Today, as I breach the halfway mark of this post-a-thon, I find myself in a funny position.

Not like defending H2O is enough of a funny position, as a lot of you detractors would believe. Rather, I find myself with a sudden influx of moments to fit this sixth slot.

I was originally planning on heaping praise on the final episode of H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~, the final derailing of the metaphoric train, the absolutely senseless but incredibly gripping finale of the series. It was the finale that showed the strong will of H2O, which had toiled so hard out of the depths of Fanservice Hell to bring itself up to Mindscrew Limbo – and for me, that’s usually a swift judgment as to whether to let it ascend to the heavens:

But suddenly, while perusing the 12 Days choices of the otakusphere, I found myself blindsided by perhaps two bloggers who made, perhaps, wiser choices than I.

The first, and the one I shall discuss today, was ETERNAL, who I consider a bit of a partner-in-crime, our crime being really, really loving moe-moe stuff and visual novel conversions. And he, like me, at least looks back on H2O with a little bit of fondness, having given the eighth episode of H2O a slot on his Cirno Special countdown.

And when I looked back and weighed episode 8 versus episode 12, I couldn’t help but agree.

12 Moments of Anime 2008
#06: H2O ~footprints in the sand~ 08

You may understand a bit, if I take this post to be a bit of a break in my essay-composing endeavors. After all, I am just reiterating a moment already posted on.

ETERNAL and has already described in good detail what this moment are, and why is was quite excellent at invoking feelings of love and awesomeness. Therefore I shall try to prevent this post from becoming long enough to serve as a self-standing visual novel, but I am CCY, the man who bleeds tl;dr. I will try my best.

I’ve ranted about H2O on one occasion, following Moogy’s lead and comparing it to Clannad and True Tears. I was under the impression it would compare quite favorably to at least the latter, which holds a high status as perhaps the more canonical choice of Good VN conversion.

And while H2O tends to get torn apart for many things – gratuitous amounts of fanservice, nonsensical plot, stupid moe VN conversion factor – I saw it in quite a different light. Math by addition, instead of subtraction, as you may.

Because while I was pretty close to going Level 5 on myself during the first few episodes of H2O, it picked itself up. It decided that it was tired of living a life full of shoving asses in people’s faces, and that it wanted to do something different.

So it did.

Admittedly, like most people who try to pick up their life, not a whole lot of H2O’s old habits changed. It still ran around being a fanservice machine. However, it picked up many new tricks, like how to throw kinks in the plot with the best of dramatic anime.

And by dramatic anime, I mean the solas and the Higurashis. Anime that break all the rules of How To Be A Good Plot-Driven Anime and do it in style. They know they’ll never succeed if they try to be believable (as mentioned in the Kodomo no Jikan post), so they don’t try to.

Instead, they try to be an incredible thrill ride. And that’s what H2O does quite masterfully.

Maybe I’m a bit of a sucker for drama, but I managed to be drawn enough into the H2O universe (although the characters aren’t as ace as other visual novels) to enjoy it. Your mileage may vary.

Episode 8 of H2O was everything that I enjoyed about it. It was unmistakably different from pretty much every episode of harem anime ever; it was self-parodying, legitimately funny, more than a bit ef-esque in its nonsensicality and artsiness near the end.

And above all it was Otoha’s swan song in style.

Similar to Yoriko’s moment in 12 Days 2007, Otoha is my personal halo character for H2O, the one that carries the show. As a sort of Asa Shigure Mach II (alternatively, a Minorin v0.5), Otoha’s eccentric enthusiasm is always a treat to watch.

And although I was sad to see her exit the show, she couldn’t have ended it on a better all-around note. Her final scene was touching, it was sweet, and it ended in a kiss. How can you go wrong with that?

The closing moments of H2O, in its melodramatic, mindscrewing, and pseudo-allegorical nature, may be more questionable, but I think, an episode, and an episode with a conclusion like the eighth of H2O’s, is all-around solid.

Ai Ai Otoha?

-CCY

If you take one line away from this review, it’s this:

They didn’t lie when they said “H2O will rock your soul.” Not in the slightest.

If you take two lines, the second would be to not believe everything you see in H2O – style-wise and certainly character-wise. I know that I was for sure completely turned off the show on the first episode, ambivalent for the next two, and wanted to scratch my eyes out with rusty spoons by the fourth. It was essentially fanservice and pandering central…plus a now-infamous trap.

But, lured with the promise of improvement, of insanity, and yes, of soul-rocking, I soldered on, and my God, did H2O take off like a rocket. It really showed how it is unlike nearly no other visual novel show in recent memory, for few reasons.

The two that I could closest compare to, though, would be Shuffle and sola. The former, simply because of the similarities in how the first half was utter rubbish and the second half was beyond parallel, and the latter due to the style and feel of the show. Both sola and H2O are very impressive visual-novel-types, and while sola didn’t touch on romance or on fanservice quite as much or at all, both shows managed to be great plot-twist tour-de-forces that really leave you thinking.

Unfortunately, if you think too much, you realize the show is shot full of holes, but as a dramatic work, it’s top-notch.

To call H2O the best show of recent memory would probably be a lie. There’s too much of a rough taste in my mouth from a painful start and a mindscrewing final arc to give it such accolades. But it’s easily good enough for me to want to retract my allegations from earlier regarding it’s quality, and give it a solid reccomendation, for being unmistakably different than what we’ve seen in the past from this genre.

(Spoilers after the jump.)

Going to the controversial title first, H20 been claimed by Moogy to top even the perennial frontrunner in visual novel works, Key’s Clannad, in terms of the anime. To make a claim like this is something that gave me much thought, but I’d have to disagree … although I think that True Tears, the other strong challenger to the ren’ai throne, should start looking over their shoulder.

H2O’s first four episodes are something I’ll probably pan it on for the rest of my life. If it’s not the blind-guy groping fanservice, or the disturbing way the town beats down Hayami (or Hotaru vs. her grandfather, so on so forth), or – one word is needed here – Hamaji, it’s just the incredibly typical, been-there-done-that service that H2O dishes out, like it’s not even trying.

Clannad, in comparison, mails it in too with far too many episodes of, as it’s famously known, “Dozo! Have a starfish,” but at least that show had many, many legitimate comedic moments and made me feel less like a dirty person. Not to mention, it’s one hell of a looker, while H2O at times looks like it came from a few years ago.

Clannad’s character designs are something that give it an edge to me too; maybe I’m a sucker for moe, but H2O’s designs aren’t really anything memorable to me. Maybe it’s how the show was set up, but I was never too attached to any of the characters except Otoha. Yui nudged the adorable-meter by bashing down the door of the Nayuki Club, considering she actually had a thing for Hirose in the end, and Hotaru was a sweet character, but none of them quite click like the way shy-but-strong Nagisa, meddling tsundere Kyou, amusingly romantically disconnected Tomoyo, and moe genius Kotomi did.

The storyline and twists in H2O are what could potentially push it into first. Clannad is strong throughout – Fuuko and Kotomi’s arcs are typical cry-fests, Kyou and Tomoyo’s stories are heart-tearing, and Nagisa’s persistant growth throughout the series is admirable. But it doesn’t give that great sense of going beyond – I didn’t find myself incredibly moved by any of the arcs, and although I enjoyed the show a lot I felt it didn’t quite have the impact of its Key predecessors.

On the other hand, I’m a fool for twists and shock events and H2O absolutely delivered in that regard. From the very first shock around episode seven that it didn’t actually suck – along with the Hotaru / Hinata double switch that actually caught me off guard – H2O established itself as a strong plot-driven show like Myself;Yourself or sola, and it kept pushing through, with the induced insanity of episode 8 (Otoha), the multiple reversal revelations of Takuma’s past, and the entirety of the final episode, right up until the very last scene of the show.

Not to mention, the biggest shock of all, that Hamaji functions well as a man and a woman. But I digress…

Now plot-driven shows may not work for everyone. There’s a decided lack of grounding in reality for sure, especially how H2O moves from one trigger (maybe Otoha, maybe the village elder, maybe another random revelation) to the next, but not every show has to be bluntly realistic for it to work. Maybe it’s a bit escapist to say “sometimes it’s good to get away from the real world,” but as a work of fiction, H2O does a good job of spinning a world disconnected from reality – right down to its rural setting – and creating a moving, dramatic story.

But in the end I’m giving Clannad the nod over H2O, by a small but sizable amount, if only because the former has had more time and more ability to flesh out its own world, smoothing out the holes and giving each character their time in the spotlight. Clannad may not be an superlative emotional work like Kanon or AIR but it was a very strong comedy and a very strong dramatic work, and H2O could only really reach one of those bars consistently. Maybe I’m a Key fanboy, but H2O will have to settle for second here – although what has been done with limited time and ugly art, is quite impressive.

Impressive enough that, like I said, I’d have to put it over True Tears at the moment. I’m probably biased in the sense that I haven’t watched True Tears in about a week, compared to my seven-in-seven-days H2O marathon, but True Tears strikes me as a very great show that works only inside the box. In a sense it’s very typical, from the guy plus childhood friend plus mysterious girl (plus the third wheel) setup, to the relationship drama between the characters, to the striptease way which the story is revealed and then covered up.

Don’t get me wrong. True Tears does what it does extraordinarily well. It has animation quality worthy of the market leader Kyoto Animation. It has characters that have contradictions and depth, and are quite adorable (Noe = moe, etc.). But I appreciate H2O at the moment just a bit more for daring to be different, for jumping outside the usual bounds of visual novel / harem shows, something that True Tears at times seems reluctant to do.

Sometimes H2O makes some strange calls with it’s unorthodoxness (Yes, finally, I’m talking about the show.). Watching Hayami get beaten up by the school thugs again and again in the early episodes is something that will leave many viewers queasy and feeling dirty, almost as much as when they shove Takuma’s head up Hotaru’s skirt. It looks to create a setup that is rather typical, a “guy saves the girl” situation where Takuma steps in to save Hayami. Yet, somehow, in the end, the truth couldn’t be further opposite that mark.

Yes, the beatings and oppression of Hayami (and to a lesser extent, Hotaru) are quite the disturbing sight, but it establishes a great sense of conflict in the show that will be explored upon later to greater extent, as everyone finds out how deep the rabbit hole goes between all the families of the village (plus the Hiroses). And to keep hammering the uniqueness point home, what other show would you see that drags characters, sometimes literally, through the mud in order to give them depth and backstory, instead of just giving them the comparative high road?

Sometimes I feel like most visual novel shows are too tranquil, too peaceful and kind (there’s that sense of cynicism again, but ignore that), and H2O shows a different reality than most in actually not being afraid to characterize that sense of being outcasted that many say is pervasive in Japanese society. It’s a little bit of stark realism amidst a strong fantasy world, in seeing the clash of viewpoints between the stubborn elders (and, less so, students) and the revolutionary youth.

Takuma is a great example of that revolutionary as well; he, despite being as wimpy-looking (and sometimes acting) as many other harem-style leads, actually is a quite intriguing and interesting character. While most characters of his type don’t have much backstory other than how they flirted with five different girls at the age of ten, Takuma has a genuine, locked-away past that isn’t what it seems at first glance (similar to Sana’s of Myself;Yourself, but less incredibly obvious), one that troubles him and causes him to lash out and drop his always-pleasant harem-lead demanor at times.

He struggles with the truth but isn’t afraid to force truth upon others, coming to the defense of Hotaru and Hayami much faster than most waffling harem leads do. He’s resolute, he makes decisions, he doesn’t spend forever flirting with everyone, and he can strongly express what he feels. He’s not going to beat out Akio Furukawa in the manliness department, clobber Kyon / Yuuichi / etc. in the wit category, or defeat Renji Asou in the “great insights” battle, but he’s miles ahead of a Kouichi, a Yuuji, a Riku.

And in the end, he does what very few characters dare to do today and go completely insane. Mako-cakes, you have nothing on this kind of broken. Nothing.

The final arc of H2O is something that viewers will probably either love or hate, much like the Otoha episode. Both are incredibly confusing, twist-and-twist-again (bure bure bure bure, etc) roller-coaster rides that may not make much sense, but are quite the adrenaline rush. Just following Hayami is something; from the near-execution, to the move to the city to care for Takuma as his “mom”, to the shocking scene on the train tracks, right to her appearance in the final scene, it’s a tour de force with highs, lows, and a whole lot of shock.

The one thing that catches me about it, is that while a whole lot is explained, a whole lot isn’t. I’m not fully sure of whether Takuma’s vision was ever really there or not. I first wanted to say that all he did merely reverted back when Otoha’s magic wore off, but the show raised a possibility that he was decieving himself all along. This explains why everyone accepted his vision so easily, and explains a few events in the show, but doesn’t explain many others (the biggest of which being his interception of Hayami’s execution).

Or what about the painfully open-ended ending of the show. Simply, Hayami came back. It was a very mixed bag of emotions for me; ever since she got run over 5 minutes before, I was screaming out for some sort of closure. It just seemed so, so wrong for Takuma to go full circle like that twice, seemed too much of a sacrifice for Hayami to do something like that for Takuma’s sake. But I was expecting some sort of ‘life goes on’ ending, similar to sola’s. It seemed too cheap, too easy for Hayami to come back: to bring her to life would nullify her death, and to bring her back as a spirit (another possibility, although I thought Otoha’s talk with ‘arguing with the Spirit Council’ was in regards to herself being born into a human body) doesn’t seem fulfilling enough, seems like too much teasing; “here I am, but you can never have me.”

The other side to the coin, though, is the religious overtones of the show. I’m atheist myself, and so this was the closest thing I unintentionally did to celebrating Easter yesterday, but thinking of H2O in a slightly religious manner puts all sorts of interesting spin on the situation, and gives it surprising depth. The biggest one is of course the monologue that I think Otoha spits out about God being with a man walking along the beach, and carrying him in times of crisis (why sometimes there are two sets, sometimes one set of footprints in the sand), a message that seems to apply to Hayami and Takuma first and foremost, although Otoha could be spun in there as well.

Both Takuma and Hayami did their fair share of carrying the other when times were tough; I think Hayami acted as the God moreso, ironic considering her original title as a cursed being (or demon, or something) from the beginning of the show (which I first thought was literal). It could also be said that Otoha was the God, since she is a spirit, and since she guided Takuma down his path to discovering himself, picking him up when he tried to shut himself in his own delusion.

As Demian puts it bluntly in the title of his post two paragraphs up, Hayami plays a role almost like that of Jesus in H2O as well, if you read the ending right. When I watched Hayami run onto the train tracks, and Takuma’s subsequent revelations, the first thing I thought (well, when I was able to think again) was “Hayami died for your sins, Takuma,” and her reappearance in the final scene could be considered her resurrection of sort.

It could be argued in a way that Hayami presumably coming back to life isn’t cheap at all; in a sense, it’s Otoha’s reward to both her and Takuma for the good things they did in life, for each other and for their village. I’m not 100% sure on this point and whether I’m satisfied with it, but even here it shows how H2O is a show that’s much more inviting of analysis – in some points, anyway – than it first seems.

(Speaking of not what it seems, a point that I haven’t mentioned yet: Hotaru’s pandering to Takuma by jumping all over him … while it seemed to be just that, pandering to make the fans drool, arguably it’s purposeful how over-the-top it is, because of her grandfather’s insistence that she get Takuma to marry her. It’s a tough call how much of her feelings for Takuma really are her own, but it’s clear that she’s at least level-headed enough to admit defeat to Hayami in the end.)

I still hesitate to put it up with the greats. For all its shining points there really are flaws that hold it back, if not the fanservice, if not the slow start, then the way which the show really probably could be taken to bits given enough time and effort. Dramatic tour de force shows like this work extraordinarily well as what they are and can make a impression easily enough, but the real lasting marks are the shows that don’t just live in their own world but also reach out to the viewer; the ones that make people question themselves, question life, make them really think. It’s this kind of induced self-analysis that I really adore. A good work of fiction will make you think about the characters … a great one will make you think about yourself. That’s what I believe.

And H2O, for what it is, mostly lives in it’s own self-enclosed world. There’s a couple points in there, perhaps, whether it be the religious overtones, the way which Hayami is treated, or the way in which Takuma denies himself, but it’s not world-shaking. But I won’t deny that the story itself, true to name, is soul-rocking. H2O is a definite must-watch for those disillusioned with the same old harem / visual-novel adaptations.

-CCY

(A more full review of H2O, instead of a aimless rant / rave, might follow in the next few weeks. The purpose of these “decompression” posts are to evaluate what I think of the show right after it finishes…we’ll see how the opinion changes over time.)

(I really didn’t mean to be posting this much, but such is the perils of being an anime fan in the middle of many powerful endings. Even the Clannad and KimiNozo reviews are getting shafted now…)

I was really looking forward to panning H2O. Seemingly a basic low-level visual novel conversion with fanservice and light-hearted ’storyline’ cliches abounding, it didn’t seem to offer much promise.

It’s been a while since I got to break out my flaming keyboard and H2O looked to be just the whipping boy needed to make more endearing shows of the visual novel / romance genre look even better about themselves. But instead, I found out the show as a whole is kind of like its central heroine, Hayami.

It’s offputting at first, a bit offensive, a thing that looks like something you don’t want to be acquainted with, but of course, there’s more to it than that. There’s a backstory – even one that’s a little tacky – to be told, another side to be seen, and overall, you can kind of see the merit of it.

It’s probably a testament to the fact that I’m horrible at hating things, as H2O isn’t going to be the next legendary show or anything…but it’s shaping up to be an anime worth watching, as it does, for all the things it does exactly the same as the last ten and the next hundred harem shows, there are actually some concepts that aren’t seen a lot around these parts of the woods.

And, come on. Mako-cakes proved a trap could work. Why not go for a second shot at gouging your eyes out?

I’ll say it straight. Episode 4 hurt. Beach episodes usually engage the eyebrow-twitching nerve pretty early with a jiggle-fest with all the bluntness of Link’s fairy Navi shouting “HEY! LISTEN!” every two seconds. H2O’s wasn’t really any exception, but at least near the end it managed to wrap around the badness meter into true hilarity.

Because after one side character tries to off Hirose, the other loses her swimsuit, another participates in the obligatory public bath groping scene whereupon Hinata grows five sizes, Hamaji mysteriously manages to hide his manly parts and stuff his swimsuit, Otoha fans Hirose with her skirt (in perfect-camera-angle fashion), … watching a trap and the main guy lip-lock in some CPR is absolutely hilarious.

It makes you wonder really what the animation team is trying to do with Hamaji. I’m not sure how many people found the CPR scene incredibly sensuous but I’m sure a few who were unspoiled were diving for the brain bleach soon after when Hamaji oh-so-subtly exposed his true self – yes, literally – to Hirose in the public bath.

Yet it’s skimmed over so easily before and after as if it never happened; I can understand why Hirose wants to forget, but are the girls unaware or uncaring? It seems like it’d be an important point … but I suppose Hamaji’s not an important character.

More important, actually, is the fixing of the other point that really stuck me about H2O aside from big-stick fanservice, and that was the more romantic-level pandering. H2O’s third episode wasn’t bad per se but it sent up some red flags about being a bit too catering to lonely viewers with Hinata (among others) jumping all over Hirose without even a moment’s effort. Hayami was a bit worrying to, being the obligatory “everybody hates her … except for you, the noble hero!” girl in visual novel, but we’ll return to her.

Hinata’s demeanor as a whole, like that of most ‘childhood friend’ type characters, is one that I’m not horribly a fan of, perhaps because I subscribe more to the school of working to make the relationship work. It all seems too easy, the equivalent of beating a game with cheat codes on – simple, yeah, but rewarding in the end? Hah. Maybe it’s fun the way you can totally smash through without a second thought or a foot placed wrong, but in the end it’s usually better to play the game the way it’s meant to be played, and in terms of romance that means taking the two-way street.

Luckily, Hinata’s behavior seemed rather suspicious to me, like it was a bit too good to be true, too much of an act, like it was forced. And this turned out to be the right guess, as Hinata’s family (or rather, her token crotchety old man) was pressuring her into jumping high-class Hirose’s bones instead of hanging out with Very Bad Girl Hayami. Because, y’know, Hinata’s not a bad girl … which must be true considering how much she rolls over to her grandfather’s orders to roll over for Hirose.

In the end it still boils down to a somewhat tacky story of “I must love you because my family said so,” still sort of pandering but it’s a much deeper story than what the original looked to be, and combined with the other characters it seems like something that could actually be something not bad.

This is because H2O is a bit less afraid than other anime to take a look at what many claim is the true side of Japanese society, or at least of some social structures, in ostracizing certain people as ‘outsiders’ without a second thought. Many anime, at least the visual novel ones, live in nice bright happy worlds, where everybody is pleasant (or nonexistent, depending on the environment), but H2O gets a little grittier than usual in showing the intense conflict between the essential haves and have-nots.

Granted, it’s not a Kaiji world by any means, and it’s possible that all this depth is just a ruse to make Hayami a more sympathetic character. But again it’s another side that’s not what it first seems at the beginning – it makes sense of out of the seemingly mindless, shock-value violence inflicted on Hayami in the first few episodes, another thing that, while it may disgust viewers, makes H2O distinctive from other visual novel shows in at least a little way.

Hirose is one step above the standard visual novel character as well, in how he has a character gimmick and the semblances of a backbone. His blindness is something that not a lot of characters have, and while it may just be a cheap ploy for fanservice and was removed at the end of the first episode, there’s an overhanging sense of “Otoha giveth, and Otoha taketh away,” but it could be something to see Hirose lose his vision again, and how he will be forced to cope with that development.

Not to mention, he does have the sense to do something when he gets the feeling that something is wrong, as is with the cases of Hinata and Hayami (although, when both are involved, he tends to freeze up). He has a sense of morality that drives him moreso than most harem leads just along for the ride, perhaps as a result of his temporary gift from Otoha. And I like that about him; his apparent background as something of status (why Hinata is chasing him) will make for another interesting aspect once it becomes clear that he’s chasing Hayami, when he begins to feel the brunt of the peer pressure as well.

All the praise for H2O might be just out of my sense of relief that it wasn’t as bad as it first seemed, the old ploy of starting out horribly to make the subsequent mediocre content appear better than it is. But in the end par for the course at this point in the show is promising considering that with any luck the show will continue to go up from here. There are enough plot points in the Hayami – Hinata – Hirose – the world relationships and interactions that if the show avoids dumping all its fanservice and dreck in one episode like with Hamaji’s (and, I worry, with the next one, Yui’s), it could turn out as quite respectable.

Considering what it’s going up again this season, epic might be a bit hard to reach; but nothing wrong ever came out of having a soul merely shook instead of rocked…

-CCY

(It’s kind of empty here for once. How about I mention that the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been sucking up a lot of my time recently? I’m surprised I managed to get this many posts in.)

1/25/08 – Episode 02:
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1/24/08 – Episode 1:
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Click here for more information on Track Two.

-CCY