it is of its story and genre. The soft delicate feeling of their friendships and the characters' lives is really translated through the art. Meanwhile the style still leaves it open to the spectacular as we can see in the images above. It's almost as if the style shifts to mark the moment as truly extraordinary and enhances the moment even more. Those three images are from the summer vacation arc and that episode was probably by far my favorite... but anyways, the art although not the BEST I'VE SEEN EVER!!! is very fitting and unique... I hope the art piques your interest.

Sound 75/100

Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed with the sound. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it and as for most anime nowadays, the quality was great, it's just for any anime to get higher than an 7 in sound for me, there has to be something iconic about it. Something that sticks in my head as an "OH THAT'S FROM THAT ANIME" moment. This could be anything from specific tones and jingles, like the Haikyuu or TTGL commercial break card, to unique mecha transformation sounds such as those of Captain Earth, but for slice of life, what makes or breaks in sound is almost always the OST. After hearing masterpieces such as the Toradora! and AnoHana and Tonari no Kaibutsu- Kun OSTs I'm always listening for those tracks that just shoot the feeling of a scene through the roof. For me, Isshuukan Friends was lacking in that department, but at the same time I'm glad they didn't go for some overly moe and incredibly sweet soundtrack. There were some nice tracks here and there but many important scenes were left completely silent. The focus on the dialogue in some scenes did create a more intense and serious feel, sometimes more melancholic as I recall a certain scene from the last episode. Overall I feel that Isshuukan Friends played it mostly right, but I also feel like at certain points they could've been played better. I won't remember most things about the sound, but you could at least tell it was polished to create the effect in the scene that they wanted. I will remember the OST for the very last scene though... (it was a really satisfying ending)

Overall 85/100

Quite simply, I was not expecting to enjoy this anime as much as I did. It has shot pretty high up on my list of recommendations for heartwarming slice of life anime. The anime had a Goldilocks feeling in so many aspects that made it feel truly near perfect; It was simply just right and never tried to be anything too much at any point. It was a great self contained 12 episodes, and although I could ask for more here and more there, I feel very very satisfied with how it turned out.

hhuels - 2014-06-24 05:09:26

I do not give out 10/10s often. In fact, I've only done so twice before (anime-wise). A 10/10 doesn't signify perfection, but rather that a work is so well executed and so enjoyable that it can stand on its own completely. There may be a few things I could nitpick here and there, but they would mostly be personal preferences and little details that don't matter when compared against the whole.

I kinda suspected from the start this would be a great show as soon as I heard about it. Make all the Fifty First Dates jokes you want but this is a charming premise I've always wanted to see done right. 

The story is simple. It's a tale of a growing friendship hampered by a unique problem. A lot of it is slice of life with a good deal of drama, which can turn off some people who may find it too "slow" or "boring". Not me though, I'm a sucker for great, more grounded dramas.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the show is that it never tries to do anything beyond its means. It knows it's a 1-cour anime and doesn't try to set-up plot points it'll never reach or try and shove as many characters as possible into it.

Isshuukan Friends takes the high road and decides to focus on just 4 key characters. As a result, they are all well fleshed-out and likable for different reasons. Keeping the cast so small allows for maximum exposure and they all feel integral to the story and their actions have far more impact.

And it is just so damn innocent and pure, for lack of better description. There's almost no sexualization here. And what makes it better is that there are even scenes where they could've very easily done so, but chose not to. It gives the whole show a feeling of maturity that other shows lack.

Not that sexualization is a bad thing by itself, but it is so refreshing to see a show that just flat-out refuses to do it and doesn't make a big deal out of that. 

The slice of life parts work because you like these characters and their interactions that help build their characters in little ways. The drama works because you begin to care about these characters and you want things to work out for them. The two aspects of the series blend together to create a solid viewing experience.

The ending was a little underwhelming to me. It wasn't as blatantly open-ended as a lot of other shows are, but it wasn't the airtight package wrapped up in a pretty bow that I wanted either. It was still good, but they missed a chance to make it great. Doesn't detract from the overall experience though.

The animation was done by Brains Base, a studio I've been loving more and more these days. It has a unique style that is just so damn charming to look at. It's surprisingly fluid when it needs to be and manages to express more emotion in just the eyes alone than most shows can express in entire body motions. 

It has almost a soft water-color look to it that totally meshes with the show's atmosphere. While the detail can suffer a bit in distance shots, the show looks great when it needs to and it isn't a big distraction here.

The music is great if not totally memorable. It hits all the right notes and can be both uplifting and depressing when the situation calls for it. I wish the show had a more memorable score but you'll certainly appreciate it in the moment. Great performances from some relatively new seiyuu as well.

This stands in my mind as one of the better anime in recent memory. I know I'll be coming back to it again someday. To anyone who can appreciate anime dramas, I would point you to this show. It's a beautiful example of blossoming friendship that understands the subtleties of human relations. The drama never feels overblown or forced, it all feels like natural reactions people might have.

And while the ending might not be totally airtight, it does have a sense of completeness to it. You can feel how these people have progressed, some in big ways, some in smaller ways. But you know they've changed over the course of the show, and you know they're better off for it.

Rewatch Value: Yes (Based on a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

walter.annetta - 2014-06-22 18:57:04

Summary: Kaori Fujimiya is always alone because all of her happy memories, including time spent with her friends, disappear every Monday. Deciding that he wants to be friends with her anyway, Yuuki Hase tries to get close to Kaori each week, wishing that she would one day call him "a friend."

Story: The story of Issuukan Friends is good. The basic idea of the show is like the film 50 first dates. I think overall though this anime is more character driven if anything. Since the story is there but really I was watching this anime because the characters were interesting and fun to watch. 

Animation: The animation is good for this type of series. I liked how the animators went a different route when animating the series. Nothing looks overly moe or bland which is something that has been occurring a lot in many slice of life/ romance shows.  The environment is also well animated and is great to look at. 

Sound: Firstly, I think the intro for this anime is very good and really sets the tone of the series very well. I also liked how the Japanese voices really fit the characters. The voice actors did a great job with this anime. 

Characters: The main characters Kaori and Hase are the ones that get the most attention. So, they are the ones I am going to discuss. Both characters get a lot of good character development throughout the show and by the end you really feel for these characters. There are also a few interesting side characters like Hase's best friend but they aren't focused on  that much throughout the series. 

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed this series. I would say its is a very good romance anime that takes the concept of memory loss to a different level when compared to other shows. 

twest - 2014-04-15 01:51:20

If friendship is too normal, why not a friend that forgets all about you in one week?

Isshuukan Friends held great expectations for me, after watching the trailers for this anime.

Though appearing quite simple, with pastel-like graphics, this tear-jerking anime has so much to offer. The suspense given through the story line makes you really wonder - "Will she forget? Will she remember?"

Having only 3 characters for now, Isshuukan Friends slowly showed how interesting this characters are and how their characteristics actually are the driving force of the anime.

For now, I hope the rest of the episodes maintain the momentum of the first 2 episodes.