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!
