When I read the description of Ao Haru Ride a couple weeks ago, I was ecstatic. I was looking forward to another great shoujo romance anime. Possibly something that even rivaled Kimi ni Todoke.
Boy was I disappointed.
Then again, it was pretty foolish to set my standards as high as expecting a Kimi ni Todoke.
Ao Haru Ride seems to be just another generic school romance.
Already in the first episode there seemed to be a trend of unnatural changes in dialogue. For example, the scene in the very beginning where Futuba and Tanaka/Mabuchi take shelter from the rain. Futuba hints to something about a festival and Tanaka walks over to give her his gym shirt for drying off…
I understand it’s a shoujo, but reason should still apply. Nearly everything the characters said was unnatural and/or just plain cliche.
The characters were all cloth cut from your generic shoujo archetypes. Futuba even has two best “friends”. I use the word “friends” lightly because what kind of friends would say something like this:
(Well, I guess not all friends of the main character can be as lovable as Yano and Chizuru.)
Not even the love interest has any discernible features.
Even with his image and personality change, he still managed to be a shoujo trope. (He just went from the quiet, sweet boy to the rude, misunderstood type.)
Ao Haru Ride just couldn’t keep me interested at all. Nearly all the sweet moments were scenes you could find in any other shoujo. The only scene in this that I enjoyed was the very beginning where the two main characters were being shy and awkward around each other.There wasn’t anything that separated it from its genre. The characters aren’t memorable, neither is the art or story.
Still, I have a two-episode anime rule so I will be looking at episode 2 next time. Though I’m not expecting much.
Amp's Anime Reviews 