What Aoi Hana attempts to portray is a thoughtful and serious story about a group of teenage girls as they learn about first love and themselves. The main focuses are the girls Fumi and Akira (affectionately called Aa-chan). Both were close friends when they were very young but in the years they had forgotten about each other since Fumi's family had moved away. The story begins with both girls starting as freshmen at new high schools, Fumi at Matsuoka High and Akira at the nearby and prestigious Fujigaya. The girls are fatefully reunited through a series of chance meetings and the new friends they make at school.
There isn’t anything flashy about this series, much like its lead Fumi, its soft and delicate. The story is much more diverse and real than your standard romance series. While the themes are mostly yuri, it also feels like a slice of life, a comedy, and a heterosexual romance. Aoi Hana is unique in that it is one of the few series I have seen that has dealt with sexuality in a serious manner. Usually yuri romance is set in an unrealistic world where everyone is completely gay without question and in which there are no social consequences. Here the cast struggles to deal with their crushes or unrequited loves for both male and female characters. Things never play out quite the way you might expect them too either. I also felt the story was very mature and classy. There isn’t any exploitive fan service or sexual content added for mere titillation. Though there is intimacy and mature themes everything is handled so tastefully that it really stays true to the themes of the anime.
The only thing that really keeps this series from getting a perfect score from me is the open ending. At this time the manga is still publishing so the only way to have a true ending is to go with an original one. J.C. Staff didn’t do that with this and chose to leave it open. This was probably the right call, even though it is a bit annoying as a viewer. What Aoi Hana really needs is a sequel and hopefully we might get that someday. Though it’s not a bad ending even if this does end up being all that’s made, but it still left me wishing for much more.
As a character, Fumi ultimately proved to be the most interesting and deep. She is a shy, weepy girl who will cry seemingly over everything and nothing. Fumi further stands out as being the only really completely gay character in the show. While many of the characters deal with relationship angst involving both sexes, Fumi is at least confident in her own identity. She is perhaps both the most cowardly yet also the bravest character, having the courage to come out of the closet to her best friend but yet not able to speak her true mind to even her lover. Yet she evolves over the story and while the essence of what makes her such a sweet and likeable character remains to the end, the inner strength she discovers by the end made her so much fun to watch.
Akira is the kind of character that is likeable from the start. She’s the kind of person every girl wants as a friend. In the story she is the anchor that keeps the rest of the cast together. She is in the middle of seemingly every plot line though she doesn’t really have a story of her own. Though she is technically just as much of a main character as Fumi is, I felt that she didn’t get the kind of development she deserved. We get many subtle and perhaps not that subtle hints on her love interests but sadly there is never any payoff.
Yasuko Sugimoto is exactly the kind of girl I hate in anime. She is the tomboyish, athletic, outwardly emotionless, and inexplicably popular character type. I have never understood why this types are so desired by girls in these kinds of shows. Someone like this certainly wouldn’t have been this popular in my high school. But a friend as told me this is not the case in an all girls environment. The simple fact of the matter is that I thoroughly detested her. Though I have to admit that despite me not liking her, she ended up being an interesting character and indispensable to Fumi's growth.
The last of the main cast would be Kyouko Ikumi. She becomes Akira's first friend upon her starting her life at Fujigaya High. While Ikumi is a sympathetic character in a lot of ways given the way she is often treated by Yasuko, she also has a lot of creepy stalker elements. Personality wise she’s a lot like Fumi in that she is very emotional and prone to tears. Though she also appears to be outwardly much stronger emotionally then Fumi, on the inside she really is a bit of a pathetic person.
The supporting cast is also strong. While the cast does seem to get a bit large by the end, the anime does a good job of picking out the most important things to show and leaving the fluff behind. Unusually for a yuri series there are a few male love interests. Though for the most part all of these men are not given much screen time, their impact is felt very strongly and their presence is extremely important to why certain characters are the way they are.
Most will probably look at Aoi Hana's artwork and think it is plain looking. But they would be missing the point I think. The art and animation is perfect for what this anime is trying to accomplish. The colors are soft and reserved and add to the feeling of realism this show has. There aren’t any impossibly short miniskirts or mountainous breasts and all the characters look and feel like regular people which only further adds to the sense of realism.
The music further adds to the atmosphere. Both the OP/EN songs are soft and pleasant and thoroughly enjoyable. The voice acting is stellar. The main cast is voiced almost entirely by new faces who I felt did a great job. There are many familiar veteran seiyuu almost the supporting cast which I thought was an interesting reversal.
For fans of yuri, Aoi Hana is a title that must not be missed. I think it’s a bold and original production in an industry full of the same tired old themes and sequels. Anyone else who is interested in a serious romance and coming of age story should definitely give this a try.
