(CR) H2O ~footprints In The Sand~

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Utau

I have nothing against how H2O was animated, it's just some episodes were, rather, pointless and is just silly like that episode where Takuma needs to restore the world to it's original state. It just seem so out of place to be done all of a sudden, i'm starting to enjoy the episodes so far when suddenly.. that happened. I was speechless at that episodes even though it's humorous.

Well, I like to think of this show as sort of being a bit "ADD" and I want to say almost schizophrenic at times (no offense intended to anyone who suffers from those conditions). It's constantly bouncing around from one extreme idea to the next, as if the director and writers get bored quickly, and it has all these different elements that come together in at times bizarre ways and you're sort of just supposed to accept it -- like, "well, this is H2O after all". I enjoyed it for that, but it's definitely a bit of a strange show. Some people have a hard time accepting it, though, and I can't blame them for that.

In this case in particular, along with the beach episode. it's almost like those two episodes should be considered bonus episodes. If they had included them on a last DVD as OVA episodes, I think it would have seemed less jarring. But at the same time, this sort of bizarre juxtaposition of themes and elements is what made the show the way it is. The whole thing is sort of crazy, but somehow it works (at least for me).

[iceyfw]

wow... everyone in the village is going to have a field day with seeing hayami walking around fine and dandy

the story wasn't bad nor great. the huge point seller that made me start watching this was the protagonist is blind. now obviously i was one of those people who went WTF in episode 2 when no one questioned how he regained his eyesight. but everything made sense later on so that tilted my head straight up.

as for the ending, i'd like to think she came back alive a second time thanks to otoha. it still would have been nice if hirose asked she was an illusion or really alive for a confirmation. but i'll just stick with she's alive >.>

[Nalio]

Just finished watching, and I have plenty of mixed feelings. <_< I never really connected with any of the characters throughout the series, but I still had the feeling of wanting to see Hayami and Hirose come together.

Spoiler for episode 12:

Normally, I would have said resurrecting a dead main character is just pointless, since the writers could have just let her survive in the first place if she was really meant to live; But for an unknown reason Hayami's death annoyed me just so damn much that I was able to accept the resurrection.

Overall, I would say it was worth watching.

[grylsyjaeger]

I don't know how to look back on this anime. Watching the kids beat the crap out of Hayami made my blood boil. I absolutely detest violence against women.

I found it rather annoying also that it took so long to see why Hayami was hated by the entire village but I guess it works for the storyline. There were just too many times I was talking to the screen saying, "what the hell did she do to deserve this? Tell me!"

I also found the fact in episode two he just wakes up and can see and no one questioned him odd but as IcExAlcHeMy it made sense looking back on the story. I do enjoy a good "mind fuck" in any story and that wasn't too bad.

When Hirose reverted back to his blind self and started calling Hayami his mother I just about stopped watching I was so disappointed in how things had transpired but a desire to see Hayami and Hirose together spurred me on.

The revelation about Hirose's mother not actually abandoning him was nice but then why was Hayami's family blamed? It showed his mother made it to the child but did they die too?

If a woman died on the railway tracks with a little boy who wasn't her own whilst her own son had witnessed the event I wouldn't call that suicide. Even if the child didn't die, they surely would have been able to say the woman who died had attempted to come to their aid.

Forgiving that and moving to having Hayami killed in the same manner was a bit absurd I must admit. When the train passed I expected to see her with the child safely.

I feel that would have been a more plausible and enjoyable ending overall having Hayami succeed where Hirose's mother didn't.

Regardless not a bad series. I'll put this aside and watch it again in the future.

[stardf29]

Finally got around to watching the rest of this series (see my previous post in the thread). As I implied in that previous post, I pretty much watched this show to see how that poem would be incorporated, so I was pretty much watching the whole thing with a mindset of the symbolism involved.

Overall, the show didn't disappoint in that regard. While not done quite as well as I would have liked, the symbolism and the poem were still worked in well, and there was some good character development in the meantime.

Spoiler for Thoughts on Episode 12:

At first, yeah, I thought the resurrection of Hayami was quite the Deus Ex Machina. Then I remembered that her death was so sudden, that was pretty much a Deus Angst Machina... so I guess they chose the lesser of the two evils?

Then I thought about it and... really, it makes sense, if it's seen from a perspective of Takuma's having to learn to accept death, with Hayami replaying the scenario of his real mother's death so as to give him a second chance at doing so... and when he was able to do so, Hayami could be given back to him.

Yeah, it could be done better, but... it works for me.

As for the poem... I can think of a number of ways it could be interpreted in the context of this show, all of which are true to some extent... so let's just say I was satisfied with how it was used and leave it at that.

Overall, I'd give it a 9/10... it lacks something that makes it a truly powerful show for me, but the character development and its incorporation of symbolism are good enough to make it a show worth thinking about.

[germanturkey]

so, currently through 4, and i don't like Hinata. the plotline where they were old friends was pretty obvious, but i'm stopping now where they're confronting each other on the beach. i had initially dropped this show after 1 ep when it first came out because i was so disgusted with the bullying. i guess i'll stomach it this time.. i had previous dropped this one for true tears, which was in hindsight a very good decision. we'll see how this time goes.

[BigSky]

Spoiler for Ep 12:

I dropped a tear when Hayami appears in the end..

[mamina fan]

zomfg i was so shocked at when hinata

Spoiler for episode 8- 12:

was not hinata shes her sister hotaru and i couldnt sheed a tear when hayami died.

i wanted to cry soo much and i was speechless since i barely cry i just was really suprised

Spoiler for episode 12:

since she had alot of time to save the kid why did she kill herself i just really wanted to cry.

why is life so not understanding

[kache]

And finally, 5 years after I downloaded the episodes, I managed to watch them...

I kinda put the series on hold at the time because it felt like just another harem, and even when I restarted it, a few days ago, I expected nothing from it.
Boy, was I wrong...
All those plot-twists, all those stories chaining together, ALL DEM FEELS!
And that ending...
Man that ending.
Awesome stuff.

It seems to have been adapted from a light novel though, right? Is the novel even more FEELS HEAVY?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by kache

It seems to have been adapted from a light novel though, right? Is the novel even more FEELS HEAVY?

It's adapted from an visual novel (that was released both as an 18+ adult-only game on PC, and later in an all-ages version on PS2). Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to playing either yet myself...

[kache]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

It's adapted from an visual novel (that was released both as an 18+ adult-only game on PC, and later in an all-ages version on PS2). Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to playing either yet myself...

There is no translated version?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by kache

There is no translated version?

I'm afraid not; at this point, the game is probably a bit on the dated side despite the anime, so not sure how likely it is that someone would pick it up.