The Blue-Green Years Review Page

The Blue-Green Years
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Romantic Comedy
?
Techno Girls
9.9


Reviews:
David Seid 9.9


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The Blue-Green Years Review

When I first saw the description of this title on the Techno-Girls webpage, I knew I was going to like it, I just didn't know how much!

The Blue-Green Years (aka Mizuiro Jidai) is a cross between Marmalade Boy and The Wonder Years. The story revolves around Yuko who lives next door to her friend since early childhood Hiroshi (the other main character). The main plot is about Yuko's trials and tribulations during her "Blue-Green" years in junior high school. These problems revolve around everyday things like acceptance, love, friendship, parents ..... (you get the picture).

Since this is a romantic comedy, love is featured a little more heavily than the other elements, as Yuko swings between love, hate and not knowing the difference between the two. I don't want to give the impression that this series is focused on romance, because actually it is more of a very intelligent comedy. As Yuko goes through her various teen age problems (those were the days ...), the viewers are treated to more than a few laughs along the way.

There is also a fair amount of drama in order to advance the superb story. I really have to say that this show feels just like watching The Wonder Years-- animated (for those of you who missed the TV series, this is a GOOD thing). For people who have watched The Wonder Years, you already know how that show mixed in comedy and dramatic elements to perfection.

Evaluation:

First off, the production by the Techno-Girls is excellent. The source material for this series was obtained from a Japanese shop which had tapes copied off of Japanese broadcast TV. Knowing this, you would expect production values to be low --- you would also be wrong! The Techno-Girls have kept the commercials included on the tape, so they could reduce one copy generation and preserve video and sound quality (thank you!). Also worth mentioning are the brilliant subtitles on the tape. The subtitles are large (no eye strain here) and the fonts are very legible --FIRST RATE! Quite frankly, all of the T-Gs productions are great (if you really want to see what they are capable of, try Romeo's Blue Skies, a T-Gs production off of LD --great show, great production).

Oh yeah, the show itself is great too. The character designs are very good, as is the voice acting. The teens in this show sound realistic, as a contrast to just about every other Japanese animation TV series (with the notable exception of Escaflowne).

The animation in The Blue Green Years is nothing to write home about, but who cares, this a romantic comedy. Animation should not be a major concern here in my opinion.

Storyline is the most important factor in romantic comedies/comming of age stories, and don't worry -- IT'S GREAT! Quite frankly, I don't know of many storylines that are superior to this one (of course, this is based on the only episodes available at the time of this review -- 4 (sob sob) but 4 more are scheduled for release 9/97 (this month!)).

Finally. to complete the package is a very good musical score that grew on me with every episode. All in all, this one is a can't miss for all anime fans, and you MUST REQUEST it!

Review By: David Seid

Art/Animation:Storyline:Character Design:Music:
8.0
10.0
9.8
9